A representação da decadência em Doce pássaro da juventude, de Tennessee Williams, e Crepúsculo dos deuses, de Billy Wilder

Abstract

This study has the purpose of analyzing comparatively the play Sweet bird of youth, of 1959, by the playwright Tennessee Williams, and the movie Sunset Boulevard, of 1950, by the filmmaker Billy Wilder, focusing on the decadence, observing how this aspect was represented and what purpose it has in the text and in the film. In both study objects, there are characters who were famous movie stars in the past, but now are relegated to ostracism by Hollywood. There are male characters in the play and the movie who want, but cannot achieve fame in the American film industry and they establish a prostitution relationship with the actresses. These are people presented as decadent, narcissistic, materialistic and have tragic endings. Furthermore, there are other characters and aspects of the selected works that expose decadent facets of American society at the time, as the representation of religious conservatism in Sweet bird of youth and the working relationship in the film Sunset Boulevard. By analyzing the characters in the works and how they relate with each other and with the society which surrounds them, it is possible to verify a commentary done by the authors about the negative consequences of capitalism, of the film industry and of the conservatism in the American society.