田納西‧威廉斯的劇本中經常描述家庭隱涵的不安與緊張關係，以及新興文明對美國南方傳統文化的衝擊，憑藉威廉斯的許多劇本和訪談錄可以看出作者對傳統與現代文化態度的改變。本論文旨在探討作者的早期寫作生涯（約在 1960 年以前，評家稱此時期為田納西‧威廉斯的劇本創作黃金時期）中三部重要劇本裡面對家庭和社會的看法，此論文希望能找出作者人生態度改變的原因和方式。《玻璃動物園》、《慾望街車》、《朱門巧婦》這三部劇本本身不但具備不可磨滅的藝術價值，主題也前後鉤連，劇本內在關係環環相扣，前後緊密一致。本論文將分成五個部分，除了導論和結論其中的三章討論三個劇本的情節。各章皆針對風景、對話風格、角色的個性、象徵意涵、社會地位與扮演的角色細緻探索檢視，藉此暴露社會的現象和文化的激盪；除了文本的詮釋剖析，論文將佐以部分的威廉斯生平資料，藉此探討作者在劇本中如何揭露他對社會的看法和藝術創作的蛻變過程。

Praised as one of the greatest American dramatists, Tennessee Williams is obsessed with delineating conflicts among family members and cultural clashes in the American South. However, the artist's attitude towards modern society seems to change in his separate plays. The purpose of this thesis is to trace Tennessee Williams's three plays, that is, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, to find out why and how his attitide or view of life changes. These plays are the most popular and frequently discussed ones that stress impossible relationships among family members. Enormous in their aesthetic values, these three plays are thematically related.

This thesis will be divided into five parts: Introduction, three chapters dealing with these three plays respectively, and Conclusion. Each chapter includes a discussion of major characters, probing into separate symbolic meanings and social status and roles in different circumstances, and linguistic styles; setting of the play, the interactions of the environment and characters; male-female interrelationship; shades of difference of the author's ideological concepts and author's attitude toward the wider contextual values. By searching for autobiographical elements and the social background, I hope this thesis can restore historciacl as well as textual meanings as represented in these three plays, thereby reexamining the playwright's views toward the external world and the evolution of man's mental processes.