Examine Chance Wayne's character in act 1 of Sweet Bird of Youth.
By the end of act I of Tennessee Williams's The Sweet Bird of Youth, the character of Chance Wayne has been well-established as a young man with a flawed self-perception. By this point in the play, the audience has heard his life story that illustrates this inaccurate self-image; as well, the audience understands some of his more recent choices that have all led to his current status as companion to Alexandra del Lago.
Chance Wayne is characterized in act I as a good-looking young man who is in denial about the fact that his looks are fading as he ages. He is depicted as an artistic person whose expectations of life far exceed the conditions of reality; for example, he believes himself to be a star actor as yet undiscovered by Hollywood, but he is unable to grasp that the star power he exhibited as a young man...
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on stage is not as compelling as he believes it to be.
Chance also demonstrates his obsession with his former love interest, a young woman named Heavenly. He speaks to Alexandra del Lago about her, and he even goes as far as to show the actress a nude picture of Heavenly, as if to prove something about himself and their relationship. Chance's mannerisms and his dysfunctional relationship with Alexandra all reflect the mental instability that likely contributed to the breakdown he experienced in the past; for all of his ego and idealism, Chance is little more than a fragile creature with similarly fragile dreams.
Discuss the character and role of Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth.
Chance Wayne is the lead character in Sweet Bird of Youth. He has returned to his hometown of St. Cloud after eleven long years in the company of his older lover, Alexandra Del Lago, otherwise known as Princess Kosmonopolis. In many respects, Chance's return represents quite a come down in the world. In his younger days, he was a big deal in the local area. A talented athlete and actor, he seemed destined for great things. But after a spell in the military and a nervous breakdown, he is reduced to the status of a gigolo, the sexual plaything of an older woman who herself is a pathetic shadow of what she once was.
Chance is a prime example of "the artist," a stock character that often crops up in the plays of Tennessee Williams. Like his fellow artists, Chance is used by Williams to explore the myriad tensions between life and art. He wants to be an actor and to make it big in Hollywood, but the real world, with all its inevitable ups and downs, always seems to get in the way. Chance just cannot seem to live in that world. Hanging around with a has-been actress is about the nearest he can get to reclaiming some of the acting talent he keenly displayed in his youth.
Chance is ultimately defeated by the ravages of time, just as art itself will at some point be defeated by life. All manifestations of the aesthetic attitude—whether it is Chance's acting ambitions or his idealized love for Heavenly—will eventually collide with grim reality and invariably end up coming off poorly. The town of St. Cloud epitomizes this reality. This is the location of Chance's youthful triumphs, but now it stands as a sordid reminder of what he has since become.
In Sweet Bird of Youth, as with the works of Tennessee Williams in general, life endures but art eventually fades, and the character of Chance Wayne is an example of this.