| One of the greatest figures to emerge from the South is Tennessee Williams. His most powerful works involve characters who find themselves deteriorating from one or more personal struggles which inevitably get the best of them. Many of these characters have been at one time artistic, heroic, or glamorous figures who later find themselves in a world of personal and artistic decay. In each case the figure is creative, sensitive, and, paradoxically, destructive. They are generally so sensitive, in fact, that they cannot function well in the real world, and they often fashion an idealistic fiction to replace a frustrating reality. The artists are invariably associated with destruction, either their own or that of someone close to them.; Six such artistic characters present the ugly picture of grandiose narcissism, sexual indulgence, and often the selfish use of other people. These characters try, unsuccessfully, to conceal this side of themselves through delusions of grandeur with wealth, nobility, and glamour. Blanche, an English teacher and tainted Southern aristocrat in A Streetcar Named Desire, begins an emotional and psychological digression when she discovers her young husband with another man. The former actress Karen Stone, in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, disintegrates when the discipline of her profession no longer keeps her mind alert and controls her behavior. Brick, a one-time football star in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, is deteriorating because of a homoerotic relationship with his deceased best friend, the denial of his sexuality, and his causal actions. Sebastian, aesthete and poet, in Suddenly Last Summer buries his homosexuality while in the presence of his dominating mother. The Princess/actress in Sweet Bird of Youth discovers and tries to deny that she is no longer young, beautiful, and desirable. And finally, Flora Goforth, socialite and former performance artist, in The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is surrounded by her garish display, as she, in the face of death, grimly holds onto petty forms of power. Closer analysis of these characters will present a recurring theme of art and decay in Williams's works and in his own life. |
