A Study Guide for Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

The very title of Sweet Bird of Youth is one of ironic pity. The two chief characters--a raddled has-been actress from Hollywood, seeking to forget her present in drugs and sex, and her still handsome masseur-gigolo, who has brought her to his hometown in the South, believing that through her money and faded glamor his gaudy illusions may yet come true--are the reverse side of the American dream of youth. Yet as they work out their fate amid violence and horror, there is nevertheless a note of compassion for the damned.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Tennessee Williams, considered to be among the three foremost playwrights of twentieth-century American drama. Titles in this study guide include A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, and The Glass Menagerie. As playwright of the twentieth-century, Tennessee Williams’ plays uncovered a world of grievance in which violence and sex lay just below the surface of romantic glamour. Moreover, his works displayed that simpler times are not always simple, they are simply clearer in hindsight. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Tennessee Williams’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

THE STORY: Kerr, in the NY Herald-Tribune, describes: This, says Mr. Williams through the most sympathetic voice among his characters, 'is a true story about the time and the world we live in.' He has made it seem true--or at least curiously and su

THE STORY: The play reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche du Bois, a woman whose life has been undermined by her romantic illusions, which lead her to reject--so far as possible--the realities of life with which she is faced and which s

Sketch which developed into 'Sweet bird of youth'.