序
Acknowledgements
中文题要
Abstract
Introduction
Ⅰ. Timeless Oedipal revolts
Ⅱ. Social Oedipal revolutions since the mid-19th
century
Ⅲ. Hopes of redemption
Ⅳ. Tennessee Williams as a modernist dramatist
Ⅴ. Tennessee''s complex relationship with his own father C.
C.
Ⅵ. The father in Williams'' theatre
Chapter 1 The Glass Menagerie: The Post''Patricide Existential
Anarchy
Ⅰ. Timeless Oedipal revolts
Ⅱ. The disjointed world as a result of the absence of the
father
Ⅲ. Absence of the father as an expression of bitter
disillusionment
Chaoter 2 A Streetcar Named Desire: The Dead Father as a
Toxic Legacy
Ⅰ. Blanche''s visitation and her tragic ending
Ⅱ. Return of the dead father and his re-death--a
metaphorical reading
Ⅲ. Cultural significance of the father''s loss: decline of
the degraded Apollonian rule and the old Europe
Chapter 3 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: The Glorious Comeback of the
Father as a Tribute to American Pragmatism
Ⅰ. Maggie--the Cat on the hot tin roof
Ⅱ. Brick--the melancholic prince
Ⅲ. The father''s saving grace and the "brick-wall-breaking
operation"
Ⅳ. A dramatized tribute to King Big Daddy and his
America
Chapter 4 The Night of the Iguana : Communication and Mutual
Help Replacing the Quest for the Father
Ⅰ. Everyone is hell and is in hell
Ⅱ. Everyone can be someone''s angel
Ⅲ. Williams'' attempt to liquidate his old self
Ⅳ. Communicative rationality as the saving grace right at
hand
Ⅴ. Dethroned father figure integrated into the cycle of
redemption
Conclusion
Bibliography