Stylistic study: A Feminist Impact on the Characters’ Interactions in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending

Abstract

Various studies have previously been done on Williams’s Orpheus Descending with regard to theories of feminism and stylistics; however, no researcher has ever written a thoroughly comprehensive examination of the play and its structure of different gender conversation by incorporating these two methodologies. Keeping this in mind, in order to fill that gap and present a multidimensional analysis of Orpheus Descending, this study takes into consideration the play’s form, substance, context and the feminist aspect by using Mills’ third wave feminist linguistics theory. This innovative multidisciplinary method delivers an all-inclusive framework to demonstrate the way of interaction between male and female characters, and the stylistic elements of dramatic text that can lead to explain conflicts and misunderstandings which tend to happen in the play’s discourse. Moreover, stylistic theories and frameworks, such as Turn Management, provide a linguistic tool for investigating the conversational elements and linguistic aspects of Orpheus Descending and its two main characters, Val and Lady.