Introduction 1
Ⅰ．Timeless Oedipal revolts 1
Ⅱ．Social Oedipal revolutions since the mid-19th century 4
Ⅲ．Hopes of redemption 17
Ⅳ．Tennessee Williams as a modernist dramatist 19
Ⅴ．Tennessee's complex relationship with his own father C.C 23
Ⅵ．The father in Williams'theatre 27
Chapter 1 The Glass Menagerie:The Post-Patricide Existential Anarchy 35
Ⅰ．Timeless Oedipal revolts 35
Ⅱ．The disjointed world as a result of the absence of the father 39
Ⅲ．Absence of the father as an expression of bitter disillusionment 52
Chapter 2 A Streetcar Named Desire:The Dead Father as a Toxic Legacy 78
Ⅰ．Blanche's visitation and her tragic ending 80
Ⅱ．Return of the dead father and his re-death—a metaphorical reading 87
Ⅲ．Cultural significance of the father's loss:decline of the degraded Apollonian rule and the old Europe 93
Chapter 3 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof:The Glorious Comeback of the Father as a Tribute to American Pragmatism 120
Ⅰ．Maggie—the cat on the hot tin roof 122
Ⅱ．Brick—the melancholic prince 126
Ⅲ．The father's saving grace and the"brick-wall-breaking operation" 141
Ⅳ．A dramatized tribute to King Big Daddy and his America 153
Chapter 4 The Night ofthe lguana:Communication and Mutual Help Replacing the Quest for the Father 171
Ⅰ．Everyone is hell and is in hell 173
Ⅱ．Everyone can be someone's angel 185
Ⅲ．Williams'attempt to liquidate his old self 191
Ⅳ．Communicative rationality as the saving grace right at hand 202
Ⅴ．Dethroned father figure integrated into the cycle of redemption 219
Conclusion 226
Bibliography 237