Summary of Tennessee Williams' "Heavenly Grass"

Heavenly Grass is a full-length play set on a Caribbean island. Violet Venable, a domineering Southern matriarch, tries to control her weak-willed son Duncan and prevent his marriage to Alma Winemiller, a lower-class woman. She enlists Dr. Henry Seward, a worldly scientist, who instead falls for Violet.

As Violet's manipulation unravels, she reveals a shattering secret: she is not Duncan's real mother and has kept him from his father. Devastated, Duncan chooses Alma and leaves. The play explores obsession, class, racial prejudice, identity, and the destructive power of maternal control—hallmarks of Williams' complex, poetic dramaturgy.