The Deconstructionist Role of Fathers in "The Glass Menagerie" and "Ghosts"

In both Tennessee William's "The Glass Menagerie" and Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts", the absent father can be seen as supportive of Derrida's theory of Differance. The privileging of binary opposites in logocentric Western thought can be seen to be overturned in both plays, and both are tragedies because of this overturning through the agency of the absent father. The role of the absent father figure in both plays is to deconstruct the family, creating tragedy. They …

…tragedies because of absence, as language, to Derrida, is a tragedy because of Differance. Works Cited: Derrida, Jacques. "Differance", "Of Grammatology", Semiology and Grammatology"<Tab/>Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Micheal Ryan.Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. 277<Tab/>- 339 Ibsen, Henrik. "Ghosts." Four Great Plays. New York: Bantam, 1959. 83-152 Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The University of the South, Sewanee,<Tab/>Tennessee: Dramatists Play Service Inc., 1945