1

r

‘ ”TI-L"
a. (55‘ . '.‘

O

3.

.
ofi.
v A...“ v p

.52.. .

'55:

., , u..." .
I 1"“. amvnfi

. .

I 69.11“." 2.)”

1%

101.595..
- u’.
.wl vb. .
ad .14qu .3»

'0. V? .\

Ibiv‘io
, I til

 

 

 

THEQS

Illillilll’illlllllll'llililllHlllll'lll W

31293 01718 0302

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

SHAME AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS"
STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, SUMMER AND SMOKE,
THE ROSE TATOO AND NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

 

presented by

Kelsey Duane Tyler

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

M.A. Theatre

 

degree in

 

Major professor

Date Wag} I; /i?8

0-7539 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

 

 

 

LIBRARY

Michigan State
University

 

 

PLACE IN RETURN BOX
to remove this checkout from your record.
TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due.

 

DATE DUE

DATE DUE

DATE DUE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ma worm-mu

SHAME AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE,
SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE ROSE TATTOO AND NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

BY
Kelsey Duane Tyler

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Theatre

1998

ABSTRACT

SHAME AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE,
SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE ROSE TATTOO AND NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

BY
Kelsey Duane Tyler

This study discusses the puritanical/sexual conflict
present in several works by Tennessee Williams in terms of
the emotion shame. Using a theory of shame developed by a
nationally recognized psychologist, this study first looks
at the role of shame in Williams' life and how his shame
for his sexuality transferred into characters in his
dramas. The study then applies the theory and emotion of

shame to the character's motivations and actions in A

Streetca; Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo

and Night of the Iguana.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the members of my committee, Dr.
Dixie Durr, Professor Frank C. Rutledge, and Professor
Joyce Ramsay, for their patience, knowledge, persistence,
assistance, and dedication to this project.

Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Gershen
Kaufman for his inspiration and willingness to answer
whatever questions came up about shame as applied to
Tennessee Williams.

Finally, I would like to thank my family for always

having faith in my abilities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTIONOOOOOOOOOOOOO0....OCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.0.0.01
Williams and the Puritanical/Sexual Conflict.........l

CHAPTER ONE...............................................5
Kaufman's Theory of Shame............................5
The Development of Shame.............................7
Defenses Against Shame...............................9
Shame and Exposure..................................ll

CIiAPTER TWOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOO0.00...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIS
Shame and Tennessee Williams........................15

CHAPTER THREE............................................23
Sexual vs. Puritanical in Summer and Smoke..........25
Sexual vs. Puritanical in A Streetcar Named Desire..30
Sexual vs. Puritanical in The Rose Tattoo...........35
Sexual vs. Puritanical in Night of the Iguana.......37

CHAPTER FOUR.............................................43
Defenses Against Exposure in Alma Winemiller........44
Defenses Against Exposure in Blanche DuBois.........46
Defenses Against Exposure in Serafina Delle Rose....51
Defenses Against Exposure in Reverend Shannon.......56

CHAPTER FIVE.............................................59
Exposure and Alma Winemiller........................59
Exposure and Blanche DuBois.........................62
Exposure and Serafina Delle Rose....................67
Exposure and Reverend Shannon.......................71

CONCLUSIONOCOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOO O0...000.00.00.00000000000075

BIBLImRAPHYOO0.0.0......0.00....O...0.0.00.000000000000078

iv

INTRODUCTTO!

Williams and the Puritanical/Sexual Conflict
Tennessee Williams is known as one of America's
greatest twentieth century playwrights and his plays are

performed all over the world. In addition to the vast
wealth of literature and academic activity accorded to
Williams the continued success of his professional
productions is itself testimony to the timeless nature of
Williams' work. Indeed numerous biographies, theses,
dissertations, journal articles, books, and an annual
academics conference in New Orleans are dedicated to the
works and life of Tennessee Williams.

This study contributes to the wealth of academic and
professional interest in Tennessee Williams by expanding
the literature addressing the conflict between sensual
desires and spiritual aspirations. This conflict found in
human nature is an important explanation why Williams'
writings enjoy such success. The conflict between a
puritanical self and the natural sexual desires and human
pleasures of the body is the subject of many of Williams'
dramas. In his biography of Williams, Lyle Leverich

describes Williams as someone ”. . . deeply preoccupied

with the dualism of the body and the spirit. . . the inner
conflict between the sensual and spiritual. . . ." (310).
Analyzing Williams' work in terms of the

puritanical/sexual conflict is illuminating but fails to
fully explain the motivations in the characters. To truly
understand the characters' actions we need to understand
the emotions that motivate actions. For example, when a
person is threatened with a dangerous attacker, the flight
or fight responses are motivated by fear, not by a conflict
within the person.

In The Ro e Tattoo, Serafina's choice to lock her

daughter’s clothes up so that she can not leave the house
can be explained only on the surface by saying it is due to
the conflict between Serafina’s puritanical nature and her
sexual desires. This study will look at Serafina's emotions
that relate to the conflict, and prove that one emotion
motivating Serafina to action is shame.

Likewise, Blanche says in A Streetca; Named Desire she

does not want to be seen in broad daylight. This can be
explained by saying that she does not want people to see
her sexual past; it is as important to understand what
Blanche is feeling. Blanche's emotion of shame, and the
secondary emotions that follow motivate her action.
My hope is that this study will give both

practitioners and theorists a deeper understanding of the
puritanical/sexual conflict found in Williams' work by

examining it in the context of the emotion shame. It will

be most helpful as a dramaturgical tool for productions of

the four plays I have chosen for this study: A Streetcar

Named Desire, Summ r and Smoke, The Rogngattoo and Night

of the Iguana.

These four plays illustrate the conflict between
puritanical values and sexual desires. The protagonists
Blanche, Alma, Serafina and the Reverend Shannon are all
characters who exhibit the characteristics of shame as it
is born of the puritanical/sexual conflict inherent in
themselves. I will use examples from other plays by
Tennessee Williams when it serves to illuminate further the
struggle of shame in the four protagonists and in Williams
himself.

The puritanical/sexual conflict has been the subject
of many discussions about Williams' work. The conflict has
been labeled different things by different people
including: corporeal/puritanical, flesh/spirit and
body/soul. The choice to use the words puritanical and
sexual is predicated on the need to make clear the concept
of shame and how it develops and manifests itself in the
characters.

Chapter one is divided into four main parts. Part one
gives a definition of Shame based on the shame theory of
Gershen Kaufman Ph.D. Part two explains the development of
shame in individuals, and the development of shame's
relation to community, environment, family, peers, and the

self. Part three highlights the defenses taken by persons

to prevent against shaming. And finally, part four reveals
the physical and emotional manifestations of shame upon
exposure.

Chapter two contains biographical information on
Williams that can be seen to validate Kaufman’s theory of
shame development, shame defenses, and exposure of shame.
It also notes how events and people in Williams' life
influenced the puritanical/sexual conflict in the four
selected plays.

Chapter three applies Kaufman's theory of shame
development to the conflict between puritanical values and
sexual desire in the four protagonists. This chapter also
shows how Williams' stage directions, stage settings and
symbols strengthen the emotion of shame in the four
protagonists.

Chapter four draws attention to how Williams'
characters defend against exposure of their sexual desires.
It also explains how these defenses agree with Kaufman’s
defenses against shame.

Chapter five identifies specific moments in the
scripts where Williams gives characters physical and
emotional manifestations of shame upon exposure to the self

and to others.

CHAPTER I

Kaufman's theory of shame
Think of all the ways shame can occur: being
laughed at, mocked, or ridiculed; suffering the
belittling scorn of a parent or the biting
mockery of peers; enduring humiliation from a
father or mother, an older sister or brother, a
bully or even a teacher at school; appearing
foolish, clumsy, or stupid; feeling embarrassed,
shy, or tormented by self-consciousness;
criticizing or blaming yourself fOr a mistake;
retreating from a challenge because going ahead
would leave you feeling foolish or expose you to
ridicule (Kaufman 1996: 15).

Dr. Kaufman, a psychologist, psychotherapist, writer
and professor of psychology at Michigan State University,
is considered a national expert and authority on shame. He
has been called ”. . . one of the early pioneers in the
study of shame," (Kaufman 1996: 13) and has published four
books on the phenomenon of shame since 1974. Kaufman
believes that shame is one of our most highly misunderstood
emotions, and yet one of the most debilitating and
powerful (Kaufman 1996: 4).

Although shame is a very natural human emotion that is
experienced by everyone in some shape or form during at
least one point in their lifetime, coming to terms with a

definition has been difficult. Kaufman believes that in

defining shame problems arise.

In conferring a name to a particular inner event,
the linguistic symbol confers a measure of
understanding from which conscious control in
turn evolves. In all our language, societally we
have for the most part never evolved accurate
symbolizations for the phenomenological
experience of shame (Kaufman 1985: 108).

Without an accurate definition, the experience of shame has
been reduced to trying to understand it in terms of other
feelings such as embarrassment, shyness, discouragement,
inferiority, self-consciousness, and guilt.
Embarrassment is shame in front of an audience of
some kind, while shyness is shame in the presence
of strangers or at the thought of approaching a
stranger. Discouragement is shame about temporary
defeat and is not necessarily focused on the self
as a whole but can be limited to specific
actions, while inferiority is shame that is
permanent and localized directly within the self.
Self-consciousness is shame about performance,
such as public speaking, athletics, or dancing,
while guilt is shame about moral transgression.
An ethical judgment of immorality must be added
to shame in order to produce the distinctive
feeling of guilt. . ." (Kaufman 1996: 41).
Kaufman believes the reason for this hesitancy to
define shame is the inherent feelings of inferiority
associated with shame. In other words, in our culture, to
be ashamed of something is to own up to having a fault,
admitting inferiority, therefore producing shame for
feeling ashamed. The emotions of embarrassment, shyness,
discouragement, inferiority, self-consciousness, and guilt
all have the same underlying experience of the exposure of
inferiority. This exposure of inferiority is an important

element in Kaufman's definition of shame.

The Development of Shane
Kaufman states the development of shame begins with a
feeling of difference:
It is virtually impossible to be different,
particularly in this culture, and not feel
deficient for the difference, because any
awareness of difference inevitably translates
into a devaluing comparison, first we are
devalued by others, and then we devalue ourselves
(Kaufman 1996: 6).
In measuring our own self worth, we know no other way to
judge than to compare ourselves with what others do. If
our differences in comparison fail to measure up to that of
our community’s, family's, or peer’s expectations, the
differences turn into deficiencies or inferiorities. Our
culture values strength and power, therefore deficiencies
in these become traits that can not be shown and become
hidden within ourselves because we deem them as shameful.
When these traits become hidden they will forever be in
danger of being exposed and producing the emotion of shame.
The course of development, according to Kaufman,
begins with the building of what he calls ”scenes and
scripts." Logically to most theatre practitioners, scripts
are built of scenes. An enjoyment scene for example,
involves attaching the emotion of enjoyment with an object
such as the beach. Experiencing enjoyment while playing at
the beach is likely to motivate action in the form of

future visits. The attachment of an emotion to an object

such as enjoyment with the beach is an example of a scene.

An emotional script is made up of similar types of
scenes that produce the same emotion with the same object.
For example, if you go to the beach often, and every time
you equate enjoyment with going to the beach, you will
eventually develop a script of enjoyment associated with
the beach. Scripts, therefore, become more solidified as
part of a person's individual character. As a result these
scripts tend to motivate action. For example if you have
an enjoyment script associated with the beach, your actions
to go to the beach are motivated by this emotion.

