Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III, now known as Tennessee Williams, wrote many famous plays that are still popular today. Williams’ family troubles caused inspiration for most of his writings. He became famous for the plays, novels, poems, and essays he wrote(Pbs). William’s was a contributor to the 20th-century American playwrights (Poetry Foundation). Tennessee Williams used his experiences from childhood to write his magnificent plays by portraying his own family troubles onto paper, which brought his characters to life. Tennessee Williams used his brilliance and individual agony to become one of the most famous American playwrights but was tortured by his inner demons, homosexuality, depression, and substance abuse. Tennessee …show more content…
Probably Williams’ greatest influence was his sister Rose. Both the character Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie are based on Rose, Williams sister (Poetry Foundation). She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was in and out of mental hospitals throughout her life. Her parents, in an attempt to treat her schizophrenia, allowed doctors to perform a prefrontal lobotomy (Michigan University Theatre). The procedure went badly and left Rose incapacitated for the remainder of her life. This heartache could have contributed to Williams’ alcoholism and depression (Michigan University Theatre). In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda Wingfield can be easily acknowledged to be a resemblance of Williams’ mother, Edwina Williams. Tennessee Williams’ battled depression and addiction throughout his life. Growing up in a harsh family setting contributed to these conditions. Rose’s condition made it even harder for him to live a normal …show more content…
As he got older, his writing also matured and became more opinionated, further cutting off him from the critics (Michigan University Theatre). When Williams partner died it caused him to dive deeper into a long episode of depression(Pbs). Williams began to rely more and more consistently on alcohol and drugs, although he resumed writing it was more of a short story style of writing and another play. As he continued going in a downhill direction his brother, Dakin Williams hospitalized him in 1969(Pbs). When he was released in 1970, Williams carried on with his writing of plays, poems, and a novel. Tennessee died on February 25, 1983. His cause of death was choking on a pill-bottle cap in his hotel room at the Elysse in New York (Michigan University Theatre). Tennessee Williams body was buried in the Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri. Williams wanted to be buried near the poet Hart Crane because he inspired him and was a great influence on him. After Williams died, in honoring his grandfather, he left his literary rights to The University of the South, Sewanee (Michigan University
Tennessee Williams is known to be a Southern playwright of American drama. Williams knew how to show haunting elements like psychological drama, loneliness, and inexcusable violence in his plays. Critics say Williams often depicted women who were suffering from critical downfalls due to his sister Rose Williams. Rose was always fighting with a mental health condition known as schizophrenia all her life. The character Laura in The Glass Menagerie is always compared to Rose, because they were both socially awkward and very quiet girls. This may be true, but one can look at Blanche DuBois from A Street Car Named Desire shadows his sister’s life and characteristics more than Laura did. In the obituary of Rose Williams that was written by Philip Hoare, he says, “She grew up outgoing, using make-up earlier than other girls, and was remembered as “very pretty and a bit standoffish” (Hoare). This parallel sounds remarkably like Blanche and does not sound like Laura’s characteristics. Laura never wore make up and her personality did not keep others distant. She was distant to others, because of her disability. Also Roses down fall is very similar to Blanche DuBois down fall in the play and end result. Laura never has a down fall in The Glass Menagerie. Laura seems to have hope in the end of the play. Laura was a tribute to show Rose’s innocence, but Blanche was to show Rose’s true colors. Tennessee Williams uses elements of appearance, age, gentleman callers, sexuality, and the fear of homosexuality to show his sisters down fall in the character Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Tennessee Williams was one of the most important playwrights in the American literature. He is famous for works such as “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)”. As John S. Bak claims: “Streetcar remains the most intriguing and the most frequently analyzed of Williams’ plays.” In the lines that follow I am going to analyze how the identity of Blanche DuBois, the female character of his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, is shaped.
The Greek tragedian Aeschylus once wrote that “a god implants in mortal guilt whenever he wants utterly to confound a house,” and as the creator of A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams is no exception. The guilt of Blanche DuBois makes the emotional, tragic, and often extreme circumstances of the play possible. Williams creates Blanche’s vulnerabilities, including her dependence on others and her inability to face reality, so that her guilt over Allan’s death becomes the primary cause of her promiscuity, neurasthenic behavior and ultimate downfall.
Tennessee Williams tells a story of a battle with fantasy and reality through his characters in A Streetcar Named Desire. When the reader is first introduced to the character of Blanche DuBois, she portrays herself as sincere and fragile. Blanche shows up at the house of her sister Stella and her husband Stanley’s home with the intent of staying at their home for a lengthy amount of time. Blanche tells Stella that she has lost Belle Reve, an ancestral home, after the death of many of their relatives and also mentions she has been given a leave of absence from her job as a school teacher because of her bad nerves, “I was so exhausted by all I’d been through my --- nerves broke. I was on the verge of --- lunacy, almost! So Mr. Graves – Mr. Graves
The Glass Menagerie closely parallels the life of the author. From the very job Tennessee held early in his life to the apartment he and his family lived in. Each of the characters presented, their actions taken and even the setting have been based on the past of Thomas Lanier Williams, better known as Tennessee Williams.
In today's rough and tough world, there seems to be no room for failure. The pressure to succeed in life sometimes seems unreasonable. Others often set expectations for people too high. This forces that person to develop ways to take the stress and tension out of their lives in their own individual ways. In the plays "The Glass Menagerie" and " A Streetcar Named Desire" written by Tennessee Williams, none of the characters are capable of living in the present and facing reality. Two of the characters are Amanda Wingfield and Blache Dubios. In order for these characters to deal with the problems and hardships in their lives they retreat into their own separate worlds of illusion and lies.
The human mind is fragile, unpredictable and unreliable. Simultaneously, the human mind is a master of self-defense against emotionally shaking experiences that one might live through. During the first half of the 20th century, mental illness was not a subject widely spoken about and drugs, electro-convulsive therapy, and surgery were used as treatments for persistent illnesses of the mind (PBS “Timeline: Treatments (...)”). This is the world Tennessee Williams grew up in, with a three year older sister who developed a mental illness herself (Hoare). In 1947, Tennessee Williams broke through the barrier of fame with his well known play A Streetcar Named Desire: the story about the emotional demise of the fragile, yet determined, southern belle Blanche DuBois and her visit to her sister Stella in New Orleans. Williams himself said that his plays are “pleas for the understanding of delicate people” (Rocamora): they contain a desperation for sensitivity, tenderness and humaneness that can rarely be found other plays (Maupin). Blanche DuBois is Tennessee Williams’ representation of the “delicate people”, as she battles psychological illness through fear, guilt and compensation for the surrounding people and relations in the play.
He had a sister named Rose, who was two years older, and when they were growing up they were very close. Rose was a very sensitive child and by her early twenties she was classified as a schizophrenic. She was later institutionalized and eventually given a lobotomy. His sister's condition devastated Williams, and he was afraid throughout his life that he would succumb to madness as well. He based the character of Laura from "The Glass Menagerie" on his sister Rose. Williams had a younger brother named Dakin, who was eight years younger.
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One strong influence that is evident in Tennessee Williams' plays is his family life, which was "full of tension and despair". His father, a businessman who owned a show warehouse, was known for his gambling and drinking habits. He was often engaged with violent arguments with his wife that frightened Tennessee's sister, Rose. Williams cared for Rose most of her adult life, after his mother, Edwina, allowed her to undergo a frontal lobotomy. This event greatly disturbed him. Many people believe that Williams' first commercial success, The Glass Menagerie, was based on his own family relationships. This play tells the story of Tom, his disabled sister, Laura, and their controlling mother, Amanda, who tries to make a match between Laura and a Gentleman caller. The characters seem to resemble the people in Williams' immediate family.
Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.
Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest American dramatists of the 20th century. Most of his plays take us to the southern states and show a confused society. In his works he exposes the degeneration of human feelings and relationships. His heroes suffer from broken families and they do not find their place in the society. They tend to be lonely and afraid of much that surrounds them. Among the major themes of his plays are racism, sexism, homophobia and realistic settings filled with loneliness and pain.1 Tennessee Williams characters showed us extremes of human brutality and sexual behavior.2 One of his most popular dramas was written in 1947, and it is called A Streetcar Named Desire.
In the play A Streetcar Named Desire author Tennessee Williams writes about Blanche DuBois, a woman who is seeking help from her older sister Stella Kowalski. Blanche comes to stay with Stella and her husband Stanley after finding out that Blanche and Stella’s childhood home had been taken from under them. The play goes on to show the dramatic downfall of what is Blanche DuBois. Throughout the play we see her slowly break down till finally she is pushed over the edge. William's uses a great deal of allusion to convey a real meaning to why characters do what they do. It’s not just an example, each allusion has a deeper meaning to the character it’s associated with. Blanche DuBois is the character used associated with allusion. Williams uses allusion with Blanche to present how she masks her true identity to the real world, saying she’s a pure southern belle when really she is truly a lost lonely soul.
Owning his practice for over 40 years, William Carlos Williams was a successful doctor who wrote poetry in his spare time, including between his patients.
At first glance, Amanda Wingfield from Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie seems like a selfish women stuck in her past. In some ways this observation is correct; however, she is much more than that. Her kind and caring nature, and her insatiable love for her children has been overshadowed by her brash and insensitive dialogue. Her character is extremely complex and each one her actions reveals more of her overwhelming personality. Amanda loves her children and tries her best to make sure they do not follow in her path to downfall. Unfortunately, while she is trying to push her children toward her ideals of success; she is also pushing them away. Amanda Wingfield is a kind women stuck the wrong place and time; she