Tennessee Williams The Wounded Genius

Early Years Born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi but later changed his name to Tennessee during his writing years. His mother was a controlling and emotionally abusive woman who instilled fear into her children using religion as a threat to scare her children. Father was a traveling shoe salesman, both distant and verbally abusive. Older sister, Rose, was his best friend who suffered from Schizophrenia and was admitted to a mental institution where she received a frontal lobotomy in an attempt to “cure” her. Younger brother, Dakin, was favored by his father over the older children because of the masculine qualities Tennessee did not exhibit.

Success in his career Writing Career 30 full-length plays Numerous short plays Two poetry volumes Five volumes of essays and short stories 1945: “The Glass Menagerie” won three major drama awards. Two Pulitzer Prizes: “Streetcar Named Desire” 1947 “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” 1955

Major Controversy When Baby Doll was released in 1956, critics stated that it as a lurid tale of a virgin child bride, her sexually frustrated husband, and her smarmy lover. The film was controversial when it was released due to its implicit sexual themes, provoking a largely successful effort to ban it, waged by the Roman Catholic National Legion of Decency that claimed the play as “revolting and the brazen advertising promoting it constitute a contemptuous defiance of the natural law, the observance of which has been the source of strength in our national life,” which of course, brought it more attention.

Reoccurring Themes and Ideas Works focus on Southern experience Conflicts between sexuality, society, and Christianity are large part of his drama and his life All major plays are “memory plays”: a character experiences something profound that causes an “arrest of time,” a situation in which time literally loops around itself That character must re-live that profound experience (caught in the loop) until he or she makes sense of it

Reoccurring Themes and Ideas Continued Focuses on the negative impact that conventional society has upon the “sensitive, non-conformist individual.” Emphasizes the irrational, desperate condition of humanity in a universe in which cosmic laws do not work. Examines the conflicts between the gentility of old Southern values and the practical Northern values.

The Glass Menagerie Time: 1945 (although action in the play occurs in mid-1930s). Place: Apartment house in a poor, shabby section of St. Louis, Missouri. The action takes place in the Wingfield apartment and on the fire escape. This is a “memory play,” and neither the settings nor the events are completely realistic. Tom, narrating while dressed as a merchant seaman, says he will provide “truth in the pleasant guise of illusion.” Lighting: Impressionistic, selective (not fully illuminated). The lighting, along with the “gauze curtains,” lends an unreal aura to the set, suggesting that this family functions in a dream world. Lighting gives the “pleasant disguise of illusion.” It also focuses on absent characters, most notably Mr.Wingfield through his photograph. Music: Adds to the nostalgic, gently melancholic tone of the play and is used to evoke moods or memories. According to Williams, “It is primarily Laura’s music, and therefore, comes out most clearly when the play focuses upon her and the lovely fragility of glass which is her image.”

The Glass Menagerie Themes and Motifs Illusion versus reality “inside and outside” lives (family/home versus larger world) Past versus present/future (change, loss) Family (dysfunctional, entrapment) Escape Paradox and ambivalence Deception (reality vs. appearance) Laura’s collection of animal figurines represents the fragile relationships among all the characters. The glass unicorn is a symbol for Laura. The glass motif recurs throughout the play: For example, Laura visits the conservatory at the zoo, a haven for tropical flowers that are as vulnerable as she is outside of the glass world they live in. A glass ball that hangs from the ceiling of the Riverside Dance Hall reflects rainbow colors and represents the dreams of the dancers.

Parallels of the life of Williams to The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Tom Rose (sister) Laura Cornelius (father) Mr. Wingfield (distant Father) Edwina (mother) Amanda (pushes her children away)