English Literature 9695

Sweet Bird of Youth: Heavenly

Q. Discuss the Role and Function of Heavenly.

Tennessee Williams is a daring playwright. He explores issues rarely talked about during his time. Issues that people often shy away from. So, when he presented 'Sweet Bird of Youth' it was received with mixed feelings. This play reflects the society of his time that was perhaps filled with racism, sexism and hypocrisy. These reflections are illustrated through the characters in this play, one of them being Heavenly.

Williams first introduces Heavenly to his audience through Chance's mention of her in his conversation with Scudder. He is shown to refer to her as 'his girl' which confuses the audience who know he has another girl with him in the room that was clearly not Heavenly. Later when she is introduced to the audience we see that she is a beautiful, graceful woman and is considered by her father as a symbol of purity but ironically she is infected by a disease portrayed to have been transferred to her through Chance. Her character brings attention to hypocrisy that is perhaps evident throughout the play and perceives how youth is negatively affected due to the decisions of the elders. This is shown through her conversation with Boss, she is shown to talk of how if Boss had not kept her from marrying Chance she would not have been diseased and her youth would perhaps not have been taken away from her.

Compared to Heavenly, Williams has portrayed Alexandra as a stronger character. Unlike Heavenly she is allowed to decide her own destiny. She is shown to follow her dreams and achieve her goals by the end of the novel while poor Heavenly is presented to be rejected allowance to marry whom she wants in exchange for the power her father thirsts for. Chance and Heavenly are illustrated in a similar light, they both love each other but they are separated by cast difference and a hypocritical, harsh society. Neither of them get a happy ending, Chance gets castrated while Heavenly, who is already shown to be infertile, is exposed and humiliated in public. They both are displayed as people who have lost their youth and have perhaps now run out of chances. Here it is perhaps determined that gender does not play as large of a role in one's life as the society one grows up in does. Heavenly and Alexandra are both women yet with different lives as they grew up in contrasting cultures, meanwhile Chance is a male, born in a male dominant society and yet due to his social standing he is perhaps not considered an equal by the men in this play but rather like a pest that needs to be terminated.

The first detail the audience notice about Heavenly is perhaps how her character is not portrayed as a strong one. Williams has perhaps just used her as a stepping stone to keep the play in motion and has perhaps presented her solely as a symbolic figure. Due to this we do not get to see much development in Heavenly's character, instead we witness how she is used and humiliated from the beginning of the play till the end and even when she is shown to revolt she is met by threats towards Chance's life and is forced to oblige to her father in order to save Chance. Perhaps the only development one can see is how she went from a happy youthful girl to a lifeless unhappy woman. Yet, her feelings for Chance are perhaps throughout the play the same as they were during their youth.

Williams has represented Heavenly as a symbol of faded youth, and the irony of a 'heaven' created by the upper-class people where only those who they deem pure are allowed to entire. Meanwhile this heaven rots inside, being full of impurities, such as corruption, that are produced by the very people living in it. She symbolises the shattered dreams of youth considering the hopes she and Chance had of having a future together were crushed by the society. Heavenly and Boss's relationship represents the upperclass who decide who their children marry on the bases of wealth, class and benefit ignoring their feelings and thus leading towards broken relationships and emotionally broken people. It brings the audience's attention towards the unfairness of society and the true nature of those having power over the media and the public as Williams has presented the characters in such a way that perhaps the audience either sympathise with them or condemn their actions; either way the audience is allowed to dwell over this message and take in account the responsibility of ones actions.