Comparing the Life of Tennessee Williams and Glass Menagerie

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

Tennessee Williams is regarded as a pioneering playwright of American theatre. Through his plays, Williams addresses important issues that no other writers of his time were willing to discuss, including addiction, substance abuse, and mental illness. Recurring themes in William’s works include the dysfunctional family, obsessive and absent mothers and fathers, and emotionally damaged women. These characters were inspired by his experiences with his own family. These characters appear repeatedly in his works with their own recurring themes. Through The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams presents the similar thematic elements of illusion, escape, and fragility between the two plays, proving that although similar, the themes within these plays are not simply recycled, as the differences in their respective texts highlight the differences of the human condition.

Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams, wrote The Glass Menagerie, a play which premiered in Chicago in 1944. This award winning play, autobiographical in nature, represented a time in which Williams felt the obligation of his responsibilities in regards to the care of his family. Robert DiYanni, Adjunct Professor of Humanities at New York University, rated it as, “One of his best-loved plays...a portrayal of loneliness among characters who confuse fantasy and reality” (DiYanni 1156). Alternatively, The Glass Menagerie, a play set in the era of the Great Depression and written from the narrator’s memory, was meant to teach us the how our relationships with one another can alter our futures, for better or worse. Everything about this particular play was a direct and clear symbolization of Williams ' life growing up. Williams uses characterization to depict several people from his real life in this play; his sister, himself, his overbearing mother, absent father, and a childhood best friend. Williams does a splendid job transforming his personal life into a working piece of art. In Tennessee Williams ' play, The Glass Menagerie, his character, Laura, is central to the structure and focus of the story due to her individual ties to all of the supporting characters throughout the seven scene play.

The irony has taught me about love and sacrifice. An example in the story of dramatic irony was Della and Jim opening their gifts to each other. Della received a set of tortoiseshell combs, but she forgot her hair was not long enough to wear the combs. An example of a situational irony was Jim coming home and sees Della’s hair cut short. When Jim bought the combs, he did not expect Della to sell her treasured possession.

In Tennessee Williams's drama The Glass Menagerie the setting and dramatization in the play are used to convey each member of the family's hopes, desperations, and fears. He uses symbols throughout the story to add a deeper meaning and give his characters a sense of mystery. Also, though maybe inadvertently, The Glass Menagerie actually parallels the people and events in Tennessee Willliams's life.

In Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie” all four characters consist in avoiding reality more than facing it, Amanda, Laura, Tom, and Jim. Amanda lives her life through her children 's and clings to her past. Tom constantly stays in movie theatres and into his dream of joining the merchant seamen and someday becoming a published poet. Laura resorts to her victrolla and collection of glass ornaments to help sustain her world of fantasy. Finally, Jim is only able to find some relief in his praised old memories. Amanda, Tom, Laura and Jim attempt to escape from the real world through their dreams of a fantasy life they desire.

In the study of Tennessee Willliams' plays: "Suddenly Last Summer" and "The Glass Menagerie", we can find a great deal of autobiographical connections. "The Glass Menagerie" is particularly considered the author's most biographical work. It is described by the playwright as "a memory play"; indeed, it is a memory of the author's own youth, an expression of his own life and experiences. Similarly, "Suddenly Last Summer" includes many of Tennesse Williams' real life details.

Thomas Lanier Williams III’s first two plays produced on Broadway found great success, establishing his prowess as a great American playwright. Williams created not only great works, but the character of the tragic southern woman, faded, fallen, and led somewhat astray. To understand this constant character, most vivid in The Glass Menagerie, and A Street Car Named Desire, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof we must

Tennessee Williams was a writer who published short stories and dozens of plays. It is for his plays that the most successful of these, The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). and both A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won Pulitzer prizes. However, it's one of the foremost American playwrights of the twentieth century.

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that highlights major memories he has of his life through Tom, the narrator of the play who dwells on a time of his life in which he endures with his mother Amanda and sister Laura.

Many playrites were inspired by William Shakespeare’s work, including Tennessee Williams. Tennessee Williams is the playrite of “The Glass Menagerie,” the story of a family with poor relationships. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Williams purposefully shapes his characters to parallel to Shakespeare’s characters. Williams also drew inspiration from his real life by basing the character Laura on his sister, Rose, due to the guilt he experienced after abandoning his family. Williams also drew inspiration from Juliet’s soliloquy from Act II when discussing roses.

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.

    The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, contains multiple themes.  While there are many themes, the theme that holds the piece together is illusion versus reality.

Tennessee Williams is considered to be one of the most distinguished American playwrights of the twentieth century. As a Southern writer, Williams used his personal life and experiences as subject matter for many of his stories. Williams? turbulent early life was the basis for many of his plays. As an autobiographical play, The Glass Menagerie depicts individuals not only fleeing from reality, but also escaping from their desperate situations. Escape is defined ?as a means of obtaining temporary freedom from worry, care, or unpleasantness.? 1 Although the Wingfield family fails to accept reality, the characters have their own reasons and methods to escape their hopeless circumstances.

Tennessee Williams had a rough past as a result it influenced him to write plays about the conditions in the 1930s. Although Williams had a tough past, Williams became very successful in his writings and plays. Nevertheless Williams gained popularity among his peers. His experiences in the 1930s affected his work especially in The Glass Menagerie. Williams’s homosexuality made him be seen as an outcast in American society. Not to mention that homosexuality was not as widely accepted as it is today. The writing style of Williams creates a unique and great story. Tennessee Williams utilizes symbolism to express his themes throughout The Glass Menagerie.