Research Paper on "Williams Tennessee"

Research Paper 3 pages (1135 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Williams

Tennessee Williams

The work of Tennessee Williams has been described as "…the greatest dramatic poetry in the American language" (Haley). His plays are still produced and performed by some of the world's best directors and actors. Many critical studies assert that the plays are based to a great extent on the playwright's personal life and experiences.

The central thesis of this paper is that the personal and family life of the playwright influenced and inspired many of his most famous plays. In this sense, this paper will explore the extent to which his plays are a reflection of the problems and issues that he experienced in his own upbringing and later life.

Williams' early childhood and developmental years have been described as essentially unhappy and problematic. This was to result in the often dark and somber plays that he wrote and in the various themes and problems that we encounter in these plays. As will be discussed, there is an obvious link between his early childhood experiences and many of the issues and characters in his plays.

In the first instance his early family life was far from ideal. He was born in 1910 to Cornelius and Edwina Dakin Williams in Columbus, Mississippi. His mother had an aggressive temper and was absorbed in idealistic fantasies about "… genteel Southern living" (Haley). This unrealistic and somewhat sad fascination with the social norms and ethos, as well as the prejudices, of the old South is evident in many of the plays; for example in a Streetcar Named Desire.

In this play one of the central characters has fantasies about a life of luxury and gentility in the South, which she had had to leave under dubious circumstances. Therefore, Williams' mother can be seen as a model for the complex and vulnerable figure of Blanche DuBois who is in search for meaning in her life. She encounters the brutal and aggressive figure of Stanley at her sister apartment, and this leads to the decline into mistrust and violence, which is typical of many of the plays

Williams' relationship with his father was even more problematic. Cornelius Williams was a traveling shoe salesman and an alcoholic and he was often abusive and distant toward this young son. "According to Williams' brother Dakin, their father was very bombastic; he cursed a lot and there was a great deal of coldness between him and his son who loved books above sports." (Tennessee Williams) This difficult relationship was to be reflected in plays such as the Glass Menagerie. In the play the character and narrator Tom Wingfield is trapped by the psychological and financial constraints of his family. Central to his inner struggle for independence and freedom is ever-present image of his absent father. "The image of the absent father dominates the stage…" (Tischler, 200, p. 28). In the play the father deserts the family and although he is absent he is a dominating force in the play -- which reflects something of the playwright's own problems with his father.

Williams and his sister Rose were very close as children. However she developed mental problems and was classified as a schizophrenic. She was subsequently institutionalized and underwent a lobotomy (Kerkhoffs, 2000). This had a negative effect on Williams and he was to base a number of his characters on his sister; for example, the character of Laura in the Glass Menagerie. This is… READ MORE

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