Kaufman gives this example of how a shame script can
develop within a person:

Imagine a situation in which a child awakens from
a nightmare and cries out in fright. Mother
rushes in, asking what is wrong. The child
screams, ”I'm scared, I'm scared! There's a
monster!" Mother abruptly silences the child's
screams with, ”Now stop that. Don't be silly.
Big boys don't get scared of silly things like
dreams." The effect upon the lad is that he has
been shamed for being afraid. Perhaps this same
boy, running away from a bully at school, is told
by his Dad, ”Don't be a coward! Real Boys aren't
afraid to fight." If this boy has sufficient
experiences in which his scared or frightened
feelings are met with shaming, he will learn that
there is something wrong with him whenever he
feels afraid. Feeling afraid has become
shameful, bad. Situations which trigger fear
will now also trigger shame (Kaufman 1985: 40-
41).

In this example, Kaufman shows how the boy developed a

scene where he was made to feel ashamed about expressing
fear. Several more scenes throughout his life when he is
told that it is not O.K. for boys to be afraid create his

shame script.

Defenses Against Shane

The power and intensity of shame as a negative emotion
is substantial according to Kaufman. “Shame is deeply
rooted in self esteem, identity, and intimacy, which are
vitally important to each of us, and shame is the most
disturbing of human emotions. Because shame is so acutely
disturbing, we quickly try to escape the feeling, mask it
from view, or even deny its existence" (Kaufman 1996: 7).
Therefore Kaufman explains how people develop defenses
against exposure. These defenses include rage, contempt,
striving for perfection, striving for power, the transfer
of blame, internal withdrawal, humor, and denial (Kaufman
1985: 71-88).

Rage is directed at anybody who threatens to expose,
or exposes the shameful trait in a person. Rage becomes
successful in that it pushes the threatening force from the
self. “When the intensity of shame reaches the highest
levels, rage is triggered. Rage serves a vital self-
protective function; it shields the exposed self. At
certain times, rage actively keeps everyone away, covering
the self" (Kaufman 1996: 40).

Contempt is a tool used to make the self appear
superior to others that may judge the trait a person feels
shameful about. If a person places themselves above the
shameful trait they are in effect immune to it. The

shameful trait becomes associated only with the people who

are inferior, or that the person feels contempt for. This
can also be thought of as a blend of conceit, arrogance,
and excessive pride.

By using the defense Kaufman labels ”striving for
perfection" a person can in effect erase any part of
themselves that does not measure up as good enough.
Striving for perfection therefore becomes preventative so
as to make a person impervious to flaws and shameful
characteristics.

By striving for power a person gains control of
situations or people that may threaten exposure. By
striving for power a person can control what people are
thinking about. This deflects the possibility of exposure
away from themselves.

The transfer of blame is in essence pointing the
finger at someone else for a deed or aspect that a person
finds inferior in themselves. Therefore the fault, or the
inferiority, is not the person's own. The inferiority in
turn belongs to someone else and the person does not need
to own the inferiority.

The defense of internal withdrawal takes the form of a
person hiding or isolating themselves, by removing
themselves from the forces that threaten exposure, or
produce shame. ”The principal effects of shame on the self
are hiding, paralysis, and a feeling of being transparent.
The urge to hide and disappear from view immediately

follows shame because we desperately want to reduce that

10

agonizing scrutiny" (Kaufman 1996: 38). Any act that
distances a person from others can be included in the
defense of internal withdrawal. For example substance
abuse is a defense of internal withdrawal in that the
person is distancing themselves from the same mind frame as
others around them.

Humor may best be explained in terms of humility in
that it makes light of the situation. To use humor as a
defense is to find a communal bond with the source of
shame. In other words showing how human weakness is within
us all.

Denial is basically ignoring that the shameful or
inferior trait exists or that an act that may be judged
never happened. Failure to recognize the inferior trait
helps to escape ownership of it even when people have

exposed it as truth.

Shane and Exposure

The most dangerous aspect of shame is the threat of
exposure, the realization to ourselves or to others that we
have something within ourselves that is inferior. After
the feeling of shame is experienced both physical and
emotional manifestations of shame occur.

Kaufman states that there are two main types of
exposure: exposure to the self and exposure to others
(Kaufman 1996: 17). Exposure to others is possibly the

most terrifying; however, exposure to the self can happen

11

at any time causing a person always to be defending against
exposure to others. The nature of exposure to others is in
itself an exposure to the self. Likewise, in order to
exhibit defenses against exposure to others or to the self,
the inferior trait must be acknowledged. In other words,
if the trait is not exposed to the self, then there is
nothing to defend against. This is what Kaufman calls the
internalization of shame:

Internalization of shame means that the affect
of shame is no longer merely one affect or
feeling among many which become activated at
various times and then pass on. Rather,
internalized shame is experienced as a deep
abiding sense of being defective, never quite
good enough as a person. . .For example, feelings
of inadequacy, rejection or self-doubt, feeling
guilt-ridden or unlovable as a person, and
pervasive loneliness are all conscious or
semiconscious expressions of internalized shame.
(Kaufman 1985: 66).

The physical manifestations of shame are tightly
linked to the concept of exposure and the fear of and the
intensity of the experience of shame. They include keeping
the head lowered or ”hanging your head in shame," keeping
the face and eyes covered or hidden and blushing.

These physical traits are linked to the very nature of
exposure inherent in shame. To experience the emotion of
shame is to have the inferior aspect of you seen, therefore
sight becomes linked with exposure. Kaufman states,
”Because we feel painfully revealed in the moment of shame,
it feels as if others can see inside of us and know our

innermost being, our secret flaws. Shame therefore leaves

us perpetually feeling like impostors, waiting to be found

12

out and unmasked" (Kaufman 1996: 38-9). Exposure heightens
the effect of being seen and so we seek to make people not
able to see us. This fear of ”being seen" or ”being
unmasked" supports the physical manifestation of hiding the
eyes and defending against eye contact.

The hiding of the face and the lowering of the head
are also physical defenses adopted so as not to be seen.
”Shame instantly calls attention to our face, heightening
both self-awareness and visibility to others. That is why
we immediately become so aware of our face in the moment of
shame. We are unexpectedly visible when we wish most to
disappear from sight" (Kaufman 1996: 18).

Kaufman states that the three most common emotional
responses to shame are fear, rage and distress (Kaufman
1996: 39).

Fear is a secondary response to shame because exposure
is so debilitating there is fear of further exposure.

Often fear takes the form of anxiety or anticipation of
further shame or additional encounters with shame.

What Kaufman means by distress as a secondary reaction
to shame, is suffering from the painful effects of exposure
of the inferiority. This secondary reaction reflects the
painful intensity of exposure, and is often recognizable
through cries of distress, or crying itself.

The third secondary response of rage can be easily
confused with the defense of rage. The difference is that

the defense of rage is to prevent exposure. The secondary

13

response of rage is after exposure has happened, but serves
almost the same purpose, which is to push the source of
shame away from the self. In the defense of shame it is to
push potential shaming forces away from the self.

The next chapter will show how Kaufman's theory of
shame applies to the life of Williams. It will describe
the societal and familial influences on Tennessee's
development of shame for his sexuality, point to defenses
against exposure and manifestations of exposure throughout
his lifetime, and give examples of how these aspects of his

life influenced his dramatic writing.

14

CHAPTER II

Shame and Tennessee Williams

In our culture the comparison of homosexuality with
heterosexuality leads to a devaluing of homosexuality as
“different," and thus inferior. Shame becomes inextricably
linked to homosexuality. ”The failure to openly recognize
and value different patterns of intimate relations
unavoidably communicates that these different forms of love
are deficient and unworthy, hopelessly flawed, inherently
shameful” (Kaufman 1996: 95). Homosexuality, when compared
with the normative heterosexual culture, becomes an
inferior characteristic and something to be ashamed about.
During the first half of this century the focus on
conforming to normality, Christian values, and the
heterosexual nuclear family unit served to increase the
inferiority of homosexuality and the world of theatre that
Williams was rapidly becoming a part of, reflected the
society at large. This inferiority created an unavoidable
shame of homosexuality for Tennessee Williams.

Prior to the civil liberty movements of the 1960s was
a time of conformity, and the plays of this period
conformed to the popular morality found in the institutions

of family and marriage. Commercial theatre reflected the

15

Christian ethic and the representation of homosexuality was
forbidden by law. Senator McCarthy, ironically as a
closeted gay man, can be seen as a link between what was
happening in the world to what was happening on stage.
Senator McCarthy considered homosexuals, due in part to
their invisibility, as potential spies and traitors.
Homosexuals were equated.with Communists at a time when
Communism was considered the biggest threat to American
values (Savran 84-85).

In plays of this time homosexuality could only be
represented by a series of coded behaviors such as a ”very
well dressed", ”slender", "sensitive" man since any direct
reference to homosexuality would have been immediately
banned on legal and moral grounds. To signify a gay male
on—stage the actors, directors, designers, and other
collaborators on a production would attribute significant
traits of effeminacy, or traits opposite of masculinity.
Since homosexuality at this time was equated.with evil, the
characters defined by these feminine codes generally always
met with psychological trauma plunging themselves into
alcoholism, committing suicide, or suffering from a mental
breakdown. Most of the characters were plagued by guilt,
fear and shame.

Williams' family contributed to his development of
shame towards his homosexuality as well. Born Thomas
Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Colombus, Mississippi,

Williams' life in the south was an extremely conservative

16

one that followed strict social rules. Tennessee's mother,
Edwina, with her beauty, strong will, Southern charm and
social ambition, was arguably the strongest influence on
the early life of Tennessee (Spoto 12—13). Tennessee's
father Cornelius, as a traveling salesman, was largely
absent from the Williams' household. The times that
Cornelius was present were times of trial for all involved.
Edwina and Cornelius fought incessantly and ended up in
separate beds. ”Sex for Edwina had become a horror, and
inevitably she conveyed this attitude to her children. She
implied it was dirty and dangerous . . ." (Leverich 61).

Edwina's influence on her son’s views about sex must
have had a profound impact as Tennessee would not
experience his first sexual encounter until the age of
twenty-seven. Tennessee commented about this time of his
life saying, ”I was a terrible puritan . . . and I remained
a puritan until my late 20s," (Spoto 58).

Another strong influence on Williams' life was his
maternal grandfather, the Rev. Walter Edwin Dakin.
Tennessee's grandfather was an Episcopalian priest and
Tennessee spent many years of his life living with his
grandfather and his grandmother Rose.

For most of his life, Tennessee felt that his natural
sexual desires needed to be hidden. “Given the sexual
mores of 1937 and his devoutly Christian background, Tom
simply was unable to reconcile an inclination with what he

knew to be wrong, a sin, and utterly unacceptable”

l7

(Leverich 237). Not only was it sex, it was unspeakable
sex.

Edwina's puritanism, profound virtue, and aristocratic
manners became the basis for such characters as Mrs.

Venable in Suddenl Last Summe , Blanche in A Streetcar
Named Desire and Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. Mrs.

Venable protects at all costs the chaste reputation of her
son Sebastian, Blanche becomes both the destroyer and the
destroyed of unacceptable sexuality, and Amanda becomes a
suffocating mother. The influence of Tennessee’s
grandfather can be seen through Williams inclusion of

priest characters in several plays including Summer and

Smoke, The Rose Tattoo and Night of the Iggana.

 

Out of necessity, Tennessee began questioning his own
views of his sexuality as inferior:
And is sex ugly? Not essentially—not from a
cosmic viewpoint. But when it is divorced from
reason—it looks like slime—it seems horrible if
you can't reason it away. Poor mad creature—if
only it didn't make you so hideous you wouldn't
dread it so much (Leverich 335).
He could not, however, fully embrace his sexuality and this
led to a conflict between his puritanism and his sexual
nature that would never be reconciled. The simultaneous
existence of these two sides of Williams, “The side that
was obsessively homosexual, compulsively interested in
sexuality. And the side that in those days was gentle and

understanding and contemplative," (Spoto 81) led him to

define himself as the ”rebellious Puritan."

