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Thesis: The outcasts in Tennessee Williams's major plays suffer, not because of the acts or situations which make them outcasts but because of the destructive effect of conventional morality upon them. More than a half century has passed since ....

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... but necessary. My dissertation will reexamine Williams's work in light of his claim that "plays in the tragic tradition offer us a view of certain moral values in violent juxtaposition" (The Rose Tattoo 151). Williams's plays outline a struggle between the moral values of non-conformists, who are outcasts because they can not, or will not, conform to the values of the dominant culture, and of conformists, who represent that culture. The outcast characters in Tennessee Williams's major plays do not suffer because of the actions or circumstances that make them outcast but because of the destructive impact of conventional morality upo ...