The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams

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Recommended: Tennessee Williams: a portrait in laughter and lamentation

Life in the 20th century, where the innocence and morality dominated the streets, should not have been easy for a writer that was unafraid to openly express his thoughts of depravity and repressed desires that dwelled in the depths of his being. Tennessee Williams, one of the greatest playwrights in American history, managed to open a place in that world of ideals to express through his work his so chaotic reality. Even though he was derided by critics and blacklisted by Roman Catholic Cardinal Spellman, who condemned one of his scripts as “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, and offensive to Christian standards of decency” (quote), Williams achieve lots of recognitions from his so peculiar plays. One of his most important writings, The Glass Menagerie, reveals and exposes premises about William’s personal life including abandonment, deception, and escape.

As the play develops, the theme that prevails and remains highlighted through the writing is the sense of abandonment, which is a core fear in humans that is intensified as we grow and realize that we lack a lot of things, such as self-esteem and even direction in life. Even though Williams did not experience a complete feeling of abandonment, what he lived was enough to mark his life with the necessary bitterness to expose in his writings. Those significant events that occurred in his life can be recognize also in the play The Glass Menagerie; his father was absent for the majority of his childhood, her sister Rose abandon herself to live in her own world, and his mother abandon him by letting operate on her ill sister. In the play, Tennessee Williams is "Tom" the son that is struggling to support his mother and sister after his father leaves. His form of escape is the...

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... moon – you selfish dreamer! (7.320 Amanda). However, the memory of his sister Rose will always tormented him and remained him what he left behind.

Tennessee Williams was without doubt a master playwright of the twentieth century who used his own life deceptions, abandonment, and desires to escape from his world as inspirations for his writings. Despite of his drug addictions, homosexuality, and depression, Williams became a pioneer in the exposition of themes that might have been looked as an offense for the society of that time. Even though his themes were marked as Taboos, he never stopped stating his experiences the way he knew better; through the winds of writing. Williams has left behind a great legacy encouraging writers no to be afraid of telling the truth, because undoubtedly, his genius was in his honesty and in the perseverance to tell his stories.

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