The Rose Tattoo (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Thomas Lanier Williams
- First Published: 1951
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1950
- Setting: Sicilian immigrant village on the Gulf Coast
- Principal Characters: Serafina Delle Rose, Rosa Delle Rose, Assunta, Estelle Hohengarten, Alvaro Mangiacavallo, Father de Leo, Jack Hunter, Miss Yorke, Flora, Bessie, The Strega
- Genres: Social realism, Drama
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, South or Southerners, Ethnic groups, Immigration or emigration, Women, Minorities, Working class, Symbolism, Widows or widowers, Catholics or Catholic Church, Bereavement or grief, Italy or Italians, Gossip, Morality or morals, Hedonism, Signs or symbols
- Locales: Louisiana
The Play
The Rose Tattoo is a three-act play set in a Sicilian immigrant village on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The play opens at dusk and Serafina Delle Rose, the main character, is sitting in her living room, waiting for her husband, Rosario, to return; she is pregnant. A sign reveals that she is a seamstress, and Estelle Hohengarten arrives with a piece of rose-colored silk she wants made into a man’s shirt. During the course of act 1 the audience learns that Rosario is a truck driver who is engaged in smuggling to earn enough money to pay off his truck....
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