The Concealed Homosexual Theme In Tennessee Williams’"Big Three"

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is one of the most prestigious playwrights in America, and even in the world. However, most of his important works have not been correctly understood. Williams was a homosexual in his life time. In his dramatic creations, he tried his best to confide his homosexual consciousness. Nevertheless, due to the homophobic complex of the traditional American society at his time, he could not put a play with homosexual theme on the stage directly. Williams had seen the end of some homosexual plays; he learned a lesson from that. And he also created some strategies and tactics of his own to blind the censors, so he could present the homosexual theme in his plays and meanwhile shield it from watchdogs. However, this way of expressing also created some barriers for readers to understand the real theme of his plays.For pure academic considerations, this thesis will try to analyze the homosexual texts and subtexts in William’s major plays, namely, his "Big Three", so as to reveal the real theme in these plays and call attention to re-reading of Williams’plays from the perspective of "Queer Theory". Queer Theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women’s studies; it’s often used in analyzing homosexual text in literature. After analyzing the tactics Williams frequently used to express the homosexual theme secretly in his plays, this thesis will analyze these three plays one by one. Starting from analyzing the plot and the characters, the thesis will try to reveal the disguise on the genuine theme, so to show the readers Williams’true writing purpose.This thesis includes four chapters, besides the introduction and conclusion. In the first chapter, the background information is presented, after the reading of this part, readers can know the reasons why Williams has to use such a complicated way to express homosexual theme. And the strategies and tactics Williams often used in his plays will be presented as well in this chapter. Chapter II to IV will analyze Williams’"Big Three" one by one. In these chapters, the homosexual texts and subtexts will be analyzed so as to reveal the real theme of his "Big Three". After reading these chapters, readers will get a full view of the gay characters in "Big Three"; no matter this character is on the stage or off the stage, the readers can procure Williams’real writing purpose.