18

Williams puritanical side at times led him to equate
sexual desire with animal instinct. At one point Williams
asked himself ”Am I all animal, all willful, blind, stupid
beast? Is there another part that is not an accomplice in
this mad pilgrimage of the flesh?" (Leverich 288). His
comparison of sexual desire with animal instinct emerges

symbolically in several plays including a goat in The Rose
Tattoo and an iguana in Night of the Iguaga. Animal traits

would also become associated with characters that

represented sexuality such as Val with his snakeskin jacket

in ngheus DescendTng, Rosario of The Rose Tattoo equated

with a bull, and Stanley being described as an ape in A
Streetcar Named Desire.

Tennessee's shame, or the view of his sexuality as
inferior, would stay with Williams his entire life. From an
early age Williams displayed the physical characteristics
of shame.

In my high school days I had no disguise, no
facade. And it was at University City High
School that I developed the habit of blushing
whenever anyone looked me in the eyes, as if I
harbored behind them some quiet dreadful or
abominable secret. You will have no trouble in
guessing what that secret was. . . (Memoirs 17).

In Memoirs, Williams refers to his sexuality as an

indiscretion. “This book is a sort of catharsis of
puritanical guilt-feelings, I suppose. 'All good art is an
indiscretion.’ Well I can’t assure you that this book will
be art, but it is bound to be an indiscretion, since it

deals with my adult life . . ." (Memoirs 144).

19

Williams would never give up trying to reconcile his
shame. ”‘-How many of us feel that way , I wonder? Bear
this intolerable burden of guilt? To feel some humiliation
and a great deal of sorrow at times is inevitable. But
feeling guilty is foolish. I am a deeper and warmer and
kinder man for my deviation'" (Leverich 421).
As ashamed of his sexuality as Tennessee was, he
accepted it enough that it became common knowledge among
his friends and later to the public at large:
However bizarre his sexual behavior would become,
Tennessee Williams never covertly lived the lie.
And in those days, that took courage, because
exposure could and often did ruin the lives and
careers of even the most powerful. . . . he was
living free of the closet, sometimes dangerously,
long before the word took on its present meaning
(Leverich 360).

One of the defenses used by Williams to distance himself

from people who were knowledgable about his sexuality was

to hide.

Williams was known for his impulsive flights to far
away places and “Certainly this curious impulse to move
about—toward friends and then quickly away from them, to
foreign places and then back to familiar ground—was a
protective measure" (Leverich 370). Often the destinations
were exotic places where Williams' puritanical nature felt
less restricted. Many of these locations became the
settings for his plays and representations of the sexual

side of the puritanical/sexual conflict. One of these

places was the city of New Orleans. Here Williams found:

20

. . . a hedonism that both shocked and intrigued
him, the classical Appollonian disciplines gone
to Dionysian orgiastic rites. At once, an inner
and lasting conflict was set up. . . . and
looking back upon the impact of New Orleans, he
would say that there ’I found the kind of freedom
I had always needed. And the shock of it against
the Puritanism of my nature has given me a theme,
which I have never ceased exploiting' (Leverich
285).

Another defense against shame that Williams used was
contempt. At times he would profess a great pride in his
sexuality. Williams placed himself above the more
puritanical social norms by stating, “There is no doubt in
my mind that there is more sensibility—which is equivalent
to more talent-among ’gays' of both sexes than among the
‘norms'" (Memoirs 51). His contempt was not limited to
non-gays. Williams defended against feelings of
inferiority with his contempt for effeminate gay men:
I also remember, when I returned to New Orleans
after my first exposure to the more discreetly
organized gay world of New york, proselytizing my
'gay' friends in the Quarter to conduct
themselves in a fashion that was not just a
travesty of the other sex. I told them, those
who would listen, that that type of behavior
simply made them distasteful, sexually, to anyone
interested in sex . . . and that it was 'dated,’
as well (Memoirs 50).

By placing himself above other gay men, and having pride in

his masculinity, Williams was able to lessen his feelings

of shame towards what he saw as his own inferiority.

Tennessee Williams deemed his sexuality as inferior,

this is shame. Chapter three will show how profoundly

Williams’ shame effected his dramatic writing as the

21

puritanical/sexual conflict in four selected plays and the

development of shame in their protagonists is examined.

22

CHAPTER III

The conflict between the sexual and the puritanical is
central to the actions and emotions in Williams’
protagonists. As a result the conflict is present
literally or symbolically in almost all of the production
elements including the set design, costume design, stage
directions and dialogue. Williams juxtaposes symbols,
communities and characters that represent both sides of the
conflict between the puritanical and the sexual, and these
aspects of the production in turn support the protagonist's
struggle with shame. Therefore it is important to examine
characters, communities, symbols and settings that support
the inner conflict of the protagonists.

How does the presence of shame relate to the
puritanical/sexual conflict in the plays of Tennessee
Williams? As a binary the conflict is inherently a
comparison, and comparisons point to deficiencies that are
the source of shame. In comparing the puritanical side of
the characters with the sexual side of the characters.
Williams makes a judgment as to which side is deficient.

In his own life it was the sexual side that was deemed
inferior. Williams extends this judgement to the

characters in the plays.

The communities and families that the characters
inhabit become the context for the normative values and
mores that make this judgement possible. As a part of
these communities and families the characters have
developed shame scripts associated with their sexuality.

Kaufman explains, ”Of all the physiologically based
drives, the one most significant in its association with
shame is sexuality" (Kaufman 1996: 42). The characters all
have the sexual side of themselves hidden within because
they see that side of themselves as inferior or morally
corrupt. Kaufman explains the importance of the
relationship between sex and shame in our culture when he
states, “In many cultures the sexual drive is a primary
target of shaming, causing sex to become bound by shame"
(59). Shame has a profound effect because the sexual drive
is a natural physiological function of the human body.
Shame then can be triggered by any sexual feeling, thought,
image, or fantasy. ”To the degree that sexuality becomes
associated with and hence bound and controlled by shame,
the individual concerned is faced with an intolerable
dilemma: how to come to terms with a vital part of the self
that is seen as inherently bad" (Kaufman 1985: 43).

The communities and/or symbols associated.with Alma,
Blanche, and Serafina support traditional values and
conventional mores that find contempt and disdain for

individuals who sway from a spiritually based morality.

The Sexual vs. The Puritanical in Beggar end Smoke

Perhaps nowhere is the conflict between the
puritanical and the sexual represented as clearly as in

Summer and Smoke. Alma, the daughter of a minister in a

town named Glorious Hill, is a woman with extreme faith in
religion, morality, and normal social values. In the
prologue of the play the stage directions describe a young
Alma: ”She already has the dignity of an adult; there is a
quality of extraordinary delicacy and tenderness or
spirituality in her, which must set her distinctly apart
from other children" (125). Williams establishes Alma as
someone who is different from the norm, and it will be
these differences that add to the elements which create
shame in Alma.
The puritanical quality of spirituality is very strong in
Alma as a girl and these traits carry over to the adult
Alma. Williams' stage directions describing the adult Alma
upon her first entrance read:
. . . there is something prematurely spinsterish
about her. An excessive propriety and self-
consciousness is apparent in her nervous
laughter; her voice and gestures belong to years
of church entertainments, to the position of
hostess in a rectory. . . .Her true nature is
still hidden even from herself (Summer 135).
In order to establish Alma's puritanical values, Williams
connects her with religious symbols.
The fact that Alma has an excessive self-consciousness

is critical since Kaufman states that self-consciousness is

one of the several forms of shame. By attributing to Alma

25

an excessive propriety Williams emphasizes the importance
of correctness of morals, and suitable societal behavior.
The nervous laugh which is a result of her
self-consciousness emerges throughout the play and is
triggered when Alma feels shame. Her laugh is born of a
fear to expose anything that may be different or wrong.

The importance of propriety is reflected in the
expectations the community and Alma's family have of her.
Her minister father becomes linked to Alma's shaming script
when he observes that Alma's singing at the fourth of July
celebration could ". . . provoke a lot of criticism" (132).
Living with her family in the rectory, Alma has had to
assume the responsibilities of the lady in a minister's
household, as her mother has faded into a mild form of
madness that also becomes a source of shame for Alma and
her father.

Outside of Alma's family is a community that can be
seen to effect her puritan nature as well. The views on
sexuality held by the community can be seen when Alma tells
John about the character of Mrs. Ewell. Mrs. Ewell
”entertains" traveling salesmen who come to Glorious Hill
on the train. Alma states, ”Of course she is ostracized by
all but a few of her own type of women in town" (148). Mrs.
Ewell's behavior does not meet with acceptable social
standards. Alma defends the moral standards of the
community when she states to John that, ”Being a minister's

daughter I have to be more selective than most girls about

26

the society I keep." (153). The sexual desire that Alma is
discovered to possess, can not be accepted by this
puritanical community nor by Alma herself.

The sexual desires in Alma are impossible for her not
to judge. Throughout her entire life she has been taught
to find pride in an excessive reverence, faith, and a
puritanical nature because of their social acceptability.

This trait can be seen in the Alma of Tennessee Williams'

Eecentricities of a Nightingale, a later revision of Sggger

end Smoke in which she lets John know of her desire for him

with ”I’m so ashamed of myself!” (Eccentricities 80). The
source for her shame is explained when she says, ”I exposed
myself. Father is frightened of me and he's right. On the
surface I’m still the Episcopal minister’s daughter but
there's something else that's—. . . Something—else that's—
frantic!" (Eccentricities 81). The ”something else" that
is frantic is the sexual desire she feels for John. Alma
feels shame in exposing this desire.

The importance of spiritual relationships, which to
Alma mean relationships devoid of desire, becomes apparent
when she says to John;

But suppose that some day . . . suppose that
some day you - married. . . . The woman that you
selected to be your wife, and not only your wife
but - the mother of your children! . . . WOuldn't
you want that woman to be a lady? WOuldn't you
want her to be somebody that you, as her husband,

and they as her precious children - could look up
to with very deep respect? (80).

27

Despite Alma’s need to judge and suppress her desire for
John in this way, he becomes a constant attraction to her.
She peeks out her window at night to spy on him coming home
and nervously flutters at his invitation to go for a ride
with him in his car.

The theme of the play demands that Alma's sexual
nature be exposed. To ensure exposure, Williams includes
antagonists and symbols that become representations of
sexuality and desire. The most obvious representation of
this struggle between the puritanical and the sexual is in
the play’s scenic design. On one side of the stage, as a
representation of the puritanical, exists the parlor of an
Episcopal rectory which houses a minister and his family.
On the opposite side of the stage exists the examination
room in the residence of Dr. Buchanan Sr. and Dr. John
Buchanan Jr. As a doctor's office, with a large chart of
the human anatomy on its back wall, it becomes
representative of the sensual needs of the body. The
simultaneous representation on stage of these two rooms is
ultimately important to the play's theme and physically
represents the primary conflict between the sexual body and
the puritanical soul.

Situated between these two interior aspects of the set
is an exterior that represents a park or public square in
the town. The centerpiece of this park is a stone fountain
of an angel named Eternity. The angel's natural

association with heaven and spiritual transcendence is

superimposed on her more earthly function providing water.
Her position between the two residences, her name, and her
ability to serve both a spiritual and sensual purpose make
her an important marker for which the audience can gauge
the resolution of the puritanical/sexual conflict
throughout the play.

In addition to the on—stage locales, Williams creates
two offstage locales, the town of Glorious Hill and the
Moon Lake Casino, which provide an important element in the
symbolism of the play as well. The name of Glorious Hill
suggests the value of puritanical lifestyles, up from the
earth toward glory, as the locale of Moon Lake Casino
becomes a place associated in many of Williams' plays with
sexual relations. The characters who represent social
acceptance, or who have more puritanical interests become
associated with Glorious Hill, as the characters who seek
sexual fulfillment and don't follow puritanical social
rules become associated with the Moon Lake Casino.

