SOURCE: Grande, Luke M. “Metaphysics of Alienation in Tennessee Williams' Short Stories.” Drama Critique 4, no. 3 (November 1961): 118-22.

In the following essay, Grande argues that humanity's metaphysical alienation is a central theme of Williams's fiction.

Simultaneous with the New York Times advertisements for Tennessee Williams' latest (but short-lived) drama, Period of Adjustment, came prophecies of a new and happier direction to his writing. Such predictions seemed not only premature (especially in light of the rather strained comedy that Period turned out to be and also word that The Night of the Iguana, based on a far-from-hilarious short story, was next due for Broadway consumption), but also, in a sense, ominous; since, despite some critics' objections to his apparently obsessive preoccupation with seamy subjects, it is with his unhappy, fugitive characters that he has provided contemporary American drama with its most serious inquiry into the human predicament.

Tragedy has never...