Camino Real is an unconventional play that was set in unnamed area in Latin America. It was first produced in 1953.

It remains one Williamss works that manifest his poetic and grand creativity. As an impressionistic work, it discusses a wide range of universal themes like love, loss, bareness, old age and so on and so forth. The worth of any literary artwork does not rely on its popularity as much as it relies on the quality and the development of its literary elements.Camino Reals strength as an artwork may not be in the plot of the play because it almost is a plotless work. Camino Real is woven in a way that it treats different themes and topics. Characterization and style, however, are two developed and dynamic points in the play that build up its creativity. The characters in Tennessee Williams's plays attempt to create an aura of illusions in order to either forget the unpleasant reality of human existence or to avoid certain experiences of the past. Sometimes they are also fed up with this material life and the worldly-wise people that inhabit it. Such illusions serve as an escape for them and also enable them to remain disguised in a make-believer world[7]. Kilroy and Gutman are two of the most significant characters in Camino Real. Kilroy is the American person and a former boxing champion. He has an abnormally big heart as big as a babys head. For this physical anomaly, he leaves his wife fearing that intimacy would destroy him. For some mysterious reasons, Kilroy is entrapped in the Camino Real and is afraid of escaping alone. Later Kilroy decided to break out but he is caught and humiliated by Gutman who has forced him to wear a wig and a red clown nose and act as a pasty. Esmeralda seduces Kilroy and ultimately leaves his chest lacerated. Kilroy meets Don Quixote and becomes his friend who he will accompany to leave Camino Real. Gutman is the owner of Siete Mares hotel. He is a tyrannical and authoritarian man. He appears well dressed and with bourgeois appearance. Most of the time, Gutman is shown as indifferent and unsympathetic towards the other characters in the plaza. He is given the authority to end and announce new blocks. Despite Kilroys resistance to obey Gutmans orders he finally subdues to his will. Gutman forces him to wear patsy clothes. He refuses to submit, but Gutman's guards make him do and at the end Kilroys become a patsy. Gutman: Here boy! Take these. [Gutman displays and then tosses on the ground at Kilroys feet the pasty outfit- the red fright wig, the big crimson nose that lights up and has horn rimmed glasses attached, a pair of clown pant that have a huge footprint] Kilroy: what is this outfit? Gutman: The uniform of patsy. Kilroy: I know what a Patsy is- he is clownbut I'm no patsy! Gutman: pick it up.

Kilroy: Don't give me orders. Kilroy is a free agentGutman [smoothly]: But a patsy isn'tyou are now a patsy (Williams, 1958, p. 159) [8]. Gutman: Hush! The patsy doesnt talk. He lights his nose, thats all! Guard: Press the little button at the end of the cord. Gutman: Thats right. Just press the little botton at the end of the cord! [Kilroy lights his nose. Everybody laughs] (p. 163)[9]. Kilroy loses his identity and dignity as a result of Gutmans controlling forces. Gutmans controlling eyes render the Camino Real an isolated island cut off the rest of the world. None can escape from it without his authorization. When someone comes into it, he/she becomes imprisoned and stripped from liberty, dignity and freedom. He/she has to obey the rules of Gutman and be as he wishes. Camino Real as a place is depicted to be open and expanded. Its a a wasteland between the walled town and the distant perimeter of snow-topped mountains[10] as Williams describes it. It is a nowhere but manipulated by Gutman. People in it are categorized and are treated by Gutman according to their labels. Camino Real is a land of contradictions as well, like the case of Kilroy who becomes a clown though he was a champion. Even if Camino Real seems like a nowhere or a wasteland, the people in it signify a microcosm from society. It is as Williams described it It is described by Williams as "nothing more nor less than my conception of the time and the world I live in.[11]" Marguerite in the play wonders about the nature of that place they are in. She even speculates about their existence. What is this place?, what are we? she asks. The only information provider in that deserted place is Gutman; even so, Marguerite states that he only provides misleading hints: a fat old man gives sly hints that only bewilder us more[12] [my italics]. As Williams has changed the play from Ten Block to Sixteen blocks the themes and some characters have changed as well. Gutman has evolved towards a more cruel and fully fledged evil character. He belongs to the rich who oppress the poor. Gutman might represent the state and the government which is in command of the poor. Gutmans phone call with the Generalissimo is a good case in point of his involvement with the state, and his implementation of the governments political projects. Gutman [suddenly]: give me the phone! Connect me with the palace. Get me the Generalissimo. (My italics, p. 138)

