Essential to the work of Tennessee Williams is an awareness of what may be termed a tragic conception of life. Although his work eschews theoretical models and he seldom references the term "tragedy" to describe any of his plays, one may nonetheless discern a Poetics of Tragedy at the core of Williams's work. By examining the playwright's own essays on theatre, his lifelong obsession with mental illness, and the prevalence of images of violence, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom in his work, the present essay seeks to identify Williams's tragic poetics. By so doing, this essay reveals how the work of this prolific, uneven, and above all tormented dramatist helps contribute to a new understanding of the meaning of tragic drama in the late twentieth century.
