Signs and Stage Props in Tennessee Williams' Camino Real

Abstract

Humans from the early times have used signs to facilitate the communication in the early societies. Semiotics is an approach wherein howness is dominant; it is the investigation of how meaning is created and communicated through systems of signs. In the dramatic texts meanings are conveyed by two different forms of language, stage direction and dialogue. Stage direction and dialogue are complementary and interdependent signifying systems. Stage directions are integral to the structure of dramatic texts and have important functions in their semantic construction. Tennessee Williams is one of the dramatists who use notes or stage directions in his plays. Through such stage devices as lighting, music and sound effects, colors, objects as symbols, transparent walls, the fluctuation of time, etc., he is after the representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material form. This study aims at analysis and examination of Williams’ Camino Real’s stage props and devices as signs and their relationships in the play with regard to semiotics as the theoretical framework and approach

Keywords

• signs
• semiotics
• drama
• stage props
• stage directions
• contradiction