‘Sweet Bird of Youth\' – Study Guide PDF

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Summary

These revision notes are A* at A Level, providing rich and extensive critical analysis of the poem. These notes go beyond A Level, noting insightful points for different aspects of the poem, namely the language, structure, themes, rhyme and imagery. They cover the whole poem in immense detail and ar...

Description

‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ by Tennessee Williams STUDY GUIDE CONTENT:  Setting  Narrative Style: - Symbolism - Form - Plastic Theatre

 Themes: -

Youth Escaping Reality/ Denial Love Purity & Corruption, Hypocrisy American Dream Societal Comments Crushed Dreams Sex

 Characters: -

Chance Wayne Princess Boss Finley Heavenly Tom Junior

Setting ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ was written in the late 1950s – to be precise it was first published in 1959 – and the action takes place in two settings – with the exclusion of the cocktail lounge - over the course of one day… A hotel room: This infers Chance and Princess hide away in their imaginary bubble of untouched perfection – which Williams mocks by making the town be named ‘St. Cloud’ as the scale to which their selfinduced deception has led them, to live in the clouds -, as the anonymity of a hotel room allows one to reinvent themselves, as the two characters insist on vehemently by keeping the shutters closed. Given this impersonal setting and how it hosts half of the play, it underscores the kind of life Chance now leads, full of temporary – unwelcome – stays. The choice of setting may have been strategical, enabling Williams to have a central place where Chance may run into people that he used to know which is unfortunate for Chance given that Boss Finley wants to castrate him for wronging his daughter, Heavenly. This depicts the idea of it being very possible for people to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, if Boss captures Chance he is doomed. Williams hones in on this early in the play: in Act 1, Scene 2 Chance talks of being shot and “the excitement and glory of being Chance Wayne would go up in smoke”. Using Chance’s experience in war, Tennessee Williams communicates his opinions on chance: the fate of one’s existence is conditioned by coincidence of circumstance – you may step to the right and receive a fatal blow, or you may duck and confront illness and disease; you may stand on the wrong side of history and pay for it with your life; time may not grate on you by ageing you, but perhaps you may stop for a split second in war and face death right on. The playwright alludes to the randomness and merciless allocation of history, time and place. The terrace of Boss Finley in Act 2: This denotes how Boss Finley cares more about his external image, spending all the time performing to project a positive image to the outside, and shunning his interior issues which are more pressing. All these settings emphasise a specific time and place: the South during the 1950s when racial and class tensions were still high, what with the Jimmy Crow laws being repealed but characters like Boss Finley refusing to accept this enforced integration in their hometowns.

Narrative Style Tennessee Williams repeatedly withholds truths and facts from us with many characters where he lets them give their point of view only to be shattered by the omitted pieces of information other characters later fill in. This is most apparent with Chance, Boss Finley and Princess. The playwright may do this to give them a voice first, but also to show us one’s reality is the other’s fantasy. We see gradually that each thing Chance claims is not strictly true – Chance says he is a talented actor but Aunt Nonnie reveals Chance actually forgot his lines at the acting competition – and his lies crumble revealing to the audience that, just like how all the walls are not actually there, neither are his glowing achievements he claims he has. Instead, the glaring reality of his failures astound the reader. This creates the dramatic effect of whilst simultaneously building himself up, Chance’s persona is ripped apart in our eyes by the end when finally, the true Chance Wayne. As for Princess, we see her reality is, in contrast to Chance’s, actually brighter than he idealised world, showing how imagination can go both ways. She had over-exaggerated her fall of grace and suffered a lot because of it, showing how whichever way, you can’t spiral too far off roads of real life. Moreover, this contrast between Chance and Princess’ failure and success illustrates the cutthroat tendency of the ‘American Dream’ being at someone else’s expense – she does not mention him in the phone call which elevates her back to the triumphant set of scales, letting him sink down on the opposite ones. This holding back of the facts can be another interpretation of how the walls fade from view: “(The walls have now disappeared)” / “(Walls are only suggested)”. Williams may infer that the walls are the characters’ lies blocking our view of reality: the truth is unveiled to us by the end of the play, which is why the walls of deception dissolve. Chance’s and Princess’ lies crumble to the ground and so too does the wool Williams had pulled over our eyes – by the end we clearly see the characters’ truths and how easy it is to fall prey to our own lies that act as protection from the real picture and how sometimes we realise this when it is too late. Through Chance’s tragic end the writer seems to advise us to not commit the same errors Chance did and instead to resist drowning in one’s own lies and face the truth as Princess does.

