Critical Essays on

edited by ROBERT A. MARTIN

G. K. Hall & Co. An Imprint of Simon & Schuster Macmillan New York

Prentice Hall International London Mexico City New Delhi Singapore Sydney Toronto General Editor's Note xi Publisher's Note xiii Acknowledgments xv Plays and Short-Story Collections xvii Introduction 1 ROBERT A. MARTIN

REVIEWS

The Glass Menagerie (1945) .-\ [From the New York Journal-American] 19 \ ROBERT GARLAND ' [From the New York Sun] 21 WARD MOREHOUSE

[From the New York World-Telegram] 23

BURTON RASCOE \^y'

A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) [From the New York Sun] 25 WARD MOREHOUSE [From the New York World-Telegram] 27 WILLIAM HAWKINS [From New York PM] 29 Louis KRONENBERGER

VII viii • CONTENTS

Summer and Smoke (1948) [From the New York Journal-American] 31 ROBERT GARLAND

[From the New York Sun] 33

WARD MOREHOUSE

The Rose Tattoo (1951) [From the New York Daily Mirror] 35 ROBERT COLEMAN [From the New York Journal-American] 37 JOHN MCCLAIN

[From the New York World-Telegram and The Sun] 39

WILLIAM HAWKINS

Camino Real (1953) [From the New York Journal-American] 41 JOHN MCCLAIN [From the New York World-Telegram and The Sun] 43

WILLIAM HAWKINS

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) [From the New York Daily Mirror] 45 ROBERT COLEMAN [From the New York Journal-American] Al JOHN MCCLAIN

[From the New York World-Telegram and The Sun] 49

WILLIAM HAWKINS

Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) [From the New York World-Telegram and The Sun] 51 FRANK ASTON [From the New York Daily Mirror] 5 3

ROBERT COLEMAN

The Night of the Iguana (1961) [From the New York Journal-American] 55 JOHN MCCLAIN [From the New York World-Telegram and The Sun] 57 NORMAN NADEL CONTENTS • ix

Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980) [From the New York Times] 59 WALTER KERR

VIEWS The Circle Closed: A Psychological Reading of and The Two Character Play i 65 R. B. PARKER Realism and Theatricalism in 83 MARY ANN CORRIGAN The Grotesque Children of 94 LELAND STARNES

Williams and theNBroadway Audience: The Revision of \ 107 BRENDA MURPHY Blanche DuBois arid Maggie the Cat: Illusion and Reality in Tennessee Williams 119 DlANNE CAFAGNA The Rebirth of 132 KIMBALL KING j , Monologues and Mirrors in 143 THOMAS P. ADLER Period of Adjustment: High Comedy Over a Cavern 152 GERALD WEALES Apparent Sophoclean Echoes in Tennessee Williams's Night of the Iguana 163 HELEN E. MORITZ Sexual Imagery in Tennessee Williams' Kingdom of Earth 172 FOSTER HIRSCH When Ghosts Supplant Memories: Tennessee Williams' Clothes for a Summer Hotel 175 THOMAS P. ADLER

OVERVIEWS Tennessee Williams: The Idea of a "Plastic Form" /191 ESTHER MNJACKSON ( x • CONTENTS

The Three Halves of Tennessee Williams's World 209 JORDAN Y MILLER Memory, Dream, and Myth in the Plays of Tennessee Williams 221 MARY ANN CORRIGAN Tennessee Williams: Dramatist of Frustration 234 JOHN GASSNER Tennessee Williams and the Predicament of Women 243 LOUISE BLACKWELL Accepting Reality: Survivors and Dreamers in Tennessee Williams 249 WALTER J. MESERVE Tennessee Williams' Gallery of Feminine Characters 259 DURANT DA PONTE The Search for Hope in the Plays of Tennessee Williams 276 DELMA EUGENE PRESLEY Late Tennessee Williams 286 RUBY COHN Death As Metaphor 295 NANCY M. TISCHLER

Index 305