Dell'Amico is an instructor of English literature and composition. In this essay, Dell'Amico discusses major symbols in Williams's play.

As Philip C. Kolin observes in Tennessee Williams: A Tribute, The Rose Tattoo is "an experiment in comedy," a blending of many comedic traditions. Slapstick, farcical, and bawdy elements are predominant, as the play is a strung together series of ridiculous events revolving around Serafina Delle Rose, a woman whose major preoccupation is her handsome husband's virility. Williams's play is a comic celebration of what the ancient Greeks or Romans would call the Dionysian elements of life, a celebration of eros, creative intoxication, virility, and regeneration. The play also celebrates fertility, however, and so Williams adds to the Greco-Roman mix.

Williams's idiosyncratic and playful experiment stands out within the context of his work as a whole, as most of his other plays are serious dramas shot through with...