SYMBOLISM Act 2, Scene 1 - “(Boss throws down his cane and grabs her.)” We never see Boss Finley without a cane - this prop a symbol of weakness and age - which he masks with money and violence. However, by implementing the cane Tennessee Williams suggests Finley’s ideals and what he stands for are no longer enough to support him, himself and his immoral principles are on their last legs quite literally. Nevertheless, he “throws” this inference away, resisting the pull of human nature and fighting against these rapidly changing norms with violence – “grabs”. Boss Finley to Heavenly - “You’re going to march in the ballroom on my arm.” This event resembles almost a wedding except she is marrying her father’s aspirations instead of love of her life and the marriage does not represent love but blind hatred and rejection of any bond other than that of oneself with a very similar looking and thinking double. This quotation builds the anticipation of the night, giving it weight as if something will be settled permanently like a seal of Heavenly and Chance’s doomed future, destined to never unite. This result is all the more harrowing by the suggestion of what could have been the happiest ending – marriage – but is instead the worst, it is Boss Finley’s ultimate clamp on her freedom: we note with resignation that he will never give her away.

FORM Act 1, Scene 1 Princess - “You talk too much. You ask too many questions. I need something quick.” Princess uses quick short sentences to convey her underlying insecurities and the urgency for release; the repetition of “too” sounds like she is working herself up into a frenzy. She wants the truth interrogations over, she is clipped and closed off to the world – evasive. Act 2, Scene 1 Boss Finley - “Tried to compete, make himself big as these big shots you wanted to use me for a bond with. He went. He tried.” The implementation of short sentences illustrates how quickly Boss Finley discards Chance, and the long sentences show how hard and long Chance has tried. Therefore, the structure depicts the difference between Chance’s earnest effort and true love for Heavenly and Boss Finley’s lack of it. Act 2, Scene 2 Chance - “[His laugh is a little too loud]” He is strained and uncomfortable when truth is near, being more and more false perhaps arguing that one’s perception of reality is their truth, not the reality everyone else sees. Also, the fact he takes a “laugh” shows how all the expressions of happiness such as a laugh, a smile are all forced for him – how long has it been this way? Bad things come easy to him, but he has to create good things otherwise they will not exist for him; this sad reality make us wonder if he has ever truly felt happiness since Heavenly and his youth. Through the stage directions “[]” we see the happiness Chance Wayne lacks and his own artificial insertion and generation of it

PLASTIC THEATRE Plastic theatre is the use of props, noises and stage directions to convey a blatant parallel with the characters’ states of mind on stage. Williams uses plastic theatre in ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ for the following reasons. Relies on expressionism (the Sometimes Williams can be search to break with exaggerated by adding unnecessary Williams said he had one aim: ‘a social constructs) detail, such as the patronising “tick closer approach to truth’ of his and symbolism. tock”. This undermines the characters souls, laying out clearly audiences’ intelligence, and can their moods and emotions they try to even seem unrealistic but adds to hide on the screen– “(laugh is the drama like with the “(lament)”. forced/ goes to the window)”.

PLASTIC THEATRE

Williams wanted directors to make full use of all resources of contemporary stage and bind them into an artistic unity conceived by the playwright.

Soft lyricism - Tennessee Williams works out of the ordinary by disassociating from the audience’s language.

Use of stage resources (to generate a theatrical experience greater than realism): - Lighting: “(close the windows)” When Princess come for Chance Props and staging to the interior is “dimmed”, as the lighting is a measure for how much impress upon more abstract reality the characters can see, Chance is still in the dark but ideas. EG: “I intended to Princess’s mask begins to crack when “(five great pearls of light)” stay on the old Spanish gape through. EG: Act 2, Scene 2 “(hot light all alone on stage is Trail… oil wells”. This shows Chance)” He is left alone to face his truth. the desire for wealth of the - Sound: “(church bell tolls)”, signifying Chance’s or someone’s American Dream and the metaphorical death. As sound is heard after something is seen, pillar of wealth, but not in a Williams may suggest death is right around the corner. respectable way. - Music: “(the lament is heard)” whenever there is a shift in the emotional atmosphere, hinting at deep insecurities and hidden scars of the characters resurfacing. Then in the cocktail lounge the song “(Quiereme mucho)” is heard, Chance’s desperate plea for Heavenly’s love. - Props: The Cadillac – false claim of success, actually symbolic of his irresponsibility and inability to support himself; the alcohol and pills of deception some characters take to indulge their mental disturbances.

