Faded Belles and Damsels in Distress

Faded Belles and Damsels in Distress

Talking about the plays written by Tennessee Williams, I realized that there are many Faded Belles and Damsels in Distress in his plays, it’s like there should be at least one with the traits in the play. The Streetcar Named Desire had Blanche DuBois, the faded Southern belle and in The Glass Menagerie, there was Amanda Wingfield and her daughter Laura.

Williams’ portrayal of the women in his plays are usually characterised as such; weak, lost and delusional. Blanche Dubois in The Streetcar Named Desire at first seemed to be chased out of the property, Belle Reve, then she lost hope and wanted to reunite with her sister, who already settled with Stanley Kowalski. When she arrived there, things got worse as the stronger male in the household sort of brought out her suppressed anxiety. Williams making a contrast here by using the character of a strong male in crushing the weak female character.

In The Glass Menagerie, two female characters were portrayed alongside with three strong male character, firstly, the mother, Amanda and her crippled daughter, Laura, who are dependant on Tom Wingfield, the sole breadwinner of the family. Though being a good son and brother, Tom was never contented with what his mother wants him to do. Laura who was getting more and more delusional day after day got her mother so worried that she asked her son to bring home agentkeman caller. When Laura finally fallen in love with Jim O'Connor, he told her that he is already engaged. This crushed the fragile girl, then Tom fled because he was too depressed.

In the end, two girls was left alone in the dark after Laura blew her candle. In two of his major plays, Williams portrayed how much women were anguished and left in depression by men; the son, father, husband and also brother-in-law. Has this got something to do with his life growing up with a prominent and strong figure of a man who was his father?