Male Prostitution in "Sweet Bird of Youth"

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that male prostitution has two contradictory meanings in Tennessee Williams' play: It symbolizes corruption on the one hand, but at the same time, it symbolizes "love-making" as opposed to hatred and intolerance. The paper looks at how Williams makes prostitution a token of corruption and how he advocates that this pagan state is actually the natural condition of man. The paper also discusses how the castration of the character of Chance can be interpreted both as a just punishment for prostitution as well as a crime against the natural state of man, in which the primitive instincts reign.

From the Paper:

"At a first glance, William seems to imply merely that "guilt is universal", as he says in the forward to the play, and that all men are equally sinful and corrupted. It is very difficult to say if the scale tips in the play in favor of sexual freedom or in favor of abstention. The two extreme poles of interpretation, that is prostitution as corruption or as a mere token of love making, are caught in the mixed symbolism of the play, which is partially Christian and partially pagan. (Mitchell, 209) Thus, in the first place, the male prostitute Chance Wayne is a corrupted and egotistical man, who deceives himself with his two impossible dreams: to be a Hollywood film star and to marry the ideal Southern belle, appropriately named Heavenly. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Butters, Ronald R. and John M. Clum, Michael Moon. Displacing Homophobia: Gay Male Perspectives in Literature and Culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 1989
• Crandell, George W. The Critical Response to Tennessee Williams. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996.
• King, Kimball. "Tennessee Williams: A Southern Writer." The Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 48, 1995.
• Kolin, Philip K. ed. Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.
• Mitchell, Tom. "The Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia." Theatre History Studies, Vol. 25, 2005

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