Tennessee Williams: The Astounding Playwright Tennessee Williams is a world war II playwright that wrote short stories, plays, essays, and several others. He went through a very tough and interesting life of writing. He was criticized for a lot of his works, but a good amount of his works was put on Broadway for how good they were. He received to many awards to count for his pieces. He focused on topics of families or people that had struggles through-out their life. Therefore, Tennessee Williams all round is an astounding playwright that no one expected to do as well as he did because of his topics. Although, Williams has a lot of background. Williams was born March 26th, 1911, and he died February 25th, 1983. He was an American playwright, novelist, short story writer, and poet. He became a screenwriter in 1943. He worked various day jobs as well (Gale, 1). He had an autobiography published in 1975 that talked about his stories, talked about his life and family, and it talked about him being an open homosexual and how it affected his writing. (Gale, 36). He was the second of three children. His sister struggled the most out of all of them. His real name was Thomas Lanier. He was nicknamed Miss Nancy by his overbearing father …show more content…
He had the falsest criticism on his piece, The Glass Menagerie. A lot of critics claimed it was an autobiography, when the only thing that involved in at all was the narrator. Multiple lines are close but not on purpose. This piece also attained a sinister tinge like his other pieces but more than the rest. (Gale 18) The same piece has good criticism at the same time. Some critics said it was “very touching” and seen self-indulgence. (Gale 17) Williams first public play was in 1940, which was Battle of Angels. A sort of romantic story that was closed in two weeks but influenced his other works. (Gale 14) His pieces had a mixture of bad and good criticism but he still received many
Williams wrote about his life. The Glass Menagerie is a very autobiographical play. A Streetcar Named Desire, although meant to a play that anyone can relate to, also contained characters and situations from his life. In both plays, the characters are drawn from his life. The other relationship I would like to discuss is the similarities between The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, which have similar characters and themes throughout them.
Frederick Douglass once said that Paul Laurence Dunbar is “the most promising young colored man in America” (Paul Poets.org). This goes well with Dunbar since he eventually turned out to be one of the best dialect poets in his time period. Paul Dunbar (1872-1906) was part of the modernism movement that wanted to create something new and get rid of the old literature. They used more free verse poetry and stream of consciousness writing. The time period lasted from 1890 to the 1940s (PBS np). The parents of Paul Dunbar were slaves before and after he was born and then separated shortly after his birth and was financially unable to attend college which lead him to befriend Frederick Douglass to help Dunbar become a better writer.
A play, The Glass Menagerie, was written by Tennessee Williams in 1944. Many films have been produced after this play was published. An example of these films would be the one produced in 1987 by Paul Newman. There are many similarities in addition to differences between the play and the film.
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.
Ardolino, Frank. “Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.” The Explicator, Vol. 68, No. 2, 131–132, 2010
Tennessee Williams was a well renowned playwright, who highlighted his personal experiences in his plays and stories. He had a colorful life and he enjoyed writing about what was considered taboo subjects in the 1940's, 1950's and the 1960's. Williams explored homosexuality, alcoholism, violence, greed and sex.
film music. On the one side there are the purists, who cry foul at the piecing together of
Tennessee Williams was also inspired to write by the writers he grew up with. During college, he saw a production of Ibsen's Ghosts, which inspired him to become a playwright. After graduating from the University of Iowa in 1938, he moved to New Orleans to launch his career as a writer. Here he found himself affected by the works of such writers as Arthur Rimbaud, Hart Crane, and D.H. Lawrence. He wrote the play I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, which dramatized the events surrounding Lawrence's death. He considered it a tribute to a writer he greatly respected and admired.
	Paul was one of the most popular poets of his time and was the first black American writer to achieve national and international reputation. He was not only a poet, but also a novelist, short story writer, writer of articles and dramatic sketches, plays and lyrics for musical compositions. His first volume of poetry, "Oak and Ivy" was published in 1893. Many of his poems and stories were written in Afro-American dialect, of which he was initially most noted for (Martin and Hudson 16).
Generally when some one writes a play they try to elude some deeper meaning or insight in it. Meaning about one's self or about life as a whole. Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is no exception the insight Williams portrays is about himself. Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments (Kirszner and Mandell 1807). The play centers itself on three characters. These three characters are: Amanda Wingfield, the mother and a women of a great confusing nature; Laura Wingfield, one who is slightly crippled and lets that make her extremely self conscious; and Tom Wingfield, one who feels trapped and is looking for a way out (Kirszner and Mandell 1805-06). Williams' characters are all lost in a dreamy state of illusion or escape wishing for something that they don't have. As the play goes from start to finish, as the events take place and the play progresses each of the characters undergoes a process, a change, or better yet a transition. At the beginning of each characters role they are all in a state of mind which causes them to slightly confuse what is real with what is not, by failing to realize or refusing to see what is illusioned truth and what is whole truth. By the end of the play each character moves out of this state of dreamy not quite factual reality, and is better able to see and face facts as to the way things are, however not all the characters have completely emerged from illusion, but all have moved from the world of dreams to truth by a whole or lesser degree.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Masterpieces of the Drama. Ed. Alexander W. Allison, Arthus J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman. 5th ed. NY: Macmillan, 1986. 779- 814.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a touching play about the lost dreams of a southern family and their struggle to escape reality. The play is a memory play and therefore very poetic in mood, setting, and dialogue. Tom Wingfield serves as the narrator as well as a character in the play. Tom lives with his Southern belle mother, Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura. The action of the play revolves around Amanda's search to find Laura a "gentleman caller. The Glass Menagerie's plot closely mirrors actual events in the author's life. Because Williams related so well to the characters and situations, he was able to beautifully portray the play's theme through his creative use of symbolism.
Tennessee Williams struggled with communication as a child. To deal with life Williams started to write; he wrote plays, poems, and books. Childhood, sexuallitiy, and drug and alcohol addiction influenced Williams's writing greatly
The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.
Portrayal of Women in The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer, and Period of Adjustment