Williams expresses in his forward how deeply he connects to this play and all of his writings. The theme of hotels is common within his plays, (Royal Palms hotel in St. Cloud on the Gulf Coast in this play) for not only do they act as a symbol of being tied to lustful tendencies and detached intimacy between strangers, but they represent flight. Like Chance, Williams could hardly settle in one place for an extended amount of time. He was always in a state of running whether that be for more life or out of fear. His lived a life “full of rented rooms.” Williams also shows a similarity to Chance through his struggles with vulnerability and the fear of losing what is most precious to him. Chance is essentially what Williams fears would become …show more content…
He strictly remains detached from love, therefore giving him the role of a player or womanizer, which is not surprising considering his statutory rape case. He flees this disaster and worries about his now state of a defrocked priest (ironic) and the clingy and infatuated 17 year old girl, finally telling her “I love nobody. I’m like that, it isn’t my fault” (Williams 2.53). Shannon is so incredibly casual in his demeanor, showing his detachment from the emotional side of himself. Although Shannon is more in tune with his physical, sexual self, he is incredibly entranced with Hannah Jelkes on an intellectual level, which is not a place he goes to with people very often (especially Maxine). The tension between Hannah and Shannon is odd but beautiful, for he is almost drawn to her in a spiritual, intangible sense. As discovered in Heintzelman’s Critical Companion to Tennessee Williams, Hannah acts as a guardian angel for Nonno, and therefore Shannon, because Nonno can be seen as a projection of Shannon in the future. “Hannah’s spirituality constitutes as a counterpoise to Maxine’s sensuality.” Hannah is described as ghostly and timeless, where Maxine is strictly physical. Towards the end of this play, Hannah fills this role of a guardian angel for Shannon, revealing things about herself and in turn, helping Shannon realize things about his own self, especially his “spook” that follows and suppresses him. When Shannon almost sarcastically asks Hannah what his problem is, she strikes back with the painfully true answer, “— the need to believe in something or in someone –” (Williams 3. 106). As the conversation reaveals Shannon’s emptiness through absence of love and exclusively sex, she innocently strikes again, saying “how lonely the intimate connection has always been for you” (Williams 3. 112). Shannon lives a life of cold, inhuman hotel rooms and is constantly in a state of lonesomeness, which results in
In Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams uses the suicide of Blanche's husband to illuminate Blanche's insecurities and immoral behavior. When something terrible happens to someone, it often reveals who he or she truly is. Blanche falls victim to this behavior, and she fails to face her demons. This displays how the play links a character’s illogical choices and their inner struggles.
Several Years after their marriage, cousin Mattie Silver is asked to relieve Zeena, who is constantly ill, of her house hold duties. Ethan finds himself falling in love with Mattie, drawn to her youthful energy, as, “ The pure air, and the long summer hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to Mattie.” Ethan is attracted to Mattie because she is the opposite of Zeena, while Mattie is young, happy, healthy, and beautiful like the summer, Zeena is seven years older than Ethan, bitter, ugly and sickly cold like the winter. Zeena’s strong dominating personality undermines Ethan, while Mattie’s feminine, lively youth makes Ethan fell like a “real man.” Ethan and Mattie finally express their feeling for each other while Zeena is visiting the doctor, and are forced to face the painful reality that their dreams of being together can not come true.
Mattie and Zeena, the two leading women characters in this novel have many differences that set them apart from each other, but also similarities that grab the reader’s interest. When they both entered Ethan’s life, they were a breath of fresh air that broke the silence in Ethan’s life. However, the crisp air that Mattie brought was prolonged and when Ethan began falling into a pit of silence again, she was there to get him to speak his mind and let out his emotions. She tried to have a positive outlook on life and to try new things to benefit her and others around her. Mattie was more outgoing and spontaneous opposed to Zeena. While Mattie was out and about in the town, Zeena was home all day. Zeena was bitter and controlling towards Ethan and everyone else in her life. Regardless, they were both willing to help when push came to shove. "Zeena 's done for Mattie, and done for Ethan, as good as she could. It was a miracle, considering how sick she was – but she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her. Not as she 's ever given up doctoring, and she 's had sick spells right along; but she 's had the strength given her to care for those two for over twenty years, and before the accident came she thought she couldn 't even care for herself” (Wharton 23). So despite of Zeena being cruel and pessimistic most of the time, she was willing to return the favor of kindness and
James’s thought was shocking to everyone where he revealed that he had feeling for Theresa. James and Marty are life partners, yet James was not honest with Marty; this shows that the truth eventually comes out between the lies even if theater is only pretending. When Schultz asked Marty about her injury and she pretended to be fine, but Schultz suggested it was night terror, followed with question if she had been harassed when she were young to which she answered no. However, later through the anonymous game, she did confess that she was molested when she was young revealed that amidst of all that artificiality; there was honesty along with the pretentiousness. This play revealed the truth about how beautiful when people throw themselves earnestly and unselfconsciously into something and be healed through the interaction with each
Donald Spoto described the new apartment building that Williams and his family relocated to in St. Louis, Missouri as having only two small windows, one window in the front of the apartment and another in the rear. A fire escape blocked the smoky light that might have come in from the window facing the back alley (16). In The Glass Menagerie, the apartment was described as facing an alley. Meyer brought to my attention that the entrance to the apartment was actually a fire escape. There was no front door in the apartment of The Glass Menagerie, only a fire escape to enter and exit through (1865). This omission of a front door represents the feeling that Tennessee Williams had that he could not leave his family and strike out on his own in a normal fashion as most children do. Tennessee Williams felt that he had to literally escape in order to follow his own dream of writing as Tom too felt in the play. John Fritscher points out in his dissertation that Tennessee and Tom both were torn between their mother's interpretation of responsibility and their own instinct (5).
