Abstract

This article shows how dramatic works of Tennessee Williams serve as a clue to understanding the position of an artist in today’s world and the relationship between the individual and society as expressed in his plays, interviews and memoirs. The characters of these plays are forced to reassess the quotidian values represented by all that is material and monetary against the backdrop of an examined life. The artist is viewed by the playwright as a true visionary who can see the light in the darkness, who can discover hope in the midst of despair and who can still find and create beauty in the everyday life of an increasingly violent world.