"Give my love to everyone!"

After watching the film adaptation of Tennessee William's The Rose Tattoo, I have to admit that I am a little overwhelmed at the complex themes at work here. Before I do any research, I want to discuss some ideas that I have, some thoughts.

I think there is a pretty obvious reference to Italian theater history in this film. I don't remember exactly what the types are, but the notion of the buffoon is pretty strong, especially when it comes to Burt Lancaster's character, who is as tragically goofy as it gets. The other thing that I remember from Italian theater is the use of masks. There are no literal masks in the film, although it could be argued that Sarafina uses "dressing up" as a literal, tangible mask. Even then, I think once again Williams has given us a story that looks at gender and gender expectations as a mask, and discusses the power of this mask through gender-bending characters.

Is Sarafina's problem her husband's infidelity, or her expectation of herself as the ultimate woman, with feminine power enough to keep Della Rosa from straying to the Mardis Gras? What I appreciate about William's vision is his ability to show people who suffer because of their own perceptions of who they are. I think he mostly shows women who are struggling with autonomy, women who are suffering because they must see themselves as objects of male desire, or they are oppressed by others who must keep them within the limits of a very gender-specific expectation. She can't believe that her husband was cheating on her, not because of the kind of man he was or wasn't, but because of what his fidelity would suggest about the power of her femininity. The idea that she isn't feminine enough is implied in the very beginning of the film, when the store keeper has her carry her own groceries. She is reluctant to do so, because (I'm trying to remember the words) she isn't a "common donkey" in the street; she argues that she isn't a beast of burden. Yet, her expectation of her femininity weighs her down so heavily in her marriage, as well as her relationship with her daughter, that she has to implore a goddess, the divine mother herself, for help.

Now, I had another idea, that Williams was heavily relying on the association of the rose with Mary Magdalene, and the sacred prostitute archetype. Perhaps Sarafina, in her rigid demand for fidelity, is actually blaspheming the sacred prostitute. She sure does give it to the other woman at the Mardi Gras, doesn't she?! She breaks a bottle over her face, if I recall. I'm sure the purveyors of myth would go crazy with his movie, but I'm not educated enough in myth to make much more of this allusion.

Lust is a dominant theme in the film, I actually thought Burt's character just wanted to get laid, before he confessed his situation with his "dependents." The daughter is inconsolable when she cannot actualize her desire for the sailor, and her desire to live in the moment means she has a lust for life. So just whose lust is she mirroring? Her mother's lust for a strong man who will confirm her status as a sex symbol, or her father's, who's wild sexual appetite needs more than one partner for satisfaction? I think perhaps we're supposed to imagine both.

Yet, this is Williams, and he never sticks with just one theme, or one comment on that theme. I can't wait to buy his complete works.