Hannah's attitude towards men is peculiar, for she feels no possessiveness towards them, and enjoys having multiple lovers. The presence of air in Hannah is evident from her relations with the opposite sex. "Her flirting was, low and guileless...the smile-eyes, the turn of the head-all so welcoming, light and playful." (42). Hannah's sweet, guileless flirting presents her as an innocent woman, and her playful manner demonstrates her child-like ways. Her amiability and charisma are evident because "...Hannah rubbed no edges, made no demands, made the man feel as though he were complete and wonderful just as he was...he (the man) swooned in the Hannah-light simply because he was." (43). Hannah is len...
follow his father’s footsteps, but is obligated to stay to support his family. He feels the need to abandon all his problems and change his life’s fate. Through the symbol of the fireplace, Tennessee Williams suggests that people want to escape the confinements of reality to chase their dreams, but are restrained by their sympathizing emotions.
Tennessee Williams employs the uses of plot, symbolism, and dialogue to portray his theme of impossible true escape, which asserts itself in his play, The Glass Menagerie. Each of his characters fills in the plot by providing emotional tension and a deep, inherent desire to escape. Symbolism entraps meaning into tangible objects that the reader can visualize and attach significance to. Conclusively, Williams develops his characters and plot tensions through rich dialogue. Through brilliant construction and execution of literary techniques, Williams brings to life colorful characters in his precise, poignant on-stage drama.
In the study of Tennessee Willliams' plays: "Suddenly Last Summer" and "The Glass Menagerie", we can find a great deal of autobiographical connections. "The Glass Menagerie" is particularly considered the author's most biographical work. It is described by the playwright as "a memory play"; indeed, it is a memory of the author's own youth, an expression of his own life and experiences. Similarly, "Suddenly Last Summer" includes many of Tennesse Williams' real life details.
The family in Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, faces various dilemmas. One of the most prominent is the issue of anxiety. Throughout the play, the family focuses their attention mainly on Laura and her struggle with both her physical disability and social anxiety. However, closer analysis reveals that Laura is not the only character suffering, each family member displays signs of being affected by anxiety. Their interactions with one another trigger feelings of nervousness, unhappiness, and anger. The issue of anxiety extends beyond Laura, affecting the whole family, and ultimately leads to tragedy.
In ‘Paul’s Case’ Paul has created a fantasy world in which he becomes entranced, even to the point of lying to classmates about the tales of grandeur and close friendships that he had made with the members of the stock company. This fantasy falls apart around him as “the principle went to Paul’s father, and Paul was taken out of school and put to work. The manager at Carnegie Hall was told to get another usher in his stead; the doorkeeper at the theater was warned not to admit him to the house” (Cather 8). The fantasy fell apart further when the stories he had told his classmates reached the ears of the women of the stock company, who unlike their lavish descriptions from Paul were actually hardworking women supporting their families. Unable to cope with the reality of working for Denny & Carson, he stole the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank to live the life of luxury in New York. Only a person who felt backed into a corner would attempt something so unsound. After his eight days in paradise, he is again backed into a corner by the reality of his middle class upbringing, and the dwindling time he has before his father reaches New York to find him. The final way out for Paul is his suicide, for which an explanation would be “In the end, he fails to find his security, for it was his grandiose “picture making mechanism” that made his life so deardful.” (Saari). With all the securities of his fantasy life finally gone, his mental instability fully comes to light as he jumps in front of the train to end his
In Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Stella and Stanley Kowalski live in the heart of poor, urban New Orleans in a one-story flat very different from the prestigious home Stella came from. This prestige is alive and well inside Stella’s lady-like sister, Blanche Du Bois. Over the course of Blanche’s life, she has experienced many tragedies that deeply affected her, such as the death of her gay husband, the downward spiral in her mental health that followed, and most recently the loss of her wealth and therefore social status. She constructs a proverbial lampshade to mask her pain and to control the last part of her world that she is able to, the image she projects into the world for herself and others to see. The brooding prince of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” chooses a very similar way of coping with the hand life has dealt him. When his mother remarries his uncle only a month after his father’s passing, the ghost of Hamlet’s father visits the young prince demanding avengement. These events cause Hamlet to try to replace the old lampshade that helped him cope with reality by changing his own image and fooling himself and others into thinking he’s crazy. An examination of both plays reveals that the importance of subjective truths and the way in which Blanche and Hamlet use them to cope transcends the context of both plays.
The American dream described in the play can be achievable, but Willy’s ways of achieving that American dream leads him to a failure. According to an article published by the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, the play builds the idea of American dream that it is harmful and immoral as long as it is based on selfishness and greediness. However, the dream us described realistic when it is achieved on values that ar...
Tennessee Williams’ excellent use of themes to portray characters in his world class, classic play “The Glass Menagerie” makes the play enthralling till the very end of it. Out of many themes like loneliness, illusions and distress; disintegration of the family seems to be a major plot of the play. Undoubtedly, all the themes displayed in “The Glass Menagerie” are as much important for the success of the play which keeps the audience indulged into it throughout. Nature and lifestyle of each character plays a vital role in creating events and setting the theme of the story. From an ambitious, energetic and hard-working young man, Tom to a physically challenged and unsociable girl, Laura; many qualities of a human being have been portrayed in
Tennessee Williams of Columbus, Mississippi, and author of the play The Glass Menagerie creates a well-rounded character by the name of Tom Wingfield. The author reveals many aspects of this character throughout the play, which focuses on the memories of the three main characters that live in a St. Louis apartment in the late 1930s. As the story progresses, the reader observes how each of the characters unravel and unfold to their needs and wants. Tom is displayed as a character who lives in a world that is different from reality, so, therefore, he behaves in a fashion that makes him seem falsely selfish, creative, and adventurous.