The Story Archive

Suddenly Last Summer

Tennessee Williams · 1958 CE · Play · Modern / American · Contemporary

In a New Orleans garden grown to resemble the world before men, a wealthy widow offers to endow a hospital if its young surgeon will operate on her niece, who has been saying things about how the widow's son died abroad last summer. The girl is brought from the asylum, given an injection, and asked to tell it once more with the family listening. Williams wrote it while in analysis and never denied how close the threatened operation sat to his sister's.

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Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalGothicTragedy
Theme
MadnessDeath & MortalityGuilt & ConscienceAppearance vs RealityPower & Corruption
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
The Great MotherInnocent
Plot structure
ConfessionFrame Narrative
Symbol / motif
The GardenThe SunThe Beast
Conflict
vs Personvs Self
Mode / tone
GothicTragicLyrical
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues