Jeury Nunez Reyes
Prof. Jay Walitalo
ENG 101-FY01
30 Nov 2015
The Importance of Tennessee Williams “I don 't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don 't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And it that 's sinful, then let me be damned for it!” (Goodread, quotes). This quote comes directly from one of Tennessee William’s most famous novel, A Street Car Named Desire representing William’s way of life. Tennessee Williams is the pen name for Thomas Lanier Williams, born March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. He had a troubling boyhood; His father worked as a traveling salesman which required for him to be constant traveling around the world. Because of this,
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Cat on a hot tin roof, published in 1954 was met with a wealth of criticism. The play is about the sexual ambivalence of males towards females, and a debilitated family that are compelled to deal with hidden deceptions. This play shows the effect of Tennessee William’s life, being homosexual and the impact that it had in his writing. All the characters in the play, in some way are a double of Williams’s life. ‘The characters in Williams’s play are not caricatures or stereotypes; they are based on aspects of Williams’s personality and people that he knew in his past’ (Kerkhoffs, 2000). Not only do William’s characters mirror his life, but they also depict how society acted throughout this time. In the play, Big Daddy the owner of the plantation had a preference for his son Brick. He tends to have an affection towards him that could have easily been mistaken as a relationship of more than a father, son bond. ‘Big Daddy shocks his son by alluding to his knowledge of and tolerance for homosexual experiences. When Brick rejects his father’s touching attempt to reassure him of his understanding, Bid Daddy retaliates by accusing his son of a kind of self- righteous hypocrisy’(J. Huzzard, 1985). This quote ties back to the Homosexuality impact of William’s life, where depicts …show more content…
As a playwright write William’s was not afraid to depict his own life through his literary works. William’s has been a very significant author in literature, as described by the New York Times (1983) as “the most important American playwright after Eugene O 'Neill”. Tennessee William’s was also recognized because of the way he wrote, and his impact on society, and his personal experiences, inserted into the plays. ‘He had a profound effect on the American theater and on American playwrights and actors. He wrote with deep sympathy and expansive humor about outcasts in our society. Though his images were often violent, he was a poet of the human heart’ (M. Gussow, 1983). Three of his most famous works, out of all that he had were The Glass Menagerie, A street Car Named Desire, and lastly Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In all three of these plays they depicted/ reflected a point in time where William’s went through a negative experience, which influenced him to insert these experiences into the plays. Also in all his plays, they were about a family and their struggles to see the reality of their world and trying not to go along with the norms of society. A similarity in all the plays was that William’s made the women in all these plays as himself. In other words the women represented his life. "It 's true my heroines often speak for me. That doesn 't make them transvestites. Playwrights
During the time period Tennessee Williams, author of the play A Streetcar Named Desire, lived in, men were typically portrayed as leaders of the household. Through Williams' usage of dialogue, specific descriptions of each characters, as well as sound, he illustrates to readers of today's society how differently a man and woman coexisted in the mid-1900s, compared to today. Through the eyes of a topical/historical theorist, who stresses the relationships between the story and the time period it takes place, the distinction between today's society and that of five decades past, can be observed with depth and precision.
“He went on to defend the women in his plays, many of them among the most memorable female roles ever created for the theater - Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire," Alma Winemiller in "Summer and Smoke," Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Alexandra Del Lago in "Sweet Bird of Youth." […]" Was Blanche a monster? I thought she was very likable.”
Tennessee Williams is one of the best play writers in American history. Tennessee Williams's life experiences has been used as subject matter for his dramas. Tennessee Williams uses his experiences and express them through plays. His life experiences are used over and over again in the creation of his dramas.
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 his essay "Come back to the Locker Room Ag'in, Brick Honey!" Mark Royden Winchell discusses several aspects of the homosexual theme in Tennessee William's play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Winchell describes the play as subversive because it casts doubt onto the innocence of male companionship, the two most tolerant characters are the most overtly heterosexual characters, and homosexuality is depicted as a personal rather than social or political problem, despite the time period of this play. I think that Winchell is correct in all these thoughts, but what I want to know is what was Williams' approach, and that is never answered.
Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest American dramatists of the 20th century. Most of his plays take us to the southern states and show a confused society. In his works he exposes the degeneration of human feelings and relationships. His heroes suffer from broken families and they do not find their place in the society. They tend to be lonely and afraid of much that surrounds them. Among the major themes of his plays are racism, sexism, homophobia and realistic settings filled with loneliness and pain.1 Tennessee Williams characters showed us extremes of human brutality and sexual behavior.2 One of his most popular dramas was written in 1947, and it is called A Streetcar Named Desire.
