From "Bad Faith" To "Freedom"

Based on the existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and by taking The Glass Menagerie and Summer and Smoke as examples,this paper aims to analyze the growth process of the heroines in Tennessee Williams’ plays.Through applying “Bad Faith”,“Situation” and “Freedom”,which are some of the central ideas of Sartrean existential philosophy,this paper gives a detailed analysis on the growth process of the two heroines,Laura and Alma,in The Glass Menagerie and Summer and Smoke respectively.Laura’s being in the state of “Bad Faith,” as this thesis puts forward,is shown in her objectified image.In the way of searching for “My Place,” Laura is awakened and in the end of the play gains the power to walk into reality and make her choice for “Freedom”;in the beginning scenes of Summer and Smoke,the heroine Alma is also find herself trapped in “Bad Faith”:struggling in the existential state of “I am which I am not.” With the help of John,the hero of this play,and the contemplation by herself,Alma repositions “My Past” and in the end of the play,waves goodbye to her old self and begins her free life.From being in the predicament of “Bad Faith” to the awakening of the existential “Situation” and finally to the choice-making of freedom,the two heroines of the two plays all complete their growth process.At the first glance,such growth process of them seems that it does not give any of them a happy ending just like the fairy tale Cinderella does.At the end of both plays,neither Laura nor Alma gets the love that she yearns day and night.However,by reflecting on the whole and complete growth process,in which demonstrates their struggling and meditation of personal existential state,their eagerness and determination to change and their bravery in making the choice for freedom.This kind of growth of them very perfectly interprets Sartre’s existential philosophy: the inevitable predicament that being must confront and the final goal(Freedom)being must pursue.Through the analysis of the growth process of the two heroines,this thesis tries to reveal that the female characters in Tennessee Williams’ plays seemingly do not have happy endings,though,their fate is far from tragic and thus to define these two plays or all of Williams’ plays as tragedies just because those women characters lose their lovers is too hasty and oversimplified.Although the female characters in Williams’ writing often get nothing in love,on their way of pursuing love,they actively take their steps and keep stepping forward.It is their strong self-consciousness to break out of the existential imprisonment and never stop to seek for the freedom of self that allows them to choose different and free lives in the end.