The Time Element in the Plays of Tennessee Williams;

In Thesis we attempt to follow the recedings of time inthe plays of tennessee Williams. His words can be tackled through many engles of vision the layout of which may be equally fulfilling. But I have chosen time as an element in his plays for two main reasons: The first is that time links and unifies all aspects of his works in spite of their heterogeneity and complexity. Secondly is that time, in our age, has assumed a paramount impor-tance as the keynote of our modern exisence and playwrit-ing in particular contributes largely towardsthe broaden-ing of man’s vision on the stage through new uses of time and space.Part one deals with the tragedy of our time. Williams sees man as an animal brutalized by industry, and commerc-ialism. Man journeys in the confusion of his period and inhabits a ”Modern inferno”, from which there is no exit.Williams here, like any artist is functioning as the nervous system of his society.Part Two follows the element of time which is intensi-fied gradually in a number of plays. Starting from The Class Menagerie, to A Streetcar Named Desire and finally Sweet bird of Youth, where time reaches a peak and is orchestrated at full tunes. These two localities occured to Williams thinking as different speheres of being corresponding with the dimensions of time, namely the past and the present. His use of the various dimensions of time and its symbolism is simply admirable especially when it is related to a ehole culture juxtaposed with another, or in his creation of character which so often functions as a time symbol. It is still very interesting to witness the game of chess between the eternal and desperately fleeting.