In today's rough and tough world, there seems to be no room for failure. The pressure to succeed in life sometimes seems unreasonable. Others often set expectations for people too high. This forces that person to develop ways to take the stress and tension out of their lives in their own individual ways. In the plays "The Glass Menagerie" and " A Streetcar Named Desire" written by Tennessee Williams, none of the characters are capable of living in the present and facing reality. Two of the characters are Amanda Wingfield and Blache Dubios. In order for these characters to deal with the problems and hardships in their lives they retreat into their own separate worlds of illusion and lies.
'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' is essentially about Tennessee Williams as a writer uncovering the broad truths to an unsuspecting audience, by testing the social boundaries. The characters in this 1950s patriarchal play are amplified and give us an ambiguous ending to confirm to the audience that the constraints women face in the play are something to be considered. Williams introduces Maggie in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ as a self-evident, dominant character from very early on. Describing her voice to be “both rapid and drawling” Saying “she has the vocal tricks of a priest delivering a liturgical chant” In the play she is the first one on stage and lengthily stage directions are used conveniently to exhibit her significance in the play. The detailed description of her voice helps to build curiosity. By doing so Williams use of a dramatic technique, slowly creates tension, which is effective to the reader as it helps stimulate the beginning of the play. Very early on Maggie is illustrated as a genuine beauty “Way he always drops his eyes down my body when I'm talkin' to him” She is depicted as a very cunning woman, with the way she presents her body and looks to get what she wants. She recognises that her role in society is to be displayed as a trophy wife and be kept behind the scenes in many situations; in many ways she abides to this role, while also using it to supplement her own personal motives...
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 Philip Hoare, he says, “She grew up outgoing, using make-up earlier than other girls, and was remembered as “very pretty and a bit standoffish” (Hoare). This parallel sounds remarkably like Blanche and does not sound like Laura’s characteristics. Laura never wore make up and her personality did not keep others distant. She was distant to others, because of her disability. Also Roses down fall is very similar to Blanche DuBois down fall in the play and end result. Laura never has a down fall in The Glass Menagerie. Laura seems to have hope in the end of the play. Laura was a tribute to show Rose’s innocence, but Blanche was to show Rose’s true colors. Tennessee Williams uses elements of appearance, age, gentleman callers, sexuality, and the fear of homosexuality to show his sisters down fall in the character Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
As women's studies programs have proliferated throughout American universities, feminist "re-readings" of certain classic authors have provided us with the most nonsensical interpretations of these authors' texts. A case in point is that of Kathleen Margaret Lant's interpretation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in her essay entitled "A Streetcar Named Misogyny." Throughout the essay, she continually misreads Williams' intention, which of course causes her to misunderstand the play itself. Claiming that the play "has proved vexing to audiences, directors, actors, readers, and critics" (Lant 227), she fails to see that it is she herself who finds the play vexing, because it does not fit nicely into the warped feminist structure she would try to impose upon it.
“All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone. But she can’t admit to herself that she makes me sick,” (II.47). This is a quote spoken by Big Daddy concerning his wife, Big Mama. Throughout the play, women become victim to unfair and misogynistic treatment from their husbands. This is mainly evident in Big Mama, Maggie and Mae’s respective relationships. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof displays this casual misogyny in its accurate depiction of how women were treated in that era, through the roles of the female characters and their relationships, as well as the treatment of the female characters.
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.
Communication is a very important aspect of any type of relationship. There are many themes in the play, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams, but the major theme is that of isolation and the lack of communication. This type of theme involves many character such as Brick and Margaret. Big Daddy and his oldest son Gooper. And Big Daddy and his youngest son Brick. The entire Pollitt family manifests the theme isolation and lack of communication.
Tennessee Williams’ excellent use of themes to portray characters in his world class, classic play “The Glass Menagerie” makes the play enthralling till the very end of it. Out of many themes like loneliness, illusions and distress; disintegration of the family seems to be a major plot of the play. Undoubtedly, all the themes displayed in “The Glass Menagerie” are as much important for the success of the play which keeps the audience indulged into it throughout. Nature and lifestyle of each character plays a vital role in creating events and setting the theme of the story. From an ambitious, energetic and hard-working young man, Tom to a physically challenged and unsociable girl, Laura; many qualities of a human being have been portrayed in
Tennessee Williams of Columbus, Mississippi, and author of the play The Glass Menagerie creates a well-rounded character by the name of Tom Wingfield. The author reveals many aspects of this character throughout the play, which focuses on the memories of the three main characters that live in a St. Louis apartment in the late 1930s. As the story progresses, the reader observes how each of the characters unravel and unfold to their needs and wants. Tom is displayed as a character who lives in a world that is different from reality, so, therefore, he behaves in a fashion that makes him seem falsely selfish, creative, and adventurous.