The representation of the struggle between spiritual
and sensual symbols in the scenic design is supportive of
the more important internal struggle in the protagonist of
the play, Alma Winemiller. As a resident of the
puritanical rectory, and as a minister's daughter, Alma
finds herself struggling with her undeniable attraction to
Dr. John Buchanan Jr. John is a symbol of sensual
pleasures and he becomes the catalyst for exposing the

sexual desire which Alma finds shameful. The struggle of

29

reconciling their seemingly opposing natures illustrates
the major theme of the play.
Their relationship and the conflict become apparent
from the opening moments of the play when, as children,
John teases Alma, kisses her, and then runs away. This
interaction establishes a pattern between Alma and John.
The struggle between Alma’s soul and John’s body
appears literally when John describes the importance of
using all of your senses to gain self-satisfaction. Alma
retorts by describing a Gothic cathedral. She states;
How everything reaches up, how everything seems
to be straining for something out of the reach of
stone—or human—fingers? . . . The immense stained
windows, the great arched doors that are five or
six times the height of the tallest man—the
vaulted ceiling and all the delicate spires—all
reaching up to something beyond attainment! To
meawell, that is the secret, the principle back
of existence—the everlasting struggle and
aspiration for more than our human limits have
placed in our reach. . . . (77).

The scene is ended with Alma rejecting the sexual advances

of John and John in turn rejecting Alma herself.

The Sexual vs. The Puritanical in

A SEreetcar Named Qesire

The puritanical elements in A Streetcar Named Desire
are not as prominent as in Summer and Smoke: however it is

important to understand the puritanical nature of the
community that surrounds the character of Blanche in order

to understand her dilemma and conflict.

3O

The first clues of the puritanical nature of Blanche
are derived from Williams' description of her in the stage
directions. “She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a
fluffy bodice, necklace and earings of pearl, white gloves
and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or
cocktail party in the garden district. . ." (245). Coupled
with this image of white is Blanche's name. Blanche DuBois
means 'white woods' suggesting a pastoral image of purity.
The character of Blanche at the beginning of the play is a
symbol of purity, puritanical values, virginal qualities,
and conventional mores.

(The use of white as a symbol for purity, aside from
its cultural significance, is supported by its use in other

plays. For example, Boss Finley's House in Sweet Bird of
Youth is: ”a frame house of Victorian Gothic design. . . .

There is only essential porch furniture, Victorian wicker
but painted bone white. The men should also be wearing
white or off-white suits: . . ." (Bird 56). Thus Boss
Finley appears a man who is deeply connected to God and to
purity. First, his daughter's name is heavenly. Secondly,
Boss Finley is on a campaign to keep the white blood of the
South untainted and pure.

The fact that Blanche looks as if she has come from a
party in the garden district says much about her
puritanical value system. Williams' puritanical
associations with the garden district, a wealthy upper-

class community, are revealed through the character of Mrs.

31

Venable from Suddenly Last Summer. For Mrs. Venable the

implication that her son might be sexual, let alone
homosexual, is ”a hideous attack on my son's moral
character which, being dead, he can't defend himself from.
I have to be the defender" (361). To Mrs. Venable,
Sebastian was a chaste man. It was this purity that was to
be respected. When Catherine implies that Sebastian was
anything but chaste, Mrs. Venable describes her as
perverse. The puritanical Blanche and Mrs. Venable share
the same feelings on homosexuality. Adjectives used to
describe homosexuality in these plays, as well as other
plays of Williams, include disgusting, perverse, and
degenerate.

Both Boss Finley and Mrs. venable, to whom Blanche is
linked through the use of images and locations, reside in
mansions described by Williams as Victorian Gothic. This
architectural design supports the puritanical natures of
the characters that inhabit the structures as the words
'Victorian' and 'Gothic’ conjure images of strict morality
and sexlessness.

Blanche shows her conservative puritanical value
system through a conversation between her and Stella.
Stella states ”But there are things that happen between a
man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything
else seem—unimportant." To which Blanche responds:

“What you are talking about is brutal desire—

just—DesireI-the name of that rattle-trap
streetcar that hangs through the Quarter, up one

32

old narrow street and down another. . . . It
brought me here.—Where I’m not wanted and where
I'm ashamed to be. . ." (321).
Blanche is literally ashamed to be in a community where
desire is an accepted value.
Kaufman emphasized the importance of community and

cultural values as an influence on the formation of self

identity. In A Streetcar Named Desire, as in many of

Williams' plays, there are two distinct communities with
different values represented. It is this conflict between
the two that is at the base of the conflict between the
spiritual and sexual. New Orleans embraces and symbolizes
the sexual nature that comes into conflict with Blanche
Dubois, the protagonist and symbol of puritanism.

To enhance the conflict between puritanical values and

sexuality in Stree;car Williams sets the play in a

district of New Orleans named Elysian Fields, which means
the abode of the blessed after death or a place or state of
ideal happiness. New Orleans allows for a cosmopolitan
anonymity wherein races can mix, people can be themselves
instead of conforming to any set community moral standards,
and “desire" can be expressed and even embraced.

The setting is described in the stage directions as a
poor community with a “raffish charm," or in other words a
charming flashy vulgarity. Later the stage directions
state, ”In this part of New Orleans you are practically
always just around the corner, or a few doors down the

street, from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated

33

fluency of brown fingers. This ’blue piano' expresses the
spirit of the life which goes on here" (243). The piano
music appears throughout the script to emphasize the
representative values of New Orleans and Elysian Fields.

In fact this music appears when ever the sexual side in the
conflict during the play seems to be winning or taking over
the puritanical side.

Surrounded by this environment, Blanche's exposure, or
shame, becomes inevitable. This conflict between the values
of the characters and communities is expressed symbolically
with the discovery of Blanche and Stanley's astrological
signs. Stanley is Capricorn, or the goat, a pagan
representation of pen, a sexual creature, and Blanche is
Virgo, or the virgin.

At the center of the sexually free New Orleans
community is the character of Stanley. As ”The King" of
Elysian Fields Stanley compliments the setting and helps
to further define it. On his first appearance the stage
directions read;

Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his
movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood
the center of his life has been pleasure with
women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak
indulgence, dependently, but with the power and
(pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.
Branching out from this complete and satisfying
center are all the auxiliary channels of his
life, such as his heartiness with men, his
appreciation of rough humor, his love of good
drink and feed and games, his car, his radio,
everything that is his, that bears his emblem of
the gaudy seed—bearer. He sizes women up at a
glance, with sexual classifications, crude images

flashing into his mind and determining the way he
smiles at them (264-265).

34

Stanley, as the embodiment of a sexual creature, is
established early to become Blanche’s antagonist for the

exposure of her sexual desires and past.

The Sexual vs. The Puritanical in The Rose Tattgo

The internal struggle of the spiritual vs. sensual in
Serafina Delle Rose is much different than in Alma
Winemiller. Serafina is a woman who has accepted both the
sexsual and spiritual sides in herself through her marriage
to Rosario. Serafina’s Catholic religion gives her
permission to enjoy a sexual relationship with her husband
within the institution of marriage. However, when her
husband dies she becomes a grieving widow, suffers a
miscarriage, and suppresses her sexual nature and desires.
With the loss of her husband and her unborn child, two
bodies symbolic of sensuality, Serafina begins associating
herself strongly with the symbol of the Madonna figure. No
more physical expression of love can be openly expressed
around Serafina who would judge them as impure when
compared to the love she shared with her deceased husband.

Serafina’s daughter Rosa, who at the age of fifteen
has physically become a woman, has fallen in love with a
sailor named Jack Hunter, and desires to explore an
intimate and sexual relationship with him. The struggle
between Serafina's puritanical faith and her daughter’s

sexual desires can be seen in several scenes of the play.

35

Serafina locks Rose up in the house so that she can't leave
in order to prevent any sexual relationship between her
daughter and Jack. When finally she is faced with the two
young lovers together she makes Jack kneel in front of her
Madonna shrine and swear he will not consummate any sort of
sexual relationship with Rosa.

As in Summer and Smoke the representation of spiritual
symbols in The Rose Tattoo is present in the scenic

elements themselves. The stage directions describing the
inside of Serafina's home read, ”There are many religious
articles . . . There is a small shrine against the wall
between the rooms, consisting of'a prie-dieu and a little
statue of the Madonna . . . BefOre this burns always a
vigil light in its ruby glass cup” (139).

Placed in Serafina's house are mannequins used for her
sewing business. One of these mannequins is dressed as a
young bride and the other is dressed as a widow. The two
mannequins ”face each other in violent attitudes, as though
having a shrill argument . . .” (140), and these mannequins
become evidently symbolical of the struggle between the
sensual and the spiritual as they mirror the relationship
between Serafina as a puritanical, un-sexual widow and her
daughter Rose as a vivacious, sensually hungry young lover.

This religious and puritanical interior location is
juxtaposed against the exterior location of an Italian
community on the Gulf Coast. For Williams, the Italian

culture was significant in its free expression of

36

sensuality and sexuality. When Williams was in Rome ”. . .
he fell deeply in love with the city and the Italian
people. Their art, their dignity, their physical beauty,
their speech, their zest for life appealed to every anti-
Puritanical inch of his being” (Tischler 166). The
religious signification and the purity of the Madonna
figure in the house is enveloped in a community which
appealed to Williams for its ”anti—Puritanical” qualities.
The animal images that Williams associates with the
sexual nature in Streetcar are present in The Rese Tettgg
as well. The character who ultimately exposes Serafina's
sexual desire, Alvaro, is described as a bull. Also
present in this play is a black goat that becomes a symbol
of the sensual and sexual. Every time the goat infringes
upon Serafina’s spiritual home, it is seen as a bad omen
and chased away. At one point the goat charges Serafina
who runs away from it screaming. The character of Assunta
offers to make a powder from the dry blood of a goat to act

as an aphrodisiac.

The Sexual vs. The Puritanical in

Aighe of the Iguana
Of the four plays included in this study, Night 0; tee

nge e was the last for Williams to write. The conflict
between the puritanical and the sexual in Night of the
Tguana reveals a more complex conflict. Unlike the three

previous plays which include a puritanical protagonist

37

faced with an antagonist representative of the sexual,

Night of the lggena includes a character representative of

the puritanical and a character representative of the
sexual who both influence the protagonist’s struggle.

The Reverend Shannon is by his title immediately
connected to the puritanical side of the sexual/puritanical
conflict. Priests, ministers, and reverends are common
characters in several of Williams' plays used to help
support the puritanical side of the sexual/puritanical

conflict. Williams uses these characters in Cet 0g a Hot

Tin Roof, and The Rgee Tattoo as well. The priests are

 

always the representation of puritanical morality and a
source for shaming the main characters.

Although Shannon embodies the puritanical symbolism of
a minister, he also is considered a ”defrocked" minister
who has both rejected his faith and been thrown out of his
parish. Shannon's status as a defrocked minister helps to
reveal the conflict between the sexual and the puritanical
present within him. Shannon's temporary rejections of
religion through sexual encounters are incomplete as he
clings to the idealistic higher existence of priesthood by
wearing his cross and professing his return to the church.

Shannon arives with a busload of women who are school
teachers at a Baptist female college in Blowing Rock,
Texas. The women's connection to a puritanical morality
adds to the puritanical Shannon since he is their leader.

At the same time he is connected with the puritanical side

38

of the conflict he is connected to the sexual side as it is
discovered that he has slept with a sixteen year old girl
who is a member of the tour group.

Also adding to the puritanical Shannon is the pure
image of the color white as he is described arriving,

similar to Blanche in Streetcar, “. . . in a crumpled white

linen suit." (256). Instead of making Shannon's suit
completely a symbol of purity, Williams describes his suit
as crumpled. The crumpled white suit foreshadows Shannon’s
future deviation from the puritanical.

