Expressionism

• Expressionist style had a significant impact on American Drama of the 1920’s and 1930’s.

• Expressionist artist Paul Klee noted that '‘Art does not seek to reproduce the visible, it makes visible the invisible’’ and what expressionist art seeks to render, whether on canvas or in words, is the human being’s inner life.

• Williams had developed Expressionism to express his universal themes.

• The use of props, noises and/or stage directions, conveys the character’s states of mind on stage, thus, the stage of Blanche’s mind, emotions and memories are conveyed by dramatic devices.

• Expressionist theatre is symbolic, non-realist and a metaphorical theatre that suggests poetic truths.

• Williams created a highly personalised vision of the world that included distorted images symbolising Blanche’s inner psychological states.