SOURCE: Hurley, Paul J. “Williams' ‘Desire and the Black Masseur’: An Analysis.” Studies in Short Fiction 2, no. 1 (fall 1964): 51-5.

In the following essay, Hurley views “Desire and the Black Masseur” as an allegory of spiritual masochism.

That Tennessee Williams' plays have been more successful than his fiction has brought about a curious situation. Because his dramas have elicited so much (usually violent) critical controversy, his stories have remained relatively unnoticed. But readers of his novel, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, and his two collections of short stories, One Arm and Hard Candy, seem to agree that his fiction is often as penetrating (or shocking, depending on one's point of view) as his dramatic works. The student of Williams' plays finds criticisms of the dramas in great quantity, but the reader of his stories searches in vain for judicious analyses.¹ The answer may simply be, of course, that...