The Character-Portrayal in Tennessee Williams's Plays: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract

Tennessee Williams is perhaps the one of the greatest contemporary exponents of the varied forms taken by sexual desire. Almost all his characters are prey to the whims of this desire. In all his plays, the characters, who are regardless of their sexual intensity, expects love and careness as a relief from aloneness. But too often when these two aspirations fail at some point the expector wants for forgetfulness or very ordinary companionship in sexual activities which are dominated by desire. All these desires, which generally approach more psychological rather than a physical requirement, has nothing to do with the emotion in love, Yet, the appeal for love and ability to give and accept love from. Other would be considered to be major themes in his plays. The reason that love is somehow achieved from them gives to Williams's plays their pathetic and often tragic quality balance the loneliness that results from physical desire which almost inevitably leads to their own destruction. Many of his characters, because of their inability to love inhabit what the playwright in one of his plays calls " “dragons’ country"