27 Waggons Full of Cotton
ENGL 650
American Drama in the 20th Century
Instructor:
Author:
Date:
27 Wagons Full of Cotton as a Collection of Ideas for
Williams' Three Masterpieces
1 INTRODUCTION
Tennessee Williams early work such as his second collection of one-act plays 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (written between 1939 and 1945) is unknown to most readers. It was not before the publication of The Glass Menagerie in 1945 that Williams earned public attention. Why has 27 Wagons Full of Cotton been obscured by the success of his later work ?
Compared to his more famous and popular plays such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Summer and Smoke (1948), his one-acters seem to be considered markedly inferior to his later work. Both his characters especially the female ones - and the plots of these early plays are not fully elaborated as can be said about his later plays, in which he perfects his females. Therefore, this early work is rightly neglected as mere exercises in creating characters and themes for his famous and much more elaborated later work: The one-act plays that will be examined more closely in this paper barely present a picture, much like a still-frame or a captured moment, but nothing much happens as regards the action or development. Yet, many themes that Williams would later refine and develop further, are raised for the first time these plays. It seems as if this early conglomeration of short plays serves as a collection of ideas that he could later return to draw ideas from in order to use them as starting points in his long plays. In fact, already in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton he touches upon significant issues that will earn him fame and popularity in his later years.
Williams himself even admits a kind of self-plagiarizing: My longer plays emerge out of earlier one-acters and short stories...I work them over and over again"1
As his longer plays such as ASND, SAS, and TGM are by far considered his best work, I
American Drama in the 20th Century
Instructor:
Author:
Date:
27 Wagons Full of Cotton as a Collection of Ideas for
Williams' Three Masterpieces
1 INTRODUCTION
Tennessee Williams early work such as his second collection of one-act plays 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (written between 1939 and 1945) is unknown to most readers. It was not before the publication of The Glass Menagerie in 1945 that Williams earned public attention. Why has 27 Wagons Full of Cotton been obscured by the success of his later work ?
Compared to his more famous and popular plays such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Summer and Smoke (1948), his one-acters seem to be considered markedly inferior to his later work. Both his characters especially the female ones - and the plots of these early plays are not fully elaborated as can be said about his later plays, in which he perfects his females. Therefore, this early work is rightly neglected as mere exercises in creating characters and themes for his famous and much more elaborated later work: The one-act plays that will be examined more closely in this paper barely present a picture, much like a still-frame or a captured moment, but nothing much happens as regards the action or development. Yet, many themes that Williams would later refine and develop further, are raised for the first time these plays. It seems as if this early conglomeration of short plays serves as a collection of ideas that he could later return to draw ideas from in order to use them as starting points in his long plays. In fact, already in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton he touches upon significant issues that will earn him fame and popularity in his later years.
Williams himself even admits a kind of self-plagiarizing: My longer plays emerge out of earlier one-acters and short stories...I work them over and over again"1
As his longer plays such as ASND, SAS, and TGM are by far considered his best work, I