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Tennessee Williams's Guilt Inspired 'Savior' Doubles

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Date Issued:
2008
Summary:
This thesis documents Thomas Lanier (Tennessee) Williams's treatment of brother/sister relationships in literary works written between 1939 and 1950. Though Williams began by exploiting his troubled relationship with his sister Rose in "The Long Goodbye" and "The Purification," two one-act plays, he revised his treatment of siblings in The Glass Menagerie and the short story "The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin." These works do not merely reveal the writer's transparent guilt and shame at having neglected his sister at moments when he could have helped her, nor do they serve simply to over-write his torrid depictions of similar relationships in the earlier plays. I contend that Williams's intense guilt inspired the creation of literary doubles in both The Glass Menagerie and "The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin," not only to undo in symbolic terms the ways he had previously characterized Rose and her relationship with him and, more importantly, to express his wish that he had done more to help Rose avert her tragic fate.
Title: Tennessee Williams's Guilt Inspired 'Savior' Doubles.
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Name(s): Colegrove, Isaac H.
Low, Jennifer A., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2008
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 64 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This thesis documents Thomas Lanier (Tennessee) Williams's treatment of brother/sister relationships in literary works written between 1939 and 1950. Though Williams began by exploiting his troubled relationship with his sister Rose in "The Long Goodbye" and "The Purification," two one-act plays, he revised his treatment of siblings in The Glass Menagerie and the short story "The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin." These works do not merely reveal the writer's transparent guilt and shame at having neglected his sister at moments when he could have helped her, nor do they serve simply to over-write his torrid depictions of similar relationships in the earlier plays. I contend that Williams's intense guilt inspired the creation of literary doubles in both The Glass Menagerie and "The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin," not only to undo in symbolic terms the ways he had previously characterized Rose and her relationship with him and, more importantly, to express his wish that he had done more to help Rose avert her tragic fate.
Identifier: FA00000906 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Subject(s): Williams, Tennessee,--1911-1983--Criticism and interpretation.
Brothers and sisters in literature.
Doubles in literature.
Split self in literature.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000906
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
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Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.