Through these images Williams gives Shannon aspects of
both sides of the conflict that set up the existence of
shame in Shannon. Shannon throughout the play struggles to
connect himself to an existence above sexual desire by
professing his connection to the church. At one point
Shannon even puts on his clerical collar and a heavy gold
cross.

The setting for Night of the Igeana is a jungle in

Mexico. The jungle is described as being “among the worlds
wildest and loveliest populated places" (251). Williams
does not describe this jungle in much detail but we can
look at it as a symbol of the sexual side of the
puritanical/sexual conflict and compare it to another
jungle of Williams', the jungle garden of Sebastian in

SuddenTy Last ngmer. Sebastian's jungle is described like

this:

39

The interior is blended with a fantastic garden
which is more like a tropical jungle, or forest,
in the prehistoric age of giant fern-forests when
living creatures had flippers turning to limbs
and scales to skin The colors of this jungle-
garden are violent, especially since it is
steaming with heat after rain. There are massive
tree-flowers that suggest organs of a body, torn
out, still glistening with undried blood; there
are harsh cries and sibilant hissings and
thrashing sounds in the garden as if it were
inhabited by beasts, serpents and birds, all of
savage nature. . . (Suddenly 349)

The setting of Mexico in Night of the Iggana can be

compared to other settings such as Italy in The Roman

Spring of Mrs. Stone, or the Italian community of The Aose

Tattoo, and the New Orleans of Streetcar Nameg Qesire. The

exotic locales break from the traditional rules and values
of puritanical beliefs in our culture. Williams used these
settings the same way he used them in his own life, as an
escape.

The owner of the verandah in the Mexican jungle is a
representation of the sexual side of the puritanical sexual
conflict. Upon Maxine Falk's first entrance she is
described as a “ . . . stout, swarthy woman in her ferties—
affable and rapaciously lusty. She is wearing a pair of
Levis and a blouse that is half unbuttoned.” (Iguana 255).
Maxine's first line reveals her nature even more. In
reference to the bus full of women Shannon arrived with,
Maxine asks, ”How many you laid so far?" (255). Maxine's
connection to the sexual side of the argument is augmented
when we realize that the two young men who work for her are

also at times her lovers. Maxine illuminates further the

40

source of Shannon's shame for his sexual desires when she

recalls a story he told her deceased husband Fred.
You told him that Mama, your Mama, used to send
you to bed before you was ready to sleep—so you
practiced the little boy's vice, you amused
yourself with yourself. And once she caught you
at it and whaled your backside with the back side
of a hairbrush because she said she had to punish
you for it because it made God mad as much as it
did Mama, and she had to punish you for it so God
wouldn't punish you for it harder than she would.
. . You said you loved God and Mama and so you
quit it to please them, but it was your secret
pleasure and you harbored a secret resentment
against Mama and God for making you give it up.
And so you got back at God by preaching
atheistical sermons and you got back at Mama by
starting to lay young girls (329).

Maxine tells Shannon that they have both reached a point

were they have to settle for something that works for them

even if it isn't on a higher level.

Contrasted with the sexual Maxine is the character of
Hannah who to Shannon represents a higher plane of
existence through her association with puritanism ans art.
Upon Hannah's first entrance she is described as ”. . .
remarkable-lcoking—ethereal, almost ghostly. She suggests
a Gothic cathedral image of a medieval saint, but animated"
(Iguana 266). With her beauty and puritanical qualities
Hannah has an immediate calming affect upon Shannon.

In Nrght gf the Igeene Williams reveals his feelings

of art as a higher purpose and existence in the characters
of Hannah and Nonno. Both are artists and have found a
certain peace with their existence. Williams comments on

this as well in Srreetcer when Blanche says to Stella:

41

Such things as art—as poetry and music—such kinds
of new light have come into the world . . . In
some kinds of people some tenderer feelings have
had some little beginning! That we have got to
make grow! And cling to and hold as our flag!

In this dark march toward whatever it is we're
approaching (323).

In Suddenly Last Summer Williams places art on higher

spiritual level with Mrs. Venable equating her son
Sebastian's puritanical existence with his poetry. Shannon
seeks for this same existence in religion and as a result
is dissapointed and dissatisfied.

Shannon feels a deep connection to the character of
Hannah because of her association with the puritanical and
a higher existence in art, but he also recognizes in her an
acceptance of natural human instinct including sexuality.
Shannon calls Hannah an “emancipated Puritan" (344). This
title, as well as the shared stories between Hannah and
Shannon about their demons, mirrors Williams' own self
title of ”rebellious puritan" and his own demons that he
called “blue devils." Hannah serves as the catalyst for
Shannon's acceptance of his own sexuality that he has been
ashamed of.

The development and presence of shame in the four
protagonists inevitably leads to the use of defenses
against exposure. Two ways that Williams defended against
the exposure of his self-judged inferiority were by hiding
or separating himself from others and by having contempt
for others. Chapter four will show how Williams'

characters use Kaufman's defenses against exposure.

42

CHAPTER IV

Chapter one listed the eight defenses against shame a
person adopts when threatened with exposure of the self
judged inferior trait: contempt, rage, striving for power,
internal withdrawal, denial, transfer of blame, striving
for perfection, and humor. Chapter two explored examples
of these defenses in the life of Tennessee Williams. This
chapter will show where these defenses are used by the four
protagonists to defend against their source of shame—sexual
desire.

Not all the defenses are used by all of the
characters. The use of different defenses, as well as the
secondary emotional reactions of fear, distress, and rage
are what make the characters’ motivations for action
different. This difference gives the characters their
individuality. For example, Blanche uses the defenses of
contempt and denial profusely and displays the secondary
emotional reaction of fear, while rage, either as a defense
or secondary reaction, is hardly a trait that Blanche
exhibits at all. Serafina Delle Rose, on the other hand,
displays the emotion of rage as both a defense against

further shaming and as a secondary emotional reaction

43

 

an

sc
iii
in

5t

36X]
fUlf

Udes

several times throughout the play. She seldom displays

fear as a secondary reaction, or humor as a defense.

Defenses Against Exposure in Alma Winemiller

Contempt is defined by Kaufman as the judgment of
other people as lesser than oneself. Placing yourself
above others, and having disdain, or dislike for their
actions serves to make yourself impervious to judgment.
All four protagonists exhibit an almost fanatical pride in
their puritanical side. Their dedication to purity places
them above others so that they can judge behaviors in
others and stand above judgment themselves.

Like Williams, Alma mirrors the views of her community
and family. Both Alma end her community condemn the
behavior of people who act upon their sexual desires. In a
scene where Nellie tells Alma that John was out last night
with her mother and Rose Gonzales, two women who are known
in the town for their uninhibited sexual liaisons, Alma
states, ”these people who shout his name in front of his
house are of such a character that the old doctor cannot
permit them to come inside the door" (167). Her contempt
for people that recognize their sexual desire is a defense
against the exposure of her own.

Ahma even expresses contempt for the object of her
sexual desire, John. John's reckless and sexually
fulfilling behavior is criticized when Alma calls it a

“desecration”. Alma's defense becomes a combined defense

44

of contempt with striving for perfection. Her need to be
seen and respected as a lady, impervious to flaws, works in
combination with her contempt for others.

Defenses against exposure that Williams uses often are
alcohol or other drugs. This trait is apparent in Brick in

get on a Hot Tin Roof, Alma in Summer and Smoke, Sebastian

in Suddenly Last Summer and Blanche in Streetcar Nemeg

Qesire. For example, Brick in Cat, does not have to face

anyone if he can just tell them that he can't see any of
them until he has had enough to drink. When Brick reaches
a state of sufficient inebriation, then he can face the

world. Williams writes in the stage directions for Cat

that the liquor cabinet is ”. . . a very complete and
compact little shrine to virtually all the comforts and
illusions behind which we hide from such things as the
characters in the play are faced with. . . .” (Cat 16).

Alma's reliance on the sleeping pills that John
prescribed to her is a way for her to forget that she has
sexual desire. John refers to Alma's sexual desire and her
need to hide it when he says, ”Under the surface you have a
lot of excitement, a great deal more than any other women I
have met. So much that you have to carry these sleeping
pills with you. The question is why?" (200).

Alma also exhibits the defense of internal withdrawal
when she ”retreats from the world" by hiding behind a fake

illness. Her father says to her:

45

Why don't you get dressed? It hurts me to see
you sitting around like this, day in, day out,
like an invalid when there is nothing
particularly wrong with you. . . You may have had
some kind of disappointment, but you must not
make it an excuse for acting as if the world had
come to an end (225).
It is revealed that Alma does leave the house but only in
the middle of the night to walk around. By leaving the
house only in the middle of the night, Alma defends against
anyone being able to see her or shame her.
At the end of this scene, John returns to Glorious
Hill and when Alma sees him she must defend against the
same sexual desires she has always had for him. Alma uses
possibly the ultimate form of internal withdrawal when she
expresses the desire to die. ”What . . . happened?

Something . . . struck me! . . . No, no, don't. Don’t call

anybody to help me. I want to die!" (227).

Defenses Against Exposure in Blanche DuBois

Of the eight defenses against exposure and shame
defined by Kaufman, Blanche uses most frequently the
defenses of contempt, striving for power, internal
withdrawal, and denial.

Blanche feels contempt towards both the setting she
has found herself in and for every other character in the
play. Blanche starts expressing contempt for Elysian
Fields from the very beginning of the play. During her
first conversation with Eunice she seems to be unconvinced

that her sister could possibly live in this community. In

fact, Williams writes that ”Her expression is one of
shocked disbelief." Blanche questions, ”This—can this be—
her home?" (245). Blanche discovers that indeed it is and
she continues to show disdain in the first conversation
with Stella.

Expecting someone of herself and her sister’s social
station never to stoop so low, Blanche asks Stella ”What
are you doing in a place like this?" (252). When Stella
doesn't understand the question Blanche continues:

Oh, I’m not going to be hypocritical, I'm going
to be honestly critical about it! Never, never,
never in my worst dreams could I picture— Only
Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poet—could do it
justice! Out there I suppose is the ghoul-
haunted woodland of Weir! (252).
By expressing contempt for the place that Stella lives,
Blanche has elevated herself above such living and this
defense works to make her feel that she is above anything
so base. If she can make Stella and Stanley feel lower
than herself, it will make it harder for them to judge her
or shame her.

Blanche’s contempt for Stanley is the strongest
contempt of all. This makes sense since he is the
antagonist that is fated to expose her sexual desire, the
source for her shame. Stanley's strong connection to
sexual desire is the catalyst for the final exposure of
Blanche's shameful trait, and the driving force of the
action. Blanche's description of Stanley reads:

You can't have forgotten that much of our

bringing up, Stella, that you just suppose that
any part of a gentleman's in his nature! Not one

47

 

particle, no! Oh, if he was just—ordinary! Just
plain—but good and wholesome, but —no. There's
something downright—bestial—ebout him! . . . He
acts like an animal, has an animal's habits!
Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!
There's even something-sub-human—something not
quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes,
something—ape-like about him, like one of those
pictures I've seen in —anthropological studies!
Thousands and thousands of years have passed him
right by, and there he is—Stenley Kowalski—
survivor of the Stone Age! Bearing the raw meat
home from the kill in the jungle! And youeyou
here—waiting for him! Maybe he'll strike you or
maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses
have been discovered yet! Night falls and the
other apes gather! There in front of the cave,
all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing
and hulking! His poker nightl—you cell it—this
party of apes! Somebody growls-some creature
snatches at something—the fight is on! (322-323).

Williams uses many exclamation points for punctuation,

indicating the strength of her contempt. It must be this

strong in order for her to triumph over him.

