Judge, jury, and executioner

Much of Tennessee Williams' work features mentally ill characters; his devotion to and interest in the subject has led to the composition of many plays that highlight the humanity of the insane, rather that caricaturize them with the usual stereotypes. In Suddenly Last Summer, Williams challenges the social stigmas most "normal" people attach to madness. Throughout the course of the action, the lines dividing sane and insane, normate and non-normate, gradually blur disrupting the audience's social equilibrium. By undermining presumed viewer prejudices toward the mentally ill, Williams creates the opportunity for redrawing the social boundaries of exclusion and inclusion.