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life of tennessee williams inspiriing glass menagerie
tennessee williams essay on the glass menagerie
tennessee williams essay on the glass menagerie
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The Glass Menagerie and the Life of Tennessee Williams
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.
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).
Tom Wingfield, the narrator of the play, is representative of Tennessee Williams himself, down to them sharing the same first name. Tennessee Williams did not earn his nickname until his college days at the University of Missouri (Meyer 1864). Both Tom and Tennessee William...
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...ed his world and his experiences of it in whatever form seemed suitable to the material. (Kahn)
Works Cited:
Cook, Sharon. "Permission to Quote Me." E-mail to author. 2 Apr. 1999
Fritscher Ph.D., John J. Love And Death In Tennessee Williams Diss.1967: Loyola University Library. Internet 1999. Available: jackfritscher.com/tennessee
Kahn, Sy. Modern American Drama: Essays in Criticism. Edited by Willima E. Taylor. Deland, Florida. Everette/Edwards Inc., 1968. 71-88
Spoto, Donald. The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.,1985
Tischler, Nancy M. Tennessee Williams: Rebellious Puritan. New York: The Citadel Press, 1965.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Writing, Thinking. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 1999. 1865-190
...ms." Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1977. 45-60.
In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams presents us with four characters whose lives seem to consist in avoiding reality more than facing it. Amanda lives her life through her children and clings to her lost youthfulness. Tom retreats into movie theaters and into his dream of joining the merchant seamen and some day becoming a published poet. Laura resorts to her Victrola and collection of glass ornaments to help sustain her world of fantasy. Finally, Jim is only able to find some relief in his glorified old memories. This essay will examine how Amanda, Tom, Laura and Jim attempt to escape from the real world through their dreams.
Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol A. New York: W.
According to the Declaration, the Revolutionaries believed that France should have freedom of speech, no social distinctions, no one person with totalitarian power, a system of law that is written by the people and a government that protects the liberty, property and security of the people [C]. These goals were summarised into the phrase “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity).
Levine, Robert S. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th Edition. Volume B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1696. Print.
The health effects of alcohol are many, including but not limited to, change in brain structure and functions, damage to the heart, liver, pancreas, possible cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, liver an...
Hirsch, Foster. A Portrait of the Artist-The Plays of Tennessee Williams. London: Kennikat Press, 1979.
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The theater was one of the primary forms of entertainment in Elizabethan England, as anyone, rich or poor could attend the plays.The rich would sit in boxes or galleries, while the poorer people would have to stand for the entirety of the play (Haigh). The poor would stand in front of the stage which would normally be raised about 4 to 6 feet and the theater could hold on average 3,000 people (Trumbull). The rich however usually watched plays in indoor private theaters, but sometimes would watch the plays in the outdoor public ones. Performances ...
Greek and Elizabethan theatre, while similar in some respects, had a few large differences. The Greeks believed in a certain unity of theme, which was prevalent throughout the production. Greek plays were often drawn from myth or of historical significance, so it seems that only ki...
An influential factor in Tennessee Williams's writing was his own personal experience. The Glass Menagerie is a play that originated in the memory of the author. Williams drew heavily on his own family experiences, describing the lives of his mother, sister, and himself. Many aspects of the play resemble some of Williams's past experiences during childhood. The apartment that Amanda, Laura, and Tom Wingfield share is in the middle of the city, and it is among many dark alleys with fire escapes. Tom and Laura do not like the dark atmosphere of their living conditions, and their mother tries to make it as pleasant as possible. This apartment is almost a mirror image of one of the apartments that the Williams family lived in St. Louis, Missouri (American Writers IV). Amanda Wingfield is a typical Southern belle who fantasizes about her seventeen gentlemen callers back in Blue Mountain. She regularly attends meetings of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which are important outlets for her social...