Hot Tin Roof Themes

In the game of life man is given the options to bluff, raise, or fold. He is dealt a hand created by the consequences of his choices or by outside forces beyond his control. It is a never ending cycle: choices made create more choices. Using diverse, complex characters simmering with passion and often a contradiction within themselves, Tennessee Williams examines the link of past and present created by man's choices in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

    Tennessee Williams is one the major writers of the mid-twentieth century. His work includes the plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. One theme of The Glass Menagerie is that hopeful aspirations are followed by inevitable disappointments. This theme is common throughout all of Williams' work and throughout his own life as well. It is shown through the use of symbols and characters.

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.

Throughout the 1950’s, the United States belonged to the Leave It To Beaver era. Families were structured around a strong, hard working father and a wonderful homemaker mother. Children were brought up with solid ideologies on what society expects from them and were warned about living a different and dangerous life. Only one-year separates Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room from there publishing dates during this decade of unwavering beliefs. These texts were seen as extremely controversial during their time due to their themes of homosexuality. Sexual orientation was an awkward topic during such a “to the book” time period and these texts pushed the limits, making them remarkable and memorable works. Both Tennessee Williams and James Baldwin explore the panic men experience while trying to comprehend what sexual orientation they belong to and highlight the masculine gay man. These texts also examine the woman’s role in the mist of it all.

Established as one of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th century, Tennessee Williams used his writing as a form of therapy. The author came from a troubled background consisting of alcoholism, mental breakdowns, and general unhappiness; Williams exploited these unfortunate events and allowed them to motivate his literature. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois’ struggles represent the reality of people’s lives, “an enduring concern of [Williams’] throughout his writing career (Henthorne 1). Blanche captures our focus with her seemingly sincere and fragile nature, but it is later revealed that this is just an illusion within her own mind. She resides in a world of fantasy to shield herself against the harsh threats of reality and her own fears. Blanche’s main objective in the play is to keep herself from falling apart in a world of cruelty through alcoholism and illusion. Through the characterization of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts the coping mechanism of fantasy and its detrimental repercussions by exploring the specific experiences that eventually impede her happiness.

The article takes many examples from primary sources, mostly from films of the pre-Code and post-Code era. He utilizes these films to exemplify the difference in the portrayal of sexuality due to the Production Code. Secondary sources, including a book called Pre-Code Hollywood by film historian Thomas Doherty, are used to analyze pre-Code films, which did not follow political or moral patterns of the time.

The great state of Mississippi gained quite a treat on March 26, 1911 and that treat was a baby named Thomas. A native of Columbus, Thomas Lanier Williams would grow up to become one of the most well-known playwrights in theatrical history. Williams did not attend school regularly due to frequent and severe illness as a child. He was homeschooled for most of his life but did graduate from high school in 1929 ( Weales,7 ). The illnesses that he suffered from included diphtheria which caused his legs to be paralyzed for almost two years. Because he rarely left the house, it would not be unusual to find a young Tennessee in a pile of books in his grandfather’s library. Williams’ father was not often home because his career caused him to travel, therefore, the playwright spent the first decade of his young adulthood with his grandparents. When he was twelve years old, Williams’ family moved to St. Louis . Throughout the course of his childhood and young adulthood, Williams’ parents struggled to hold their family together. Finally, his parents separated for good in 1947 ( Falk, Chronology ). The instability in his family was both marital and medical. The psychological disturbances that appeared in many of his family members were great influences on his writings. Thomas L. King, in his journal “Irony and Distance in The Glass Menagerie” discusses the impact of

(1933) felt the effects of conservative ideas, which later led to the censorship code’s introduction. The analysis of the Pre-Code film

"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most renowned 20th century American plays and films. The playwright is Tennessee Williams, a respected author whose works artistic and structural merit warrants their study into the 21st century. There are numerous aspects and points Williams makes with his works, including "A Streetcar Named Desire." Out of the richness this text offers, this paper will focus upon issues of mental illness and abuse in the play. No doubt an aspect that makes Williams' characters so vivid are their flaws, weaknesses, and desires. Where a person's character lacks weakness and what a person desires reveal a great deal about that person and provide insight into the choices they make. The paper will discuss aspects of abuse and mental instability in the characters and plot of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and will reference the play directly to underscore any points.

In Tennessee Williams’s life he was openly homosexual. “A Streetcar Named Desire” and is very much informed by Queer Theory”(Guilber,1). As a child he was told to fear sex and once he overcame this fear that had been instilled into his mind he put it into all

The lavender scare, as coined and explained by David Johnson, refers to the period of time during the 1950’s when a massive witch-hunt that targeted homosexual government employees was thriving in America’s social system. Johnson calls it the lavender scare in order to draw parallels with Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare, which happened at the same time, and to echo the common association during the 1950s with gay men and what was commonly considered an effeminate color (Johnson 2004). Friedman also writes about the lavender scare, citing Joseph McCarthy as the main proponent of this political and social movement. During the scare, Friedman argues, McCarthy set the homophobic precedent that millions of Americans would adhere to in the following decades (Friedman 2005). During the lavender scare, Gregory Lewis and Louise Robbins detail how the attitudes of homophobia created harmful legislation that led to the mass firings of thousands of government employees (Lewis 1997; Lewis 2001; Robbins 1994). Dennis Altman and Ian Lekus both argued that the lavender scare caused widespread homophobia throughout the government that then transferred to the general population (Altman 1998; Lekus 2006). Kevin Leonard also brings up the important point that homosexual people of color, specifically African Americans, were subjected not only to the copious amounts of homophobia during the mid 20th century, but also the incredibly racist

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire does not employ a variety of dramatic techniques to challenge the audience to explore the idea that the security offered by relationships can decline into a struggle for dominance. Rather, Williams’ uses said techniques to challenge the audience to understand how personal deterioration can lead to the decline in relationships, not through struggles for dominance, but through struggles for the basic conservation of said relationships. This is because the relationships portrayed in A Streetcar Named Desire only provide the illusion of security, seen through the relationship between Stella and Stanley, but provide no real guarantee of security. This concept is effectively explored through Tennessee

Throughout my critique for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof I will mention the many different elements that make up the play. Williams’ message about deceitfulness and family issues are portrayed through the characters, themes, and setting. Those are all factors in getting Tennessee Williams’ message across to the audience.

The Term “Mendacity” And Its Thematic Contributions to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Set in St. Louis Missouri prior to World War II, Tennessee Williams reflects back on his deeply tragic and dysfunctional familial experiences in, “The Glass Menagerie”. Williams brilliantly incorporates real aspects of society to reveal how they contributed to the nonreal aspects and the conflicts which affected his family. The real aspects of the play which had a significant impact on the lower middle-class families such as the Wingfields included, the economic hardships surrounding the Great Depression, the fall of the American south, society’s intolerance towards homosexuality, and many threats abroad. Although Williams play was merely a series of hazy memories, the nonreal aspects combined with the major societal conflicts contribute