Blanche’s contempt is mirrored in her excessive pride

of where she comes from, and the ”higher" things in life as

she finishes her long speech with;

have had some little beginning!
to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our
flag! In this dark march toward whatever it is
we're approaching. . . . Don’t—don’t hang back
with the brutes! (323).

Such things as art—as poetry and music-such kinds
of new light have come into the world since then!

In some kinds of people some tenderer feelings
That we have got

There is more to be found in this speech on her pride, and

on her elevation of herself than contempt for Stanley

however.

Blanche states that they must ”cling" to tenderer

feelings and higher ideas such as art and music, indeed

hold them as her flag. Blanche is almost exposing the side
of herself that she so desperately must keep hidden. Her
speech on the sexual nature of Stanley has made Blanche
conscious of her own sexual desires and as a result she
must convince herself, as well as Stella, that she is above
desire and beyond hanging back with “the brutes."

Blanche also expresses contempt for Stanley directly
to his face when he is forcing her to hand over the papers
on Belle Reeve. Stanley finds her love letters from Allan
and Blanche states, “The touch of your hands insults them!"
She then states “I hurt him the way that you would like to
hurt me, but you can’t! I'm not young and vulnerable any
more. But my young husband was. . ." (282-283). Her
statement is important in showing how Stanley is the threat
of exposure of Blanche's sexual desire and past. The way
that Blanche hurt Allen was to expose his homosexuality as
she said to him “I saw! I know, You disgust me. . ." (355).
The exposure of Allan's homosexuality and the resulting
shame was so terrifying and distressful to Allan that he
proceeded to take his own life. Blanche believes that
Stanley will hurt her in the same way.

It is not only Elysian Fields in New Orleans and
Stanley that Blanche feels contempt for. She also has
contempt for locations in her home town of Laurel that are
associated with sex. The feelings she expresses for the
Hotel Flamingo, where Stanley says that his friend met her,

puts her above such establishments. She states “The Hotel

49

Flamingo is not the sort of establishment I would dare to

be seen in!" (329). When Stanley describes the sort of

establishment the hotel is to Stella he states:
A secondcless hotel which has the advantage of
not interfering in the private social life of the
personalities there! The Flamingo is used to all
kinds of goings-on. But even the management of
the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche! In
fact they was so impressed by Dame Blanche that
they requested her to turn in her room key-for
permanently! (360).

Thus the place that Blanche took residence, after the loss

of Belle Reeve, is the same place she staunchly stated she

would never set foot in.

Blanche uses the defense of striving for power to gain
control over Stanley so that he can't expose her sexual
past and desires. She uses the only way she knows, her
charm and her beauty. The same man that she considers no
better than an ape, is a man that she is not above flirting
with if it will gain her control over the situation.

In the scene where Stanley is trying to discover what
happened to Belle Reve, Blanche firsts asks him to help her
button up her dress. Then she starts “fishing for a
compliment" by asking Stanley, “would you think it possible
that I was once considered to be—ettractive?"(278). When
these tactics seem to be failing, Blanche becomes more
foreword stating, ”You're simple, straightforward and
honest, a little bit on the primitive side I should think.
To interest you a woman would have to—[She pauses with an

indefinite gesture.]" Stanley finishes her sentence with,

“Lay . . . her cards on the table," (279) but the

50

implication is surely sexual. Blanche's ability to defend
against exposure is strong enough that she proves to be a
powerful force against Stanley and solicits respect from

the audience.

Defenses Against Exposure in Serafina Delle Rose

By using the defense of contempt, Serafina judges the
relationships of the other couples in the community.
Serafina, equating her and Rosario’s bed with God, judges
and criticizes the impurity of others:

The men, they don't feel no glory, not in the
house with them women; they go to the bars, fight
in them, get drunk, get fat, put horns on the
women because the women don't give them the love
which is glory. - I did, I give him the glory.

To me the big bed was beautiful like a religion
(196—7).

Pride in the purity of her marriage to Rosario, and
pride in the symbolic social status of their titles as
Baron and Baroness serves to raise Serafina above the other
characters who threaten to expose her shame about the
possibility of Rosario's infidelity. Serafina states, “My
folks was peasants, contadini, but he—he come from
landowners! Signorile, my husband—At night I sit here and
I'm satisfied to remember, because I had the best.—Not the
third best and not the second best, but the first best, the
only best! . . ." (311). The purity of the sexual
relationship with her husband is very important to Serafina

as it allows her to have contempt for the other married

couples in her town.

51

Serafina expresses contempt for other characters in
the play as well. Bessie and Flora are two women who stop
by Serafina's home to pick up a shirt that Serafina has
made for one of them. When the two women begin talking
about sex, Serafina becomes aware of the sexual desire
within herself that she deems impure and also questions the
purity of her relationship with her deceased husband.
Serafina condemns their behavior, and puts herself above
them by stating, ”[ominously]: You two ladies watch how
you talk in there. This here is a Catholic house. You are
sitting in the same room.with Our Lady end.with the blessed
ashes of my husband!" (308). This shows the importance and
strength of the puritanical nature of Serafina as she again
makes a connection between her marriage with Rosario to
religion.

Serafina also strives for power to defend against
exposure. By obtaining power over situations or people
there is less of a chance that exposure can occur.

Serafina displays this defense most in terms of the
relationship between her daughter Rose and herself. Rosa is
unafraid to express her sexuality and has found an outlet
for this expression in a sailor named Jack that she met at
a school dance.

For Serafina, any form of impure sexuality is a source
of shame because it forces her to acknowledge her own
desires that would, in her mind, soil the image of her

relationship with her husband. Predmarital sex is one of

52

these forms of sexuality that Serafina deems impure, and
her daughter Rose, is expressing desire to have a sexual
relationship with Jack.

Serafina, being in a position of power over her
daughter, locks her daughter's clothes up so that Rosa
can't leave the house. Her power over the situation
combines with contempt for the school where Rosa met Jack
when Serafina says to a teacher from the school:

You give this dance where she gets mixed up with
a sailor. What do you think you want to do at
this high school? . . . How high is this high
school? Listen, how high is this high school?
Look, look, look, I will show you! It's high as
that horse's dirt out there in the street! (300-
301).

Serafina expresses power over her daughter's
relationship and contempt for Jack when she makes Jack
kneel in front of her Madonna shrine and swear to her that
he won't do anything sexual with Rose. Serafina feels that
it is necessary to make him swear because she has contempt
for the intentions of all men. Serafina says, ”I know what
men want—not to eat popcorn with girls or to slide on ice!
And boys are the same, only younger" (332).

When Father Del Leo comes to visit Serafina, she
displays the defense of internal withdrawal. Serafina is
described in the stage directions as evading the stare of a
little girl and evading the attention of the priest.
”Father De Leo approaches the house. Serafina crouches low

in the chair to escape his attention. He knocks at the

door. Receiving no answer, he looks out into the yard,

sees her, and approaches her chair." (337). The priest
must be avoided at all costs, for through the confessions
of Rosario, he knows the truth about the affair with
Estelle. Serafina withdraws from seeing him in order to
avoid this knowledge and the exposure that would lead to
shame.

Serafina uses the defense of internal withdrawal to
distance herself from everyone in her town. They all know
about the affair that Rosario had with Estelle and they
represent a threat of exposure. Father Del Leo asks
Serafina why she doesn't have any friends and why she will
not accept the women who try to be friendly with her.
Serafina replies, ”They think they know something that
Serafina don't know; they think I got these on my head!
[She holds her fingers like horns at either side of her
forehead.] Well, I aint got them!" (339). She goes on to
say later, “. . . I don't mix with them women. [Glaring at
the women on the embankment] The dummies I got in my
house, I mix with them better because they don't make up no
lies!" (341). The defense of internal withdrawal is
combined here with denial that there was anything impure
about her and Rosario's marriage.

Serafina uses the defense of rage in combination with
internal withdrawal to protect herself from exposure by
pushing these same women who are trying to be friendly
away. The defense of rage, as explained by Kaufman, is

used in order to push the factors that threaten exposure

away. These women know the truth about Rosario's affair
and Serafina knows it. If she has contact with them she
will have to accept the fact that her sexuality with
Rosario was not the puritanical sexual relationship that
she thought it was, so she decides to push these threats
away by using the defense of rage. When two women appear
near her house and start to come towards it Serafina reacts
with rage:
lurches heavily up to meet them, like a wary bull
turning to face another attack." She then says
to them ”You ladies, what you want? I don't do
sewing! Look, I quit doing sewing. [She pulls
down the 'SEWING' sign and hurls it awayz] Now
you got places to go, you ladies, go places!
Don't hang around front of my house! (338).
The description of Serafina as a bull facing another attack
implies that there is danger of some kind when people
approach her. This is the danger of the exposure of her
impure relationship with Rosario which she will defend any
way possible because of its potential of creating shame.
After Rosario's death Serafina keeps Rosario's ashes
in an urn by her Madonna figure as a reminder of the
sanctity and purity of their love and marriage. Serafina
convinces herself throughout most of the play that there is
no cause for her to feel shame about her marriage to
Rosario or their sexual relationship. This is one of the
instances that Serafina uses the defense of denial.
Throughout the entire play, Serafina denies the truth

about Rosario's affair with Estelle Hoehengarten. Her

denial is expressed again with Flora and Bessie. When

55

Flore exposes the possibility that her marriage was not
pure, and that Rosario had an affair, Serafina cannot face
the truth. She denies this information vehemently calling

the women dirty liars.

Defenses Against Exposure in Reverend Shannon

The Reverend Lawrence Shannon in NiQhE_Q£_Lh§_IQEan
uses the defense of contempt and his position as a minister
to defend against any possible exposure of his sexual
desire which he feels is sinful. Shannon professes his
worthiness as the best tour guide the women from the
Baptist college could ever expect. This pride in his
abilities serves to convince himself of his worthiness and
places him above characters who might cause exposure.
Shannon's pride that elevates him and turns into a contempt
for those he has placed beneath him extends to his position
as a minister and as a gentleman as well. Miss Fellowes
places a cell to Shannon's employer in order to get him
fired. She then storms out of the office to accuse him of
cheating them and sleeping with Charlotte Goodall.
Shannon's only defense against the accusations is to
convince her and himself that he is the best at what he
does. He states ”My degree from Sewanee is Doctor of
Divinity, but for the past ten years geography's been my
specialty, Miss Fellowes, honey! Name any tourist agency I

haven't worked for! You Couldn't!" (274). Upon her

accusations of him stealing from them and cheating them
Shannon replies:
Miss Fellowes, I am a gentlemen, and as a
gentlemen I can’t be insulted like this. I mean
I can't accept insults of that kind even from a
member of a tour that I am conducting. And, Miss
Fellowes, I think you might also remember, you
might try to remember, that you're speaking to an
ordained minister of the church (275).
This pride acts to place him above the accusing women and
allows him to have contempt for them. He states that the
ladies have, ”for the first time in their lives the
advantage of contact, social contact, with a gentleman born
and bred, . . ." (334).

After Shannon has been accused by Miss Fellowes for
being impure sexually, he has to condemn the women for
something that he feels is even worse. Shannon expresses
contempt when he accuses the women of being lesbians.

“. . . did you know they had Lesbians in Texas-without the
dikes the plains of Texas would be engulfed by the Gulf."
(334). He punctuates the accusation with a violent nod
directed toward Miss Fellowes, who in turn rises and slaps
him for his accusation. Shannon dissatisfied that he has
convinced anyone of his purity expresses contempt for their
sexuality by calling them whores. “I've certainly never
desired to, have relations with whores" (335).

The other defense that Shannon uses often is denial.
His contemplation of returning to the church is a denial of

his sexual desires. He has never been able to keep from

having sexual relations and yet he still believes that he

57

can. This time the denial and the choice to go back to the
church is ultimately influenced by his shame of having sex
with the character of Charlotte Goodall, a sixteen year old
ward of the Baptist Women on the tour.

