TOTAL AL AÑO

A short story written in 1945.

SYNOPSIS

Two Iowa schoolteachers, Gretchen and Augusta, take a summer road trip to Hollywood, California. Augusta bullies Gretchen into covering all of their vacation expenses. Gretchen is too polite to com- plain. Instead, she remains silent and sulks. Augusta chastises Gretchen for being moody and miserable, thus pushing her further into silence. Gretchen plots ways to get away from her friend, until Augusta meets Carl Zerbst. Carl claims he knows Cary Grant and can introduce the young women to various Holly- wood stars. Carl turns out to be a liar, and instead of meeting stars, he and Augusta drive around in a bor- rowed flashy convertible roadster. Carl and Augusta abandon Gretchen to sit alone on the beach or in the rented tourist cabin. On the few occasions when Gretchen encounters Augusta, Augusta uses the sit- uation as an opportunity to degrade Gretchen. Gretchen is left feeling unwanted, unattractive, and undesirable.

One day on the beach, Gretchen meets Jimmie, a handsome young actor. Jimmie spies Gretchen walking alone on the beach and starts a conversa- tion with her. Gretchen is delighted to have found companionship, and her self-confidence begins to flourish because of Jimmie’s attention. Jimmie is uncertain and uncomfortable around women but feels safe with Gretchen. The two swim together and find their bodies entwined as popular love songs play on a nearby radio.

The couple marry and remain in Hollywood. Gretchen works as a private tutor for Hollywood

children, while Jimmie continues to pursue his act- ing career. Jimmie loses interest in Gretchen and has an affair with Bobby, a fellow film actor and a rising star. When their affair becomes public, Bobby and Jimmie are dismissed from the studio; both men are disgraced and never work in Hollywood again. Gretchen ignores the incident and does not question Jimmie about it. Bobby is forced to move in with Jim- mie and Gretchen when he is evicted from the Bev- erly Wilshire Hotel. Gretchen is so enamored of Jimmie that she welcomes Bobby into their apart- ment and occasionally into their bed.

Just as World War II begins, Jimmie and Gretchen leave California and move to Dubuque, Iowa. Jim- mie avoids the draft because of his temperament and gets a job at a defense plant. Jimmie and Gretchen hold on to their faith that he has talent and will one day be a famous actor. Jimmie becomes disheartened by his life at the defense plant, where his coworkers call him “Piggy.” Jimmie is rescued by a telegram from Bobby summoning him to New York. Jimmie packs and leaves immediately without Gretchen. He telegrams her frequently.

Gretchen discovers she is pregnant but has no way of contacting her husband. She receives another enthusiastic telegram and promptly packs her bags, anticipating her summons to New York. The next telegram she receives presents a grim outlook and delays her departure indefinitely. Gretchen travels to New York despite the telegram. Jimmie meets her at the train station, and they cry together joyfully when Gretchen gives him the news of her pregnancy. Bobby is very accommodating and gives the couple his apartment. He moves into the apartment next door with a bachelor friend. Gretchen is impressed by Bobby’s apartment and Jimmie’s “up-and-coming” Broadway friends.

Late one evening, during Gretchen’s second week in New York, Bobby’s friend the bachelor barges into the apartment calling out to her and making accusa- tions about Jimmie and Bobby. Bobby and Jimmie physically restrain the bachelor and remove him from the apartment. Gretchen is stunned but refuses to believe the bachelor’s claims. Jimmie, Bobby, and Gretchen discuss the situation and decide it would be best for her to return to Iowa and have the baby there. Gretchen returns to Iowa, has the child, and

returns to teaching. She leads a very quiet life but hopes for more. She maintains her faith in Jimmie, trusting in his innate goodness. Gretchen romanti- cizes her memories of him and hopes that her beauti- ful son will be just like his father. Jimmie sends Gretchen a final, apologetic postcard advising her to forget him.

COMMENTARY

In this engaging short story, Williams masterfully explores many of his principal themes: the sadness of defeated relationships, the deceptions of love and sexuality, homosexuality and the pressures of heterosexual society, the shattering of dreams, the indefatigable specter of old age, and the loss of youthful beauty.

