Tennessee Williams And The Glass Menagerie

Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams’ dramatic play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, earned him fame and praise on Broadway in the 1950s. However, Williams’ other works such as Camino Real, A Street Car Named Desire and “…The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway…” put his name out in the world of drama (Biography.com Editors, 2015). Born as Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911, he was raised in Mississippi mostly by his mother due to his father, a salesman, favoring his job and drinking over family. The marriage between his mother and father was in distress and his home was “…a tense place to live;” in consequence their marriage was a factor in Williams taking up writing (Biography.com Editors, 2015). Williams studied journalism in college, later graduating from the University of Iowa and moving to

Tennessee Williams uses the character Amanda in “The Glass Menagerie” to express the attitude of how proper young men and woman should carry themselves. Amanda’s attitude towards her children sets the stage for their unhappy lives. Her refusal to accept her children for who they are has led to Tom drinking during the evenings and Laura having social anxiety. “The Glass Menagerie” reflects the social norms, roles, and values of the 1940’s when it was written. It depicts woman as helpless and unable to provide for themselves, while men should be focused on furthering their careers and providing for the family. Amanda believes that a young woman of Laura’s age should be attending social events and getting schooling till she can attract a gentlemen caller who will provide for her. Finally, she believes that Tom should be concerned with furthering his career to provide a better life for Laura and herself since he became the man of the house once his father left. Amanda’s attitude displays the social norms during the 1940’s and sets the framework for Laura’s disappointing meeting with a gentleman caller as well as Tom Leaving.

Born in the early 1900s in Columbus, Mississippi, Tennessee Williams is an American playwright. His plays are famous for including romance and human frustration. According to many critics, Williams “pushed drama into new fields, stretched the limits of the individual play and became one of the founders of the so-called ‘New Drama’ (“Tennessee Williams”). One of Williams’ most famous plays, A Streetcar Named Desire, was the second play in history to win the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Written in 1947, this play focuses on the emotional life of Blanche DuBois, a school teacher from Mississippi who has suddenly arrived at her sister Stella’s apartment in New Orleans, jobless, moneyless, and most importantly, propertyless.Throughout

    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, 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.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), born Thomas Lanier Williams and is considered by be one of the leading playwright of his age and post-World War II America. He took many of the elements of his plays from his own life. He was born in Columbus, MS, to a violent, aggressive traveling salesman and a high-minded, puritanical, preacher 's daughter. He had an older sister named Rose, who he adored, but suffered from mental problems that eventually caused her to be institutionalized. Rose was the model for several of Williams characters,His family moved to St. Louis at some point in his childhood. Williams attended a succession of universities before he finally received his degree in playwriting. Between stints in college, he worked for three years in a shoe factory.

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.

In both plays it is seen that the characters experience difficulty with recognizing what is a fantasy and what is reality. Amanda and Willy both deny their childrens’ underachievement and blames and accept that the destiny of their kids exists in their grasp. Consequently, they envision their kids as being something they are not, trying to shroud their childrens’ disappointments. Such illusions permit Amanda and Willy to feel fruitful in framing Laura and Biff's lives. Amanda denies Laura as a challenged person and adjusts any individual who trusts her to be along these lines, all throughout the play. Willy impacted Biff's conviction that he had been a sales representative for Bill Oliver. Biff starts to scrutinize this after the meeting that

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.

Tennessee Williams was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who passed away on February 25, 1983. He wrote a number of plays that were highly praised during the beginning of his career. His plays explored topic dealing with sexuality to mental illness. Many of the plays that he had written had prominent female characters. These female characters across Tennessee Williams’ plays often share similar traits. These characters fall under similar categories that reflect Williams’ experiences with women during his adolescence.

Laura is a character who longs to find companionship, beyond her glass menagerie, although ironically, she is the one keeping herself from this companionship due to her anxiety against social interaction. Laura does possess the aptitude for companionship, but no sign of this comes until the end of the memory, at which point we as an audience understand the majority of why Laura behaves the way she does. By knowing the confinements of which Laura lives (in an apartment with her mother and brother) as they are mixed with her limited relationship(s), understanding her deep obsession with her glass menagerie and acknowledging the true happiness her glass animals bring her, and knowing the true need that Laura has for legitimate companionship beyond

a fight at the end of scene two, it is apparent to Laura that Tom is

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.

In the story The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, it is about a dark and dreary time, with characters who are trying to escape their miserable and unhappy lives. There are a few characters, such as Amanda Wingfield and her son Tom, who are trying to escape their predicament, but these characters are the cause of their own selfish misery. The two who are not as straightforward about their wants and ambitions are Laura Wingfield, the daughter, and Jim O’Connor, the gentleman caller. Escape can be gained through the mind, body, and soul as Laura and Jim come to understand during certain aspects of their lives. Laura and Jim are trying to escape their situations brought upon them by not only themselves, but by others too, which is why

Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911. He was born in Columbus, Missouri. Tennessee was the son of Cornelius and Edwina Williams. Williams was raised mostly by his mother, and had a complicated relationship with his father. He says his childhood was “pleasant and happy.” In 1929, he enrolled at the University of Missouri to study journalism. He was soon withdrawn by his father. When he was 28 years old, he moved to New Orleans where he changed his name. Originally, his name was Thomas Lanier Williams III. In 1940, his play, “Battle of Angels” played in Boston. On March 31, 1945, “The Glass Menagrie” opened on Broadway. “A streetcar named desire” earned his first Pultitzer prize in 1947, and he earned a drama critics award. The 1960s were a bad time in Tennessees life, his work received bad reviews and he soon turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. In 1975, a play called, “Memoirs that told the story of his life was published. Tennessee Williams died in a hotel room surrounded by drugs and alcohol on February 25, 1983. (Biography.com)