Auto-da-Fé (play) explained
Auto-da-Fé is a one-act 1941 play by Tennessee Williams. The plot concerns a young postal worker, Eloi, whose sexuality is repressed by a rigidly moralistic mother.[1] [2] [3]
Notes and References
- Tennessee Williams, Mister Paradise and Other One-act Plays ed. Nicholas Rand Moschovakis, David Ernest Roessel - 2005 p. xxii "A good example is the one-act play, Auto-da-Fé, in which a young man's sexuality is repressed by a rigidly moralistic mother reminiscent, as usual, of Edwina."
- Tennessee Williams, Notebooks ed. Margaret Bradham Thornton - 2006 - p.242 "The one-act play Auto-da-Fé has a character Eloi, "a frail man in his late thirties, a gaunt, ascetic type with feverish dark eyes." Williams would borrow his friend's last name for another character, Father Bordelon in the play "Thank You, ...""
- Kate Thomas Postal Pleasures: Sex, Scandal, and Victorian Letters 2011 p.65 "A later, American, and anxious example of the relation between the postal functionary and the homosexual can be found in Tennessee Williams's 1941 play Auto-da-Fé. The protagonist, a young postal worker called Eloi, obtains a “lewd photograph” by intercepting mail sent from a university student to an antique dealer in New Orleans. Eloi decides to visit the student to warn him about sending such materials ..."