Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Suddenly Last Summer - Critical Companion To Tennessee Williams

    Uploaded by

    T
    5 views7 pages

    Original Title

    Suddenly Last Summer - Critical Companion to Tennessee Williams

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    5 views7 pages

    Suddenly Last Summer - Critical Companion To Tennessee Williams

    Uploaded by

    T

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 7
    CRITICAL COMPANION TO Tennessee Williams GRETA HEINTZELMAN ALYCIA SMITH-HOWARD 1. Facts On File, Inc. Suddenly Last Summer _279 of her sordid past. By this he is able to pierce the virginal facade that Blanche has used to manipu- late and control. Stella defends her sister by explaining that she has had a tragic past and she is weak, but Stanley is interested only in survival of the fittest. He rapes Blanche and denies that he did to Stella. This is Stanley's ultimate triumph. In the end, Blanche is taken to a mental institu- tion while Stanley comforts his wife by fondling her breasts. Kowalski, Stella She is the wife of Stanley Kowalski and the sister of Blanche DuBois. Stella is a member of a very refined and dignified Southern family, who has chosen to cast off her social status in exchange for marriage to Stanley, a vulgar and ‘often brutal simpleton. She is caught in the war between Stanley and Blanche, whose constant bickering and fighting leads to Stanley's sexually assaulting Blanche. Stella refuses to believe that her husband would rape her sister, After her accu- satus uf tape, Stella Lomunits Dlawcie w a user institution. As docs her sister. Stella glosses over harsh reality to live in the world of illusions to cope with Stanley's abhorrent behavior Mitchell, Harold (Mitch) A middle-aged man whose dedication to his ailing mother leaves him lonely and troubled. Mitch falls in love with Blanche Dubois, a refined, yet fading Souther belle. They ‘engage in a respectable courtship, and Blanche insists con delaying sexual relations until they are marred. ‘When Stanley Kowalski informs Mitch of Blanche's sordid past asa prostitute, he is shocked and offended that she has made him wait for sexual intimacy FURTHER READING Adler, Thomas P A Streetcar Named Desire: The Math and The Lanwer, Boston: Twayne, 1990. Berkman, Leonard. “The Tragic Downfall of Blanche DuBois,” Modem Drama 10, no. 2. (December 1967): 249-257. Kazan, Elia. "Notebook for A Streetcar Named Desire,” in Tuenteth Century Interpretations of A Stretear Named Desire: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Jordan Y. Millet. Englewood Cif, NJ: Pren- tice-Hall, 1971, pp. 21-26. Shave, Irwin, “Masterpiece,” in Twentieth Century Iner- retations of A Stretear Named Desire: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Jordan ¥. Miller. Engle- ‘wood Clif, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971, pp. 45-47. Sova, Dawn B. Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of. 125 Motion Pieters. New York: Facts On File, 2001 Suddenly Last Summer ‘A one-act play written in 1958, SYNOPSIS The setting is a Gothic-style Victorian mansion in the Garden District of New Orleans, one late after- ‘noon between late summer and early fall Scene 1 Mis. Violet Venable, an aging aristocrat, entertains her guest, Doctor Cuikrowicz (or Doctor Sugar), in the exotic gardens of her deceased son, Sebastian. She tries to persuade the neurosurgeon to perform ‘alobowmy on ler niece, Catlsaine, wl is vuininne the family reputation with a sordid story about the particulars of Sebastian's death. In order to combat Catharine's story, Mrs. Venable had her niece com- mitted to Saint Mary's Asylum. Mrs. Venable tells Dr, Sugar that Sebastian was 4 locally famous poet who, with her unfaltering ‘guidance, perfected one poem every summer. Mrs. Venable offers a detailed account of her travels with Sebastian. She then proposes to donate ‘money for a neurosurgery wing at the Lion's View Hospital if De Sugar will agree to silence Catharine. The doctor is ambivalent about agree- ing to this deal when he has not yet met the patient. Catharine and her nurse, Sister Felicity, can be seen entering the house. Scene 2 Miss Foxhill, Mrs. Venable’s secretary, leads Catharine and her nurse outside while Mrs. Ven- able drinks her routine afternoon cocktail inside hher home. While Catharine and her nurse argue about Catharine smoking a cigarette, Doctor Sugar spies on them ftom a nearby window. Catharine discovers him and shouts, “Lion's View Hospital,” 280 _ Suddenly Last Summer Portrait of Williams (Photograph courtesy of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Pubic tityary) to let him know that she is aware of the torturous kind of medicine he practices. His blond hair reminds Catharine of the times Sebastian longed for blond men as if they were “items on a menu.” Sister Felicity tries to quiet het. She speaks of his death, convinced that if he had held on to her hhand, she could have saved him. Catharine’s ‘mother, Mrs. Holly, and her brother, George, arrive. Scene 3 Mrs. Holly urges George to compliment Catharine, but he is uncooperative and more interested in talking to his sister in the nun’s absence. Sister Felicity is hesitant to allow her patient out of her sight; however, Mrs. Holly persuades her to go inside until she is called. George berates Catharine about the drama that she has created around Sebastian's death. He begs her to refrain from telling her story to appease Mrs. Venable so that she will release the money Sebastian willed to them. Mrs. Holly intervenes when Catharine becomes upset, then attempts to convince Catharine lovingly to stop telling her “fantastical” story. George becomes very angry when Catharine insists that she is telling the truth, as he knows their aunt will make sure they never receive their inheritance. Scene 