1. 6. Timeless World ( The Chronotope )

The process of assimilating real historical time and space in literature has a

complicated history, as does the articulation of actual historical persons in such a time

and space. Isolated aspects of time and space, however – those available in given

historical stage of human development – have been assimilated, and corresponding

generic techniques have been devised for reflecting and artistically processing such

appropriated aspects of reality.

The name chronotope ( literally, “time space” ) was given to the intrinsic

connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in

literature. This term expresses the inseparability of space and time ( time as the fourth

dimension of space ). Bakhtin understands the chronotope “as a formally constitutive

category of literature; we will not deal with the chronotope in other areas of culture.”1

In the literary artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators are fused into

one carefully thought-out, concrete whole. Time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh,

becoming artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the

movements of time, plot and history. This intersection of axes and fusion of indicators

characterizes the artistic chronotope.

The chronotope in literature has an intrinsic generic significance. It can even be

said that it is precisely “the chronotope that defines genre and generic distinctions, for in

literature the primary category in the chronotope is time.” 2 The chronotope as a formally

constitutive category determines to a significant degree the image of man in literature as

well. The image of man is always intrinsically chronotopic.

Dealing with time in such various ways, Williams intended to create “a timeless

world” in Camino Real, in a masterful attempt to annihilate characters’ connections to

1 Mikhail Bakhtin, Probleme de literatură şi estetică, Ed. Univers, Bucuresti, 1982, p. 1952 Mikhail Bakhtin , “The Chronotope”, apud Sean Matthews, Theories – A Reader, Ed. Paralela 45, 2003, p. 215

history. Nonetheless, the spatial and temporal inferences are evident – “any port in South

America” in the 20th century.

To a certain extent, the play seems to be the construction of another world.

Consequently, we have to make use of what critics call ‘suspension of disbelief’

regarding the locale: “The plaza … belongs to a tropical seaport that bears a confusing,

but somehow harmonious, resemblance to such widely scattered ports as Tangiers,

Havana, Vera Cruz, Casablanca, Shanghai, New Orleans.”3 The variety of resemblances

alludes to the idea that this specific location provides world wide features through

characters that share archetypal traits.

The outline of the plot takes the shape of Don Quixote’s dream which is “a

pageant, a masque in which old meanings will be remembered and possibly new ones

discovered” ( Camino Real, 752 ) and depicts events which are to be found mostly in

dystopias or in Kafka’s narratives. Even from the beginning the cockatoo’s cry introduces

us to a world in which characters’ costumes are “generally modern but with vestigial

touches of the period to which they were actually related.” ( Camino Real, 753 )

Gutman’s first line should set the temporal parameters, but it only confuses the audience:

“It’s morning and after morning. It’s afternoon, ha, ha;” yet we are warned – “you’ve got

to be realistic on the Camino Real.” ( Camino Real, 755 ) However, the whole place

seems to have different values, and the mercantile interests ( “Jewels, pearls, rings,

necklaces, bracelets, diamond ear-drops” ) are rejected, as being futile for characters like

Casanova ( “Signora, all of these things are dreams” ) ( Camino Real, 756 ), and looked

up to by Gutman and his acolytes.

Moreover, the place resembles more or less to No Man’s Land and at times it

prefigures a totalitarian regime in which “questions are passed amongst them like

something illicit and shameful, like counterfeit money or drugs or indecent postcards”

and where “a man in the plaza dies like a pariah dog.” ( Camino Real, 758 ) All these

mean that human emotion is transfigured into the needs of Revolution which calls for

“good dreamers who remember their dreams.” ( Camino Real, 761 )

Nevertheless, this realm seems to gather the different roads of various people.

Consequently, there will be a gradual configuration of what one might call the

3 Tennessee Williams, “Camino Real” in Plays 1937-1955, Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., N Y, 2000, p. 749

chronotope of the road – a camino imposed to a wide range of social strata, nationalities,

ages, even from different epochs.

The metaphor of life seen as a road is envisaged even in the title of the play. The

dramatist intended the title to be a hybrid Spanish-American phrase – to convey the ideal

of a real, actual, road rather than a royal road. Jan Balakian states that “like Dante’s

Inferno, Camino Real is a mythic and poetic allegory about characters who find

themselves in the middle of the journeys of their lives where the straight way is lost” 4 –

“What are these creatures? Mendicants. Prostitutes. Thieves and petty vendors in a bazaar

where the human heart is part of the bargain.” ( Camino Real, 762 )

Williams captures his characters in that middle realm between life and death

where everyone gathers at the end of their life’s journey. While they are already dead,

they have not forgotten their lives, but the way back is barred. “The people in my play are

romantics confronted by very real situations as they come to the end of the road. It is a

real road.” ( Williams, New York Times, 1960 )

Moreover, in Camino Real, each character exemplifies the way in which time has

betrayed them or that they have betrayed themselves. Quixote is an old desert rat; Byron

has lost his integrity as a poet; Kilroy is a former boxing champion, who had to retire

because of his failing heart; Casanova is an impoverished, seedy rake, and Gautier, a

former prostitute, is a frightened and lonely woman. The decadents, the transients of the

expensive tourist hotel are, like the romantics, terrified of time. But they are morally no

better than their counterparts across the plaza; although they have more money, they have

the same fears, viewing their existence as a series of way stations towards death. In short

each has lost his honor. Kilroy, for instance, has to sacrifice his ruby-and-emerald-

studded belt with the word CHAMP in order to survive on the camino: “sometimes a man

has gottta hock his sweet use to be in order to finance his present situation.” ( Camino

Real, 752 )

Camino Real also stands for mankind’s inquiries when faced with progress: “Are

you perplexed by something? Are you tired out and confused? Do you have a fever? Do

you feel yourself to be spiritually unprepared for the age of exploding atoms? Do you

distrust the newspapers? Are you suspicious of governments? Have you arrived at a point

4 Jan Balakian, “Camino Real: Williams’ Allegory about the Fifties”, apud Matthew C. Roudané, The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 70

on the Camino Real where the walls converge not in the distance but right in front of

your nose? Does further progress appear impossible to you? Are you afraid of anything at

all? Afraid of your heartbeat? Or the eyes of strangers! Afraid of breathing? Afraid of not

breathing? Do you wish that things could be straight and simple again as they were in

your childhood?” ( Camino Real, 767 ) This whole series of rhetorical questions points

out not only the problems of American society in particular, but also man’s fears in front

of life, with all its ups and downs.

The play captures characters in crisis, in frustrated relationships, stranded in a

distant port, trying to escape fascism. Moreover, this “port of entry and departure”

( Camino Real, 793 ) is divided into three metaphoric parts: the luxury side, the Siete

Mares, and Skid Row – consisting of the Gypsy’s place, the Loan Shark’s, and the flea-

bag hotel called Ritz Men Only. Terra Incognita, beyond the Archway, is a wasteland

between the walled town and the distant mountains, where there is “nothing… and then

more nothing. And then snow covered mountains.” ( Camino Real, 750 ) Similarly, the

characters who inhabit the camino represent a microcosm of society: the outcasts – bums,

drunks; the Street People, who dance, sing, prostitute themselves, and steal; the historical

romantics – Marguerite Gautier, the “Lady of the Camellias,” Jacques Casanova, Lord

Byron, and Baron de Charlus; the wealthy – Lady and Lord Mulligan; the impoverished –

A. Ratt; the tyrannical authorities – Gutman, who reports to an absent Generalissimo, and

his soldiers, the Street Cleaners, who collect and dispose of the dead, and the Medical

Team; the capitalists – the Gypsy, her son, and the Loan Shark; the idealists – Don

Quixote, Kilroy ( and Byron ). Within this microcosm, Williams reviews Western

history through a literary glass by recalling Marguerite Gautier, the “Lady of the

Camellias,” Jacques Casanova, the “great lover,” Lord Byron, the poet, Baron de Charlus,

a Proustian character, and Lord Mulligan, a 20th century tycoon.

In this place desperation is the price of admission, and everyone is “confused and

exhausted.” On the ‘real road’ characters must confront the cold-hearted ruler, Gutman,

and get “stewed, screwed, and tattooed… baptized with the contents of a slopjar,”

( Camino Real, 749 ) robbed, beaten, turned into a patsy, and have their heart stolen. To

put it another way, Williams’ fugitive characters have arrived at the end of a royal road of

imagination to meet with reality in the form of age, disease, cruelty, disillusionment, and

death. No matter what road they choose they all end up in the Laboratory where any

individual becomes an “undistinguished member of a collectivist state. His chemical

components are separated and poured into vats containing the corresponding elements of

countless others. If any of his vital organs or parts are at all unique in size or structure,

they’re placed on exhibition in bottles containing a very foul-smelling solution called

formaldehyde.” ( Camino Real, 775 ) Of course, there is a charge of admission to this

museum and the money goes to the military police.

The government exploits not only those who are poor, but also those who are

unique. Kilroy, the ruggedly individual American, refuses to take orders from Gutman,

who wants to turn him into a patsy. Here, Williams draws on the commedia dell’arte, a

sixteenth-century Italian form which used improvised comedy and always had a buffoon

called the Pulcinella. The dramatist plays with this genre when Kilroy tosses the patsy

dress into Gutman’s face and leaps into the aisle of the theatre, exclaiming, “Kilroy’s a

free man with equal rights in this world!” ( Camino Real, 780 ) While Esmeralda cheers

him on, the officers capture and beat him up. Block Six closes ominously as Kilroy is

forced to press the button at the end of a cord in order to make his nose go off and on like

a firefly. Casanova explains that Kilroy is Gutman’s prime target because he has “a spark

of anarchy” in his “spirit… and nothing wild or honest is tolerated here!” ( Camino Real,

784 ) Clearly, Camino Real protests oppressors of the human spirit.

Acknowledging the fact that “humanity is just a work in progress…that cannot

bear very much reality” ( Camino Real, 836 ) the focus is laid upon man’s redemption.

Therefore, Williams concludes his play with a prayer for the return of honor to the world.

But the idealists retain symbols of past achievements: Byron’s pen, Kilroy’s gold gloves,

and Quixote’s blue ribbon. Moreover, each chooses to defy life’s betrayals and start

anew. Any hope for redemption from the road of reality lies in the violets breaking the

rocks. In other words, beauty, imagination, and love ultimately triumph over cruelty,

ugliness, and fascism.