Treatment of Senescence in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie and Eugene O' Neill's Desire Under the Elms.

Anthony Ellis (2011, 13) examines an excerpt from Thomas Elyot's Castel of Health (1541) in which he observes a doctor's conception about growing old: "old age equals the inception of 'bad humor' and calls for professional intervention." The depiction of senescence or biological aging in literature can be analyzed from the perspective of the abovementioned doctor who attaches negative attributes to senescence. This paper focuses on the effects of aging and ageism on Amanda Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Ephraim Cabot from Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill. Both these aging characters are inclined to stick to their habits, lifestyles and preferences they have developed in their earlier years. Their fixation with their earlier lifestyle gives rise to hatred or indifferent attitude of the younger people around them. The paper examines the detachment and disengagement of the two characters from society and their loved ones due to ageism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]