Tennessee Williams Research Paper

Tennessee Williams is widely known as one of America's best but also one of the most controversial playwrights of the twentieth century. Critics, playgoers, and fellow playwrights have dubbed Williams one of the founders of the so-called "New Drama", characterized for pushing the limits of the conventional individual play. Throughout his various works one can get a strong sense of how his life struggles were used to fuel his art throughout. After struggling for years writing it, on March 31st, 1945, his first play, The Glass Menagerie, opened on Broadway, marking the start of his successful career. In pioneering form and style foreign to the early 20th century, Tennessee Williams portrayed the harsh difficulty of accepting reality with the

Her constant cautious choice of wording shines light on the ideals she wants to place on her children. Amanda’s intense nostalgia is due to the fact that she has been unsuccessful in the modern world, therefore causing her to distract herself with memories. The first time she met Jim as he came to dinner she brings up how her life changed quickly from a that of a southern belle to a husbandless housewife. In describing her days in the south, Amanda acquires a girlish tone and southern charm. She describes the many 'gentleman callers' she experienced, and in turn implied to Jim specifically what she expected out of the dinner. Williams uses Amanda's constant fluctuation between reality and illusion to portray just how far one will go to escape reality. Anytime she is presented with harsh realities she turns her mind to a childhood memory to avoid thinking. It is obvious that one cannot live in the past to escape the present, which is why Amanda's use of fabrications to fill boredom and void within her life pushed her son away in the

We see an illustration of this when Tom announces in the first scene of the play, "He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion". (scene 1) This statement blatantly portrays the theme of appearance v. reality and provides possible insight as to why Tom feels this issue has been so prevalent in his and his family's life. Another recurring symbol in relation to Tom is that of the fire escape. Outside the fire escape is the dance hall, which is used as a symbol for the world outside of the small apartment. Tom is frequently standing out on the fire escape smoking, portraying a figurative and to some degree, literal, release from his daily life. In one instance, while he is out taking a smoke, he notices two kids kissing in the alley. As he notes "This was the compensation for lives that passed like mine, without any change or adventure. Adventure and change were imminent in this year." In saying this, Tom makes the recognition that while he continues to live the dull and eventless life he has been leading, the people he observes experiencing life outside of his gloom show him that there is more to life than his current state and give him hope to escape the current issues he