Books like Three by Tennessee: Sweet Bird of Youth; The Rose Tattoo; The Night of the Iguana

I decided I would write this review with my reaction to each play after I finished each one so my reaction would be fresh and untainted by whatever I happened to read afterwards, so this will be divided into sections.\ Sweet Bird of Youth\ I think Tennessee Williams has such a fantastic way with words. I’ve read three other plays of his, but I was so looking forward to reading more of his stuff this summer and now I have. The foreword to this play explains his desire to write plays about the flaws of humanity, esp. those that he has struggled with at some point or another, but that’s what makes the emotion in his plays so realistic. Even when characters are exaggerated (Princess Kosmonopolis aka Alexandra del Lago), they feel so authentic in their exaggeration. This is a story of searching for youth that is lost, something everyone will battle with at some point, esp. if they are like our two main characters: disappointed in the outcome of their life. I think the ending can be interpreted in many ways since it’s left ambiguous, but that actually almost made the pain more real at the end. Regardless of whether you see the ending as good or bad (in relation to what Williams lays out for the audience), there’s still this somber feeling lingering once you’ve finished.Rating: 3.5 Stars\ The Rose Tattoo\ I am not super ecstatic about this play, but as is mentioned in my review above and in some of my updates. I really just love Tennessee Williams. His writing is amazing. This play deals with the inability to move on from the person you love and loving to the point of excess which is not conducive to one’s own well-being. We see Serafina sink into a depression after her husband dies, staying in denial to the fact that her husband was cheating on her, letting herself waste away in her home as she becomes the laughingstock of the neighborhood, lashing out at others, and keeping the ashes of her husband as a constant reminder of him that never goes away. When she gets a new lover, she becomes the way she once was with her husband, falling in love and giving herself to him completely. It is a love without caution once she has decided she wants to be with him, but even when she is with him, he reminds her of her deceased husband. She even comments that he has a similar body to her husband. Even her daughter is somewhat like this with her own boyfriend (of like a few days) who she falls her completely, running away with him even though he is an older man and she is fifteen. Roses are a big symbol in this play, which makes sense lol, but they are constantly there. The daughter’s name is Rosa, the husband’s name is Rosario, the family’s surname is delle Rose, the husband had a rose tattoo, the lover Serafina eventually gets at the end also gets this rose tattoo and has rose oil in his hair. I mean it’s always there. I thought the use of Italian was a bit excessive, while most of it is like basic stuff that you might be able to work out on your own through context and reading the ambiance of the scene, if you aren’t able to do that, I feel like it would take you out of the scene (and also it’s just excessive lol). Overall, not my favorite work of his, but again, he’s just a great writer, so it’s good enough for me on that front, but if you’re just casually trying to read a play, I would say, pick a different one.Rating: 2 stars\ The Night of the Iguana\ So this is the play I wrote down on the list of books I wanted to read this summer, but when I found that there was a book with 3 of his plays in one, I decided that it would be cool to just read all 3. (This is how I discovered Eugene O’Neill, another playwright I love and will be reading a play of soon. There was a collection of 3 of his plays, which I HIGHLY enjoyed.) It’s funny because this is the play I was most looking forward to and this one let me down the most. I may need to revisit it, but honestly, I didn’t really like any of the characters. I found most of them to be annoying. Williams definitely packs his stories with symbolism, and I can see what’s there somewhat, but I can’t see what is so significant. Perhaps, because I cannot apply it to my own life or situations I have observed or questions I have thought about, but the symbolism didn’t cut deep with me and so I was never really able to get into this properly. Rating: 1.5 stars(Average: 2.3 stars → I will round this down to 2.)