Williams Tennