A Rose for Tennessee Williams

This essay analyzes different versions of a major plot and its characters created and rewritten by Tennessee Williams between the 1930 and 1970 decades, verifying in which ways formal and thematic adaptations and changes made in different historical moments correspond to social changes that took place in the US in each specific period. Three plays are here analyzed: 27 wagons full of cotton (1946), The unsatisfactory supper or The long stay cut short (1946) and Tiger Tail (1976), as well as the screenplay Baby Doll (1955) and the short story “Twenty-seven wagons full of cotton” (1936).