‘The Stock Character of a Middle-Aged Woman?’: Rediscovering The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone through Age and Gender Performance

Abstract

In the context of age studies, Anne Basting (2001) refers to the performative quality of aging and Katharine Woodward (2006) claims that age can be performed in the same way as gender is also performed. Since Margaret Gullette (2004) refers to acting age both on the stage and in everyday life, the analysis of the character of the older actress acquires relevance in narratives that explicitly revolve around performing and aging. Deborah Jermyn (2012) contends that the older actress can be approached in different ways, as either an embodiment of compliance or as an agent of rebellion. This article aims to analyze the character of Karen Stone in Tennessee Williams’s novel The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950) through a two-fold interpretation, taking into account social responses derived from the refusal to act one’s age, which can be demeaning, since the older actress is often scorned for not acting according to age standards, but also subversive, because she enacts a powerful resistance against the constructed discourses of age and gender.