Gutman as a symbol of authority refuses any form of unity or communion of the people. In the play, Williams uses the Spanish word Hermano meaning brother to express this natural inclination of people to achieve unity and brotherhood. Gutman as a representative of state stands against this brotherhoodits forbidden. In the phone, he explains to Generalissimo: [t]here is a possibility that the forbidden word may be spoken! Yes the forbidden word is about to be spoken (my italics, p139). He stresses how forbidden the word is. Gutman is ready to do anything to avoid and kill this brotherhood between the people. It is not in favour of his power for it destabilizes and threatens his authority. Gutman has to act diplomatically to avoid any revolutionary acts that may weaken his command over Camino Real. That is why Gutman manages to make a public Fiesta to distract the people in the plaza and make them forget. GUTMAN [into the phone]: The survivor is no longer surviving. I think wed better have some public diversion right away. Put the Gypsy on! Have her announce the Fiesta! LOUDSPEAKER [responding instantly]: Damas y Caballeros! The next voice you hear will be the voice of the Gypsy! GUTMAN: Ha ha! Ho ho ho! Music! (p. 141my italics) While Gutmans control over the plaza is strengthened, Kilroy goes down. The most obvious instance of Kilroys letdowns is his become a pasty. Early in the play, when Kilroy first appeared in the stage for people they laughed at him. Gutman is displayed in a royal manner but Kilroy is shown as realthe royal versus the realistic side of Camino Real: Camino Ral and Camino Real. Camino Real is about life in general; life with its ups and downs--life of the Real and of the Royal. It is as Williams himself describes it in an article in Magazine New York Times usually when asked about a theme, I looked vague and say, its a play about life[13]. Some critics consider it to be the dark mirror of Williamss conception of lifefull of black and appalling images[14].

So briefly here is the plot of Camino Real. In this play, the Camino Real is the end of the road. Literally, and metaphorically. Its the end of the actual road and also, its where people go to die. Many of them fight this knowledge. Surrounding the small outpost is forbidding desert. There is no escape. There is definitely the feel of a powerful STATE in the play vaguely totalitarian human beings ground to dust in the wheels of the state And gathered at this end of the road is a motley crew of characters some you would recognize others are brand-new. For example: Don Quixote arrives. Dazed, raggedy, still journeying Casanova is held up there he is known as Jacques and he has now pretty much gone to seed the sad lover growing old Byron is there, flamboyant,

bombastic, filled with yearning All of these kind of iconic characters are hanging out at this dusty frontier town waiting to either die or escape. Into this hopeless mix comes an American, named Kilroy. He was played by Eli Wallach. Its a tremendous part any actor would be lucky to have such a part. He doesnt get what Camino Real is he doesnt accept the rules of the place that it is the end By the end of the play miraculously there is some hope. The fountain in the square starts gushing water again a symbol of plenty, nourishment, life people start to wake out of their haze start to be able to connect again. Thats what its all about for Tennessee Williams: loneliness. And the possibility, the heart-breaking possibility of human connection. Like Blanche DuBois most famous line: I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. Thats it. In a nutshell. So. The scene I will excerpt here is between Casanova (known as Jacques) and Marguerite (who was once known as Camille). They are two aging courtesans they are two people who trafficked in sex when they were young and were able to but now? Its not so easy. Its a desperate connection they make, grasping, frightened Marguerite is on the edge she has become a faded ghost of herself At one point, a plane arrives. It is called Fugitivo. It is reminiscent of the one plane out of Casablanca in the movie. The plane lands, and chaos explodes, everyone trying to get on it at once. No one has money. People are desperate. It is a mob scene. People run about, flinging coins at the soldiers, who say: Only this kind of currency not that kind People flinging their jewelry at the guards Please! I beg you! Take my jewels and let me on that plane! Marguerite tries desperately to get on that plane she begs, she screams its a very difficult scene to read They will not take her jewels and then with her screaming at the edge of the stage, screaming in agony you can hear the plane take off. There will not be another plane for years to come. It was her last chance.

She is near collapse. Casanova comes to her aid, helping her cross the street she can barely stand. Marguerite then has what is, arguably, the most important monologue in the entire show. Kilroy is Tennessee Williamss foil, his stalwart antihero, and his anti-Everyman, pathetic in
his innocence yet admirable for his all-American, we-can-get-it-done philosophy. Williams invites the audience to scorn and ridicule this figure; after all, he is a pompous, vainglorious fool. Still, within his persona lies a wellspring of hopefulness and indomitable optimism, which all people, in their best moments, imagine themselves to possess. Williams invites the audience into his world of astonishing polarity, of killer opposites. This is his gift: The audience may not emerge from the theater with any particular answers, but they have certainly been asked to frame new questions that shake up the universe and hark back to Aristotle and his view of tragedy as something more than mere art. Kilroys character, forced to undergo one humiliation after another, becomes a stand-in for the process of human aging, of inevitable decline and ultimate extinction. Ironically, then, Williams, a playwright known for depicting moral decadence, becomes a moralist in this play. His message is that life is not a dress rehearsal: Each act is irrevocable, and every gesture is a future fossil. Regret thus becomes a hell, yet the audience is left with a grain of hope. While one is still alive, possibility exists, even bliss.

Its the theme. All in one place.