At the center of this tale is another compelling female Williams character. Gretchen, the loyal, naive schoolteacher, is a kindred spirit of fellow teachers Jenny Starling (ALL GAUL IS DIVIDED),

Dorothea Galloway (A LOVELYSUNDAY FORCREVE

COEUR), and Blanche Dubois (A STREETCAR

NAMED DESIRE). Gretchen is also an early proto-

type of the “abused wife” (Kolin, 26) who appears throughout the Williams canon, such as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Gretchen is also reminiscent of the character Nina Leeds in EUGENEO’NEILL’s play Strange Inter-

lude. As Nina does, Gretchen drifts mindlessly into a marriage of convenience and finds happiness in sub- mission to her husband’s wishes and to the fulfill- ment of his dreams. Gretchen’s interval or “strange interlude” with Jimmie is an awakening, which leaves her with a “hunger for more than a routine comfort.” Although she has experienced the daz- zling, romantic glamour of Hollywood and New York with Jimmie, Gretchen is left, as are Amanda Wing- field and so many of Williams’s women, with only her memories of the beautiful boy who deserted her. All that remains are the final resignation and acceptance of the life that is available to her.

Scholars and critics have unjustly neglected “The Interval.” This work demonstrates Williams’s ability as a writer to reveal “the secrets of the human race, and deepest truths about ourselves” (Burnett, 4). This sensitivity permeates Williams’s work as his art originates in such an intimate and

deeply personal place. Philip Kolin reads “The Interval” as a self-reflective “fictional record” of Williams’s “dreams, fears and defeats in the world of ‘terrible glamour’” (Kolin, 21).

PUBLICATION HISTORY

“The Interval” was first published by New Direc- tion in 1985 in the short story anthology Collected Stories.

CHARACTERS

Augusta Augusta is an exuberant and adven- turesome schoolteacher from Iowa. She travels to Hollywood, California, with her friend, Gretchen, a naive fellow teacher. Augusta dominates the friend- ship with Gretchen. She bullies her into covering their expenses during their vacation, and she cru- elly shatters Gretchen’s self-esteem. When Augusta meets the flashy, smooth-talking Carl Zerbst, she quickly abandons Gretchen. Carl convinces the star-struck Augusta that he can introduce her to Cary Grant and other glamorous Hollywood stars.

Bobby Bobby is a Hollywood film actor who becomes romantically involved with Jimmie, a fellow actor. When their affair is publicly exposed, Bobby is fired by the studio and loses his “near-royalty of Hol- lywood” status. He is never again offered roles in motion pictures. He takes to drinking and is evicted from his apartment in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. After the eviction, Bobby moves in with Jimmie and his wife, Gretchen. Because Gretchen is so enam- ored of Jimmie, she tolerates Bobby’s presence in their apartment. She feels only “sorrow and perplex- ity” toward him. Bobby moves to pursue his acting career in New York City. He sends Jimmie a telegram inviting him to join him in New York. Jimmie leaves Gretchen and follows Bobby to New York to become an actor on Broadway.

Gretchen Gretchen is a naive schoolteacher from Iowa. She is a quiet, contemplative young woman, who is easily manipulated by her friend, Augusta. When she and Augusta travel to Hollywood, Cali- fornia, Augusta intimidates Gretchen to cover all of their expenses. Gretchen fulfills Augusta’s needs until she can find something better. Augusta is easily

impressed by Carl Zerbst, a smooth-talking local man who says he can introduce Augusta and Gretchen to various Hollywood stars. Having found Carl, Augusta abandons Gretchen. Gretchen meets Jimmie, a hope- ful actor, and the two marry. When Jimmie’s acting career and male lover, Bobby, take him away from her, Gretchen remains loyal to him.

Jimmie Jimmie is a young actor living in Califor- nia, pursuing his dream of a Hollywood film career. He regularly has small roles in films. When he is not acting, he spends much of his time on the beach. Jimmie meets Gretchen on the beach, immediately feels comfortable around her. Ignoring the fact that he is gay, Jimmie and Gretchen marry. When his sexuality becomes public knowledge, Jimmie is shut out of the film industry and he and Gretchen move to Iowa. Ultimately, he becomes discontented with his life in Iowa. He abandons Gretchen for a career on Broadway and a life with his lover, Bobby.

FURTHER READING

Burnett, Hallie. On Writing the Short Story. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.

Kolin, Philip. “Tennessee Williams’s ‘Interval’: MGM and Beyond,” The Southern Quarterly 38, no. 1 (fall 1999): 21–27.