And such girls! . . . more grace, more elegance, more refinement, more guileless purity, were never found in the whole world over, in any age, not even that of the halcyon . . . so happy was our peculiar social system- there was about these country girls . . . mischief . . . spirit . . . fire . . . archness, coquetry, and bright winsomeness- tendrils these of a stock that was strong and true as heart could wish or nature frame; for in strong and true as heart could wish or nature frame; for in the essentials their character was based upon confiding, trusting, loving, unselfish devotion- a complete, immaculate world of womanly virtue and home piety was their, the like of what . . . was . . . never excelled, since the Almighty made man in his own image . . . young gentleman, hold of, . . . lay not so much as a finger-tip lightly upon her, for she is sacred.

She did not move. Her eyes began to grow darker and darker, lifting into her skull above a half moon of white, without focus, with the blank rigidity of a statue's eyes. She began to say Ah-ah-ah-ah in an expiring voice, her body archin

The beauty ethic of the South prefers its lovely women to be charming and flirtatious, coquettes who never yield their purity, can create impossible tension for the belle: she is asked to exhibit herself as sexually desirable to the appropriate men, yet she must not herself respond sexually. According to Mr. Roudane,"she must be as alluring as the Dark Lady, yet as pure as the White Maiden" (18). The drama in which the belle appears reveals that carrying two such extremes is too much for some of the modern belles to bear. Nineteenth-century belles, whose Victorian surroundings and upbringing reinforced the dictated southern behavior, are more successful. After World War I, the basic conflicts within the personality of the belle become the central emphasis in the drama that depicts the belle and ultimately that depicts the South (Bloom 45).

The treatment of the theme of the narcissist southern belle suggests that as long as men cling to their myth of women, women remain essentially abstractions, objects, and a thing to be used. Similarly, John uses women in Summer and Smoke. Until the myth is abandoned, neither men nor women will achieve self-identity (Stokes 99). The South had lost its identity after the Civil War and in the same respect; it looked to itself as an object of attraction. Likewise, Blanche often asks, "How do I look?" (Williams, Streetcar 37). The self-identity of the South had been destroyed by the Civil War and began to look towards the home to give itself meaning.

Friction evolved from two opposing clusters of images. One of rural, semi-rural life enriched by tradition, religion, stable and predictable social behavior, and feeling of individual worth. And the other a chaotic, frenzy of industrial way of life. This is the atmosphere of the South following World War I. The violence and exploitation existed side by side with the genteel refinement of the South. According to Ms. Abbott, southern myth disintegrated for several reasons whether it be the failure of individuals to pursue their ideas or the inability of southerners to resist contamination by materialists who do not believe in the southern code of behavior, the southern belles, the South, lost. (77).

Roudane, Matthew C. The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

The belles of Tennessee Williams could be accurately described as narcissists needing attention, people without a sense of worth, those who settle on an impossible goal to provide their life with meaning. Accordingly, Amanda, Blanche and Alma, are trained to seek the attention of men, and develop the means in how to do so (Kolin 121). And as a result, skills and traits such as assertiveness, intelligence, logic, confidence are ignored and suppressed. Their sense of worth is achieved only through the attention of others (Bernhard, Southern Women 55). This grim recognition of the belle's narcissism is a consequence of the beauty ethic of the South.

The quotation from George W. Bagby's The Old Virginia Gentleman (1885) presents the southern belle on her pedestal in a typical nineteenth-century description. The second quotation from Williams Faulkner's Sanctuary (1931) describes the lurid nymphomania of Temple Drake, a more extreme example of the fate of the modern southern belle. The metamorphosis began abruptly around 1914, and since then, Tennessee William's has presented three southern belles: Amanda Wingfield, Blanche DuBois and Alma Winemiller in the plays respectively The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke (Abbott 20). Early on, writers saw the belle as their ideal South, pure and noble. However, more self-conscious and critical modern writers like Mr. Williams use the "darker" side of the belle- to symbolize the indictment the Old South or to describe the new. Characteristics that will be examined to exemplify the new belle and consequently the South are narcissism, illusion/memory

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4412
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page double spaced)