4 Mrs, Venable enters and Miss Foxhill delivers a folder containing the police report of Sebastian's death. George and his mother ask Mrs. Venable to speed up the inheritance process, but she ignores their request and calls for the doctor to evaluate Catharine. When Doctor Sugar joins them after receiving an urgent telephone call, Catharine asks him whether he wishes to drill a hole in her head and cut out a piece of her brain. She mocks him by exclaiming that he must have her mother's permis sion for the surgery. Mrs. Venable announces that she isin charge because she is paying for the lobot- comy, and she accuses Catharine of trying to take Sebastian away from her Doctor Sugar asks to speak with Catharine alone in order to assess her mental state fully George goes to his aunt in another attempt to cre- ate peace within the family and secure his inher tance. Doctor Sugar and Catharine talk alone. Catharine admits that because Schastian liked her, she loved him in @ motherly way, the only way he ‘would accept love from a woman. She tells story about a man she met at a Mandi Gras ball who offered her a ride home. They stopped at the edge of the woods and had sex, and afterward the young ‘man confessed to having a pregnant wife. He asked Catharine to keep their rendezvous a. secret Catharine was so upset that, after he took her hhome, she went back to the ball, found the young ‘man, and created a public scene on the dance floor. Scbastian witnessed her outburst and escorted her hhome. Doctor Sugar gives Catharine an injection when she becomes agitated by her memories and asks her to tell him honestly what happened to Schastian. Catharine stands up to deliver the graphic details of her cousin's death, but the drugs dizzy her. The doctors stands to help her regain her balance, and they embrace. Catharine forcefully kisses him as George returns to the garden. He angrily shouts at his sister about her lewd behavior. Mrs. Venable, Sister Felicity, and Mrs. Holly enter. Doctor Sugar instructs Catharine to tell the Suddenly Last Summer _ 281 true story once and for all. Catharine talks about the cruise to Europe, the wonderful stay in Paris, and Sebastian's lavish gifts to her. At the Cabeza de Lobo, he was uninterested in his poetry and spent hhis days scouring the beach for handsome young men. Mrs. Venable interrupts Catharine to say that she always protected him when she traveled with him. Catharine realized that she was procuring men for Sebastian by wearing a transparent bathing suit he bought for her and demanded she wear. AS the summer progressed and the beach grew more crowded, he no longer needed her. Catharine was then allowed to wear a dark bathing suit and sit far away from him. She would meet him every day at five o'clock in the afternoon near the bathhouse. ‘The homeless young men would follow him out of the bathhouse and onto the beach, where he paid them for their services. Each day the band of men became more aggressive in their pursuit of Sebast- tan until he became afraid to go to the beach. ‘The mob of young men recognize Sebastian in huis white suit at « ueaby eal. Catluatine motives Sebastian's fear through his need to take his heart medication. When they leave the café and Sebast- ian walks up the street, the mob attacks him, tears his body apart, and eats his flesh. Catharine runs to fight them off, but itis too late, as she witnesses his mangled body in horror. Mrs. Venable orders the doctor *to cut this hideous story out of her brain.” When prompted to give his analysis, Doctor Sugar asserts that maybe Catharine is telling the truth, COMMENTARY Suddenly Last Summer is considered Williams's most shocking drama, and as a result, the play is often @ favorite target of “Williams attackers” (Hurley, 392). In its own time the play was simultaneously revered for its seemingly simple structure and detested for its “disturbing” content of homosexu- ality and cannibalism. Critical prudery blinded many critics to the fact that this play is one of Williams's “most richly and tightly written Gothic romances” (Canby, 17) and contains some of Williams's most evocative language Scholarship regarding Suddenty Last Summer has nearly exclusively focused on “one of the most suc~ cessful creations of an offstage character in dra- matic literature” (Harris, 11), the absent Sebastian ‘Venable. In addition to venerating Scbastian, many critics view this character as a “stand-in” for Wil- liams himself Ar first glance, this appears to be Williams's most direct and autobiographical con- rection to the play, as both author and character are gay male literary artist. There is no doubt that Suddenly Last Summer ‘was a deeply personal work for Williams; another poignantly emotional and deeply autobiographical connection is provided by Catharine Holly, a char- acter directly reminiscent of his sister, ROSE Wimuiams, who had a prefrontal lobotomy per- formed in 1937. Williams was always haunted by the fact that his mother consented to this life- altering experiment; his lifelong regret was that he was not present 0 intervene and defend Rose. Some biographers have speculated that, as is Catharine's, Rose's lobotomy was prompted by the family’s need to silence her allegations of sexual abuse levied against their father, CORNELIUS COFeIN ‘Wruntans. Suddenly Lust Suan fy fuse with ve “blistering pain” (Brantley. 13) Williams felt at what his sister suffered in his absence. ‘As are BATTLE OF ANGELS and Onpieus Descenpino, Suddenly Last Summer is a “tangle of Christian and mythical echoes” (Debusscher, 449). ‘Scholars have extensively identified the connection between Sebastian Venable with the life and death cof his namesake, the Roman martyr Saint Sebastian. According to legend, Saint Sebastian was an attrac- tive young Roman who became the emperor Dio-

    You might also like