No matter how strong the use of defenses appears in
the four protagonists, the dramatic conflict results in
exposure of their sexual desires. Chapter five will show
how Williams creates dramatic tension in the plays with
small moments of exposure. These moments ultimately build
to the climax of the plays, the ultimate exposure of the

characters' sexual desires, and the resulting resolutions.

Chapter V

This chapter will show how the characters exhibit the
physical and emotional manifestations of shame. After the
exposure of shame, Kaufman says that the face becomes a
thing to hide. If people can see your face and especially
your eyes they will see into you. Williams himself
experienced this physical manifestation of shame in high
school. This chapter will show how Williams allows the
characters to express the physical manifestations and the
secondary emotional reactions of fear, distress, and rage

that follow exposure.

Exposure and Alma Winemiller
The inherent sexual desires of her nature are a source

for shame in Aime and the shame manifests itself in both

physical and emotional ways. For example Mrs. Winemiller

exposes Alma's desire for John to Nellie. She tells Nellie

that Alma watches for John through the window late at night

and Alma lashes out at her mother with anger saying:
If ever I hear you say such a thing again, if
ever you dare to repeat such a thing in my
presence or anybody else's—then it will be the
last straw! You understand me? Yes, you
understand me! You act like a child, but you
have the devil in you. And God will punish you—

yes! I'll punish you too. I'll take your
cigarettes from you and give you no more. I'll

59

give you no ice cream either. Because I'm tired
of your malice. Yes, I'm tired of your malice
and your self-indulgence. People wonder why I'm
tied down here! They pity me—think of me as an
old maid already! In spite of I’m young. Still
young! It's you—it's you, you've taken my youth
away from me! I wouldn’t say that—I'd try not
even to think it—if you were just kind, just
simple! But I could spread my life out like a
rug for you to step on and you'd step on it, and
not even say ”Thank you, Alma!" Which is what
you’ve done always-end now you dare to tell a
disgusting lie about me—in front of that girl!
(168-169).

Alma's sexual desire is also exposed during the
gathering of her friends at the intellectual meeting. She
again displays great embarrassment and shame for her
feelings leaving the meeting in great distress:

Stop it! [She stamps her fOot furiously and
crushes the palm leaf fan between her clenched
hands.] I won't have malicious talk here! You
drove him away from the meeting after I'd bragged
so much about how bright and interesting you all
were! You put your worst foot forward and
simpered and chattered and carried on like
idiots, idiots! What am,I saying? I—I—please
excuse me! [She rushes out the inner door] (177).

Alma’s shame manifests itself physically when she goes
to see John at two in the morning because she is having
“fits". The fits can be seen as a physical manifestation
of her internal struggle between her puritanical and
sensual desires. John describes this struggle and the fits
as a doppelganger. “You swallow air and it presses on your
heart and gives you palpitations. That isn't serious in
itself but it's a symptom of something that is. Shall I
tell you frankly? . . . what I think you have is e
doppelganger" (144). It is assumed that her fits are not

a medical problem but a problem of the soul as

60

”doppelganger" is described later as the presence of
another person or self inside of Alma. The other person
inside of Alma is the self that she judges as inferior.
Like Williams' this inferiority produces the feeling of
shame.

Alma exhibits the physical manifestations of Shame
when before her first conversation with John she ”. . .
moves her parasol so that it shields her face from him.

She leans back closing her eyes" (138). Alma is avoiding
John because he is the object of her desire. To talk to
John would be to risk exposure of shame. Whenever John
looks closely at Aime it makes her uncomfortable. ”He
remains looking down at her with one foot on the end of her
bench. His steady, smiling look into her face is
disconcerting her" (139).

Alma reacts with great distress towards John when he
makes the suggestion at Moon Lake Casino that they could go
into a room to be intimate with each other. Alma reacts
with ”Oh! I want to go home. But I won't go with you. I
will go in a taxi! [She wheels about hysterically.] Boy!
Boy! Call a taxi!” (203) In this scene she is both trying
to defend against exposure by hiding and withdrawing from
the source of shame, and exhibiting the secondary emotional
reaction of distress upon the exposure to John.

When Alma finally recognizes her sexual desire and
exposes herself to John she temporarily reconciles her

“doppelganger.” or her two selves. She says to John “. . .

61

let's talk truthfully. Well, let's do! Unsparingly,
truthfully, even shamelessly, then!" (245). With shame out
of the way, Alma is able to describe the spiritual love she
has felt for him and offers herself sexually to John. She
describes the struggle to John when she describes the
puritanical side of herself. She states, “. . . she
doesn't exist any more, she died last summer - suffocated
in smoke from something on fire inside her. . . . I said,
'But what about pride?’ - She said, 'Forget about pride
whenever it stands between you and what you must have!'"
(243). Alma decides that it is time to forget about the
pride she has for her puritanical side in order to no
longer feel shame for her sexual desire.

The tragedy of this play is that following his
father's death, John has discovered the spiritual side of
himself and is still unable to love Alma. Upon John's
rejection of her, Alma loses the resolution and balance she
had found of her two selves. Having acknowledged and
released her sexual self, Alma finds it impossible to
return to what she used to be and in the last scene we find
Alma fulfilling her sexual desires by inviting a traveling

salesman to accompany her to Moon Lake Casino.

Exposure and Blanche Dubois
As Blanche Dubois is faced with possible exposure to

the other character's in St tc , she must becomes aware

of the part of herself she is protecting from exposure.

62

The conciousness of her sexual nature produces the
secondary emotional manifestations of shame that Kaufman
lists as fear, rage, and distress.

Blanche's fear is pervasive throughout the play. In
Blanche's first appearance outside of Stella and Stanley's
house she is described sitting ”. . . very stiffly with her
shoulders slightly hunched and her legs pressed close
together and her hands tightly clutching her purse as if
she were quite cold. . . A cat screeches. She catches her
breath with a startled gesture." She proceeds to find a
whiskey bottle and pour herself a drink saying to herself
“I've got to keep hold of myself!" Finally when Stella
greets her, Blanche ”begins to speak with feverish vivacity
as if she feared for either of them to stop and think"
(250). Blanche is fearful of the exposure of why she had
to leave her hometown of Laurel. She knows that it is
inevitable that Stella will ask her why she isn't in Laurel
teaching, and the truth, is shameful for Blanche and must
be protected at all costs.

The threat of exposure becomes increasingly dangerous
and inevitable as the play progresses. In the scene where
Stanley asks Blanche if she knows anyone named Shaw,
Blanche becomes fearful of exposure. Stanley at this point
in the play has heard from an acquaintance the true story
of why Blanche left Laurel. A.man named Shaw happened to
be one of Blanche's old sexual liaisons. The stage

directions describing Blanche's actions at this point read:

She speaks lightly but her voice has a note of
fear. . . Blanche closes her eyes as if faint.
Her hand trembles as she lifts the handkerchief
again to her forehead. . . Blanche rises from her
chair. She seems faint; looks about her with an
expression of almost panic (330-31).

Again Williams states that Blanche reacts with fear and

panic. The thought that the sexual side of herself might

actually be exposed is terrifying.

Blanche's fear in this scene builds and builds during
Stella and Blanche's dialogue until finally Blanche asks
what Stella has heard about her. Blanche's reaction is
again one of fear as Williams describes her as spilling her
coke and giving a Epiercing cry" (334).

Stanley double checks his sources about Blanche's past
and ends up with the same results as he did with his
acquaintance Shaw. He comes home with this information
right before Stella is about ready to throw a birthday
party for Blanche. Blanche can sense something in Stanley
as he passes by her on her way out of the bathroom.
Williams writes that a “frightened look appears in her
face, almost a look of panic" (367).

The physical manifestations of shame: eyes down, head
down, eyes averted to the side, and blushing, are
significant as defenses against further shame. The face,
and especially the eyes become a thing to hide. Blanche
exhibits both the physical and emotional reactions to shame
when she is exposed to Mitch. The fear is intensified

when Mitch confronts Blanche with the information he has

received from Stanley. The dialogue reads:

64

BLANCHE:
What’s in your mind? I see something in your
eyes!

MITCH [getting up]:
It's dark in here.

BLANCHE:
I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me.

MITCH:
I don’t think I ever seen you in the light.
[Blanche laughs breathlessly] That's a fact!
(383).
The exposure is becoming immanent to Blanche as she is
fighting to keep Mitch from seeing her in the light. This
will allow him to see her for what she really is.
As the threat of exposure increases, Blanche gives a
laugh that is described as breathless, indicating her fear.

The scene continues a few lines later:

MITCH:
What it means is I've never had a real good look
at you, Blanche. Let's turn the light on here.

BLANCHE [fearfully]:
Light? Which light? What for?

MITCH:
This one with the paper thing on it. [He tears
the paper lantern off the light bulb. She utters
a frightened gasp.]

BLANCHE:
What did you do that for?

MITCH:
So I can take a look at you good and plain!

BLANCHE:
Of course you don't really mean to be insulting!

MITCH:
No, just realistic.

65

BLANCHE:
I don't want realism. I want magic! [Mitch
laughs] Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to
people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't
tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And
if that is sinful, then let me be damned for iti—
Don’t turn the light on!

[Mitch crosses to the switch. He turns the

light on and stares at her. She cries out

and covers her face. He turns the light off

again.]

MITCH [slowly and bitterly]:
I don't mind you being older than what I thought.
But all the rest of it—Christ! That pitch about
your ideals being so old-fashioned and all the
melarkey that you've dished out all summer. Oh,
I knew you weren't sixteen any more. But I was a
fool enough to believe you was straight (384-
385).

This moment of exposure of Blanche's true sexual
nature to Mitch agrees with Kaufman's theory of shame.
Williams writes in the reactions of fear, and of Blanche
trying to cover her face so as not to have to be exposed.
When Mitch stares at Blanche, it is the moment of staring
that makes Blanche cry out and cover her face. Once he has
seen her, once the moment of exposure has occurred, Mitch
knows that what he heard was true, that Blanche isn't
”straight".

In possibly the most powerful scene in the play,
Blanche finally realizes that Stanley knows the truth about
her as well when he proclaims that all her stories are
imagination, lies, conceit and tricks. Again Blanche's
first response is one of fear. Blanche, out of panic,

tries placing a call to Shep Huntley through western union

as Stanley changes into his pajamas. When Stanley emerges

66

Blanche acts as if she is afraid of Stanley and tries to
keep distance between him and herself telling him to stand
far away from her, and to stay back. When Stanley makes
his move towards Blanche, she breaks a bottle in half and
threatens to twist the broken end in his face stating, ”I
warn you, don’t, I'm in danger!” (401). Blanche realizes
that Stanley can and has hurt her the way that she hurt
Allan. Stanley exposes Blanche for what she really is, a

woman who has been consumed by her own desire.

Exposure and Serafina Delle Rose

Serafina expresses fear at the thought of exposure
when she gives the shirt she made for Estelle Hohengarten
to Alvaro for him to wear. The shirt was to be a gift from
Estelle to Serafina's deceased husband and she asks him if
there is a name pinned to the shirt. She states, ”Don't
tell me the name! Throw it away, out the window! . . .
Throw it, throw it away!" (368). Serafina becomes afraid
of the name pinned to the shirt because Estelle represents
the false fidelity of her and Rosario's sexual
relationship.

In a conversation with Serafina, Father Del Leo
refuses to tell her that her husband did have an affair
with Estelle because of the sanctity and confidentiality of
confession. Serafina reacts with fear when Father Del Leo
tells her to return to her house. Serafina cannot enter

because she is afraid that she won't be able to breathe due

67

to the tin roof. The memory of her marriage with Rosario,
and the possible infidelity and impurity of their sexual
union is too much for Serafina to face when Father Del Leo
hints at the truthfulness of the accusations.