Themes YOUTH From the title youth is portrayed as a sweet bird that will soon fly away: it is fleeting, taking love, youth and happiness with it. Youth affects many characters in different ways… Chance: - He is obsessed with Heavenly which may be because she is a symbol of his youth: if he gets back with her he will feel nothing has changed and the idea of being a famous actor is still a possibility. She is also symbolic of his promise he has lost along the way in time. - He builds up in his mind a wonderful past he thought he had but we slowly realise as Aunt Nonnie reveals that it was just a fantasy of an idealistic youth that simply did not exist. - All others learn and accept except Chance that ageing and time are unavoidable parts of life. Heavenly: She states her youth was cut out of her - “Scudder’s knife cut the youth out of my body, made me an old childless woman. Dry, cold, empty, like an old woman.” - and we see by her accounts not blurred by Chance’s ideal that it was short and anything but sweet. Princess: - Fears ageing especially as Hollywood favours the young – Tennessee Williams can be criticising acting and jobs that require good looks and youth and accuses them of having the effect of obsession over youth. - She relishes her temporary victory and knows she will eventually be tossed aside by Hollywood due to age. Boss: All his political pledges are to reverse desegregation – to turn back time in a way. He tries to rewind the past too by giving Heavenly a hysterectomy and trying to rectify it by giving Chance one.

YOUTH QUOTES Act 1, Scene 1 “(slightly thinning blond hair)” “(Shadows of birds sweep the blind)” Chance “Nobody’s young anymore…” “Nobody can get old” He is stuck in limbo and rejection. Boss Finley “You’re going to be wearing the stainless white of a virgin” Image is just good enough for him, it does not need to be real, he is deluding himself. Princess talks about her retirement as an actress “At some point in your life, the thing that you lived for is lost or abandoned, and then… you die or find something else” Act 1, Scene 2 Chance “everybody that though I was washed up will see me” Later on in the play: “Once you drop out, it leaves you and goes on without you and you’re washed up.” The constant repetition of this idea throughout the play reflects Chance’s worries: he feels others will see what he truly is… a failure. This is also shown in this idea of being “washed up” – he was unwanted by the sea, and as the sea can be construed as freedom and as the big world of success, he has been rejected by both and been rendered useless to the world. Act 2, Scene 1 Tom Junior comments about Heavenly “She’s lying on the beach like a dead body washed up on it.” Again, another used up, wasted soul and body – the life she could have given birth to gone, just like the life her soul used to possess robbed from her. Chance “To change is to live, Miss Lucy, to live is to change, and not to change is to die.”

The irony lies in the fact that he has not changed, and has therefore been kicked off the cycle of life others lead, left on Youth’s doorstep, homeless and begging for revival. Act 2, Scene 2 Chance “oh, Heavenly, no, but she said yes, and I cried in her arms that night, and didn’t know that what I was crying for was – youth, that would go.” Chance has had a ticking time bomb in the back of his mind, a countdown from when he was that young which he has set himself. Then in his fear to preserve it, he has sped along the process of his loss of youth – is this the effect Heavenly’s loss of ‘purity’ has led him to believe, that he has lost his youth in doing so? Act 3, Scene 1 Princess “to a girl that won’t see you because you put such rot in her body she had to be gutted and hung on a butcher’s hook”

