The Long Goodbye by Tennessee Williams. Short summary

5 seconds

Desperate writer Joe tries to break with his past. He is haunted by the ghosts of his dead mother and his lost sister.

1 minute

The play’s protagonist is disillusioned writer Joe. He moves out of the apartment he has lived in all his life. He tries to break with his past, but all he gets out is a long goodbye.

Joe reminisces about the events of his life. Two ghosts haunt him constantly—his dead mother and the sister he lost. The movers come and carry the furniture, and he keeps remembering.

His mother’s ghost shows concern for him, but that concern weighs on Joe. He remembers his sister Moira, with whom he has lost touch. She was always a beautiful girl, a champion swimmer and looked great in a swimsuit. The boys would ask her out and try to get intimacy.

At first Moira protested, but then she fell in love. She lost touch with her family. Towards the end of the play, the ghost of Moira appears to Joe as a lecherous, disheveled woman in rich clothes, apparently donated by some «sugar daddy.

But Joe’s main problem is that he is afraid to admit to himself that he cannot write at all.