Serafina reacts with rage when Flora and Bessie expose
the possibility of the impurity of her marriage with
Rosario. The women, fed up with Serafina's pretentious
comments about the purity of her marriage, mention Estelle
Hohengarten. Serafina reacts with a forceful rage chasing
the women out of her house with a broom. First Serafina
states:

SERAFINA [in a terrible voice]:
LiarI-Lie-arrrrr!

[She slams the wooden door shut with a
violence that shakes the walls.] (314).

Then Serafina picks up the broom and the stage directions
read:

Serafina suddenly rushes at them with the broom.
She flails Flora about the hips and shoulders.
Bessie gets out. But Flora is trapped in a
corner. A table is turned over. Bessie,
outside, screams for the police and cries:
’Murder! Murder!'. . . Flora breaks wildly past
the flailing broom and escapes out of the house.
She also takes up the cry for help. Serafina
follows them out. She is flailing the brilliant
noon air with the broom. The two women run off,
screaming] (314-315).

The rage of Serafina continues as Serafina slams the
door and states "(in a crazed manner]: Have me—have me—
arrested—dirty slut—bitch—liar!" (315). This also shows
Serafina using the defense of contempt. By calling the

women sluts, bitches, and liars, Serafina can convince

herself that she is above their accusations, giving their
accusations no merit, and allowing her to continue her
denial.

Serafina at one point has no more energy to react with
rage or fear and finally is able to cry. After Serafina
attacks the priest with rage for his implications at the
infidelity of Rosario, Serafina exhibits the secondary
reaction of distress:

She returns slowly to the porch steps and sinks
down on them, sitting like a tired man, her knees
spread apart and her head cupped in her hands. .
. . She starts up with a cry . . . . She sinks
back down on the steps, then leans back, staring
up at the sky, her body rocking (347).

The final exposure of the truth to Serafina happens
with the phone call to Estelle that Alvaro prompts her to
make. Serafina begins her emotional response with the
secondary reaction of fear. “Serafina holds the phone away
from her as though it had burst into flame. Then, with a
terrible cry, she hurls it to the floor. She staggers
dizzily toward the Madonna." (392). The fear quickly turns
to rage, and the rage motivates her action of placing a
knife in her purse so that she can go and kill Estelle.

The physical manifestations of shame are very clear in
the stage directions of The Rgse Tarrgg. When Serafina's
sexual evening with Alvaro is exposed to her daughter,
Serafina has to admit to having a sexual relationship that
she has always deemed as shameful.

Don't look at me like that with the eyes of your
father! [She shields her face as from a terrible

69

glare.] . . . [. . . Serafina cannot meet her
daughter’s eyes. . .] . . . [Serafina turns
slowly, shamefully, to face her. She is like a
peasant in the presence of a young princess. . .
] (250).
The tables have turned, as Serafina is afraid her daughter
will judge her the way that she has judged her daughter.
Serafina can no longer stand behind her puritanical
tirades.

Serafina's reconciliation of the puritanical and the
sexual is the result of her attraction to Alvaro. Alvaro
challenges Serafina to contest her view of herself by
finally convincing her of her deceased husband's
infidelity. Serafina's conviction towards the purity of
sexual relationships has been a product of her pride and
belief in the purity of her own marriage. Her faith in
this purity is as strong as her faith in her religion, and
when this faith is shattered with the knowledge of
Rosario's affair with Estelle Hohengarten, she is no longer
subject to her faith and pride.

Serafina temporarily abandons her faith by smashing
the urn containing the ashes of her deceased husband and
blowing out the candles in front of the Madonna. With her
connections to the spiritual world safely cut she invites
Alvaro to spend the night with her. Serafina's shame
returns temporarily when her daughter discovers her affair
but Serafina's spiritual and sensual experience is too

profound for the shame to last for long. She soon

confesses the truth to Rosa and in reconciling her own

70

needs gives her daughter both permission and blessing to go
to her man, Jack. Serafina having found peace between her
body and spirit returns to the Madonna and re-lights the

candle.

Exposure and Reverend Shannon

Shannon's sexual desires, similar to Serafina, are
exposed to others almost at the very beginning of the play.
Shannon's defenses of denial and contempt are so strong
however, that he refuses to face the truth. Unlike

fitrggtggr and S er d Smok , where the tension is driven
by the threat of exposure, the tension in Night of the
iguana, is not for Shannon to be exposed, but for him to

accept his sexual desires as something human and natural.

When Charlotte first appears in Act II Shannon tries
to remove himself from the situation, and from shame by
ducking quickly into his cubicle and slamming the door.
When he finally comes out ”. . . he emerges from his
cubicle like a man entering a place of execution. He leans
against the wall, mopping the sweat off his face with a
handkerchief)" (Iguana 296). First Shannon defends against
the exposure by hiding, but as exposure is inevitable,
Shannon displays fear of further exposure by acting as if
he is ”entering a place of execution."

Shannon displays a mixture of fear, distress, and rage
‘when Miss Fellowes calls him a defrocked minister, exposing

the truth of Shannon's sexuality:

71

Miss Fellowes, don't, don't, don't . . . do what
. . . you're doing! [He is on the verge of
hysteria, he makes some incoherent sounds,
gesticulates with clenched fists, then stumbles
wildly across the verandah and leans panting for
breath against a post.) Don't! Break! Human!
Pride! (Iguana 276).
By being called a defrocked minister Shannon feels that his
pride will be broken because it labels him as something he
feels is inferior or shameful. Later, Miss Fellowes again
calls hbm a defrocked minister and again Shannon reacts
‘with a mixture of fear, rage and distress. The stage
directions read, ”(His voice stops oddly with a choked
sobbing sound. He runs at the wall and pounds it with his
fists]" (Iguana 337).

Shannon's most disturbing reaction towards exposure is
rage. Shannon and Charlotte reveal that immediately
following the sex act, Shannon strikes his partners and
then forces them to pray with him. Charlotte describes the
moment after their encounter; “Yes, I remember that after
making love to me you hit me, Larry, you struck me in the
face, and you twisted my arm to make me kneel on the floor
and pray with you for forgiveness" (Iguana 298). The
initial rage is followed by a defense to prevent against
further shaming. The act of praying symbolizes Shannon’s
need to purify himself as he strives for perfection.

The constant attacks by Miss Fellowes that expose
Shannon's sexual behavior soon become too much for Shannon

and he responds with rage by running down the hill and

urinating on the luggage of the Baptist women. The

72

exposure becomes one Shannon can no longer defend against.
His rage becomes combined with distress and fear soon after
as Shannon tries to rip the cross off of his neck, cutting
himself, and then heads for the ocean in order to swim to
China to kill himself. At this point there must be a
resolution in Shannon or the shame will lead him to destroy
himself.

Shannon gets tied up in a hammock so that he can't
hurt himself further. Mirroring Shannon's captivity is an
iguana that is tied up underneath the verandah. The iguana
serves the same function as the animal images in other
plays by Williams. The iguana, a resident of the jungle,
is symbolic of primitive sexual desire. While Shannon and
Hannah spend the evening together, trying to resolve
Shannon's conflict, they discuss resolving the conflict of
the iguana by setting it free. By the time that the iguana
is set free, Shannon himself is no longer tied up in the
hammock and his ”primitive" nature, or sexual desires, are
set free as well. Shannon states, “we'll play God tonight
like kids play house with old broken crates and boxes. All
right? Now Shannon is going to go down there with his
machete and cut the damn lizard loose so it can run back to
its bushes because God won't do it and we are going to play
God here" (370).

Shannon at this point realizes that God can't set him
free either. The idealized higher existence that he strove

for in religion can never be reached. He resolves, with

the help of Hannah, to accept the sexual nature within
himself at the same time that Nonno finishes and recites
his poem about acceptance.

After Hannah describes the two sexual encounters she
has had in her life Shannon asks her if she was disgusted
by them. Hannah responds by saying ”Nothing human disgusts
me unless it's unkind, violent" (363—364). With Hannah’s
admission Shannon realizes that the higher plane of
existance he has been striving for can be reached through
acceptance. Hannah's acceptance of Shannon, and her
respect for him despite his unadmirable characteristics,
allows Shannon to make a connection with Hannah. This
connection with another human being, coupled with
acceptance, allows Shannon to reconcile his shame for
sexuality. Shannon can now accept himself and decides to

stay at the hotel with Maxine.

74

Conclusion

A much deeper understanding of the puritanical/sexual
conflict present in the life and plays of Tennessee
Williams can be gained by applying Kaufman's theory of
shame. Kaufman defines shame as the feeling a person
experiences when something inherent about them is felt to
be inferior, deficient, or morally wrong. Tennessee
Williams was a gay man at a time in our culture when to be
gay was to be immoral. The puritanical influences upon
Williams' life, both in the culture and in his family, led
him to judge his sexuality as an inferiority. As an
inferiority, Williams' sexuality produced in him the
complex emotion of shame.

Examining the conflict in terms of shame allows for an
understanding in terms of emotion. Emotions are something
that all people have in common. Emotions are what bring us
together or tear us apart. Emotions are what motivate us
to action. Shame is an emotion that everyone can
understand. Perhaps this is the answer to why Williams'
dramas have always experienced such profound success.

Everyone that sees a play by Williams may not be able
to fully empathize with a conflict between a puritanical

value system and sexual desires, however, everyone can

75

empathize with the universal feeling of shame, or the
feeling that something within you is inferior. we all know
what it is like to fear exposure of our inferiorities, to
defend against them, hide them, or react with fear,
distress, or rage when the inferiority is exposed.

Not everybody would react to shame like Blanche does
by breaking a bottle to twist in Stanley's face, but we do
understand the importance of proving to ourselves and to
others that we are not inferior. In a culture that values
strength, we all need to feel worthy and defend against
people seeing our faults. So we understand the intense
emotions of the characters as they almost frantically
defend their pride and self worth. We understand the fear
of exposure of something that is not only not valued, but
at times, as Tennessee Williams must have felt, is immoral
or illegal.

The scope of this thesis did not permit investigation
into the impact of shame on other writings by Williams. The
puritanical/sexual conflict, and the shame associated with
sexuality, could be examined in other plays by Williams, as
well as'Willimms' poetry, novels, and short stories.
Besides the shame associated with the puritanical/sexual
conflict, it would also be interesting to look at the role
of shame in ageing. For example in fiyggt_fiirg_9f_19uth,
both Chance and Princess have lost their youth. The shame.

of ageing motivates many of the character’s actions.

76

As this thesis shows, much can be gained by examining
Williams' work from a psychological perspective. Further
studies could be done applying psychological theories or
clinical studies to drama. Applying disciplines other than

psychology to Williams' work can produce valuable insights

into Williams' plays.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kaufman, Gershen, Ph. D., and Lev Raphael, Ph.D. Coming Out
of Sham : Transforming Gav and Lesbian Lives. New
York: Doubleday, 1996.

---. SHAME: The Power of Caring. Cambridge: Schenkman
Publishing Company, Inc., 1985.

Leverich, Lyle. TOM: The Unknown Tennessee Williams. New

York: The Modern Language Association of America,
1995.

Savran, David. Communists, Cowpgye, and Qgeere: The
Pelitics of Masculinity in the Work of Arthur Miller

ang Tennessee Williams. Minneapolis, London:
University of Minnesota Press, 1992.

Spoto, Donald. The Kindness Of Strengegs; The Life of
Tennessee Williams. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and

Company, 1985.

Tischler, Nancy M. Tenneesee Williams: Rebellious Eggitan.
New York: The Citadel Press, 1961.

Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tengessee Willieme.

7 vols. New York: New Directions Books, 1971.

 

--—. emeirs. New York: Doubleday & Company Inc.,
1972.