ESCAPING REALITY/ DENIAL This is a big theme in “Sweet Bird of Youth” and very recurrent and familiar to Tennessee Williams, given he was exposed to the desires of escapism exhibited by his schizophrenic sister. Princess does this: she reconstructs her reality and hides her true feelings and wilfully imposes amnesia upon herself to forget her worst memories. Chance does this too, as does each character with their own defence mechanisms, with their own way of coping. In a way, we all construe our own realities to a certain extent, to cushion difficult emotions and events as a way to save ourselves. This recalls Paradise Lost: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n”. You may have it made but your mind is unhappy, or you may be in the worst situation but you make the best of it, as shown by Chance’s enhancement of reality and Princess’ dressing down of hers. A perfect example of the characters’ viewing life from their own, slanted perspective is when Princess (Act 1, Scene 2) will not look at Chance directly and instead states “I can watch you in the mirror”; this portrays a slightly distorted view of how she perceives her life to be, all seen as a reflection of herself and through a second lens which may give off a be in a certain light or angle different to the truth. This brings me on to another concept addressed indirectly in the play: perspective. We wonder why Williams uses dreams and distorted realities, finally realising – as we do when he reveals all facts – Princess is not as ruined as she had first thought: it was instead her own insecurities which made her think so. Chance believed he was way greater than he was in reality – “You came fourth” “I forgot my lines”. Perhaps the playwright does this to denote how everything depends on perspective, as two people may lead the exact same life, and one may be distressed and discontent with life and the other perfectly happy, all because of their perspectives they have taken towards life; this may also be to say that one’s destiny is never fixed, one’s fate is made up along the way, decided by oneself. ESCAPING REALITY QUOTES Act 1, Scene 1 “My vision’s so cloudy!” “One lens cracked.” “Take that splintered lens out before it gets in my eye.”

This is a plea to be saved from herself before she is blinded completely. Chance “Hey, I said a little, not much, not that much!” This is proof of how much Chance tries to modify the amount of reality that filters in. “No mention of death, never, never a word on that odious subject.” Act 1, Scene 2 Princess “as soon as I’ve put on my face” She hides behind a façade, using makeup as a disguise. It is like a veneer or a veil - protection to fortify herself against the world. Princess “Don’t use my name!” “Please shut up, I’m forgetting!” “Squinting into noon’s brilliance” “she cries softly and turns away from the window” Endless possibility of life and death frightens her and she is overwhelmed. Princess “you see this part doesn’t suit you, you just don’t play it well, Chance” Act 2, Scene 1 Heavenly “And Mama was just a front for you” Is love to put someone you love in front of public eye? Uses the disguise of love as a ‘front’. Act 2, Scene 2 Description of Princess: “unzipped” “partially zipped” “thrown on her clothes to escape a building on fire” - She is depicted as erratic, spontaneous, impulsive and courageous. She has seen the blazing reality – “building on fire” – which may be an analogy of her self-destructive sheltered dream and her finally rushing out before it burns her. The “clothes” may imply that they are an armour from reality, getting dressed is her preparation to face the world; the props serve to get her back on track or off the wrong path. Furthermore, the quotations “unzipped” “partially zipped” show she has let her armour slip and is somewhat “opened” to reality, seeing through the cracks and leaving them behind because Chance and possibly her love has yanked her and brought her back to reality – love – or someone else’s failure - has centred her.

LOVE Love is also a contributor to setting people up for crushed hopes and expectations, and Chance Wayne does not know where to stop. This is mainly seen when he is driven to start a life with Heavenly and save their dying love, so here it can be viewed as his love being authentic. However, it could be Chance is destroyed after those unreachable dreams because he aimed too high - he was out to get Heavenly, wealth, fame and everything – so it may be he is simply desperate to retain at least something of his dreams. It also seems that the play gives off a rather loveless feel and the fact that Heavenly and Chance don’t share so much as a scene together can show that the supposed ‘love’ isn’t as real or strong as Chance portrays. Tennessee Williams forces the audience to see their love through his point of view and feel his love but at the same time we, unlike Chance, see it is impossible and given the association of Heavenly with fame appears he just wants to use her a step-up into the showbiz world. Tennessee Williams suggests their happy love life is in the past by only showing us memories of them as a couple, the audience feels pathos for Chance who continues to be blinded by the light of the past. “(bar… barely lit)” Chance “(exits with a few drinks)” – Here Chance is getting closer to reality and does not drink as much - although it’s ever present he manages to distance himself somewhat - when he is in family company (with Aunt Nonnie), the feeling of emptiness he battles with alcohol fades. His relationship with family and links to love makes him not need its substitute: drugs and alcohol. Egocentric love: Despite Princess’s declaration of caring for Chance, as soon as fame crops up she discards their ‘love’, highlighting the flakiness of it all: Act 3, Scene 1 “He doesn’t exist for me now”. Chance is just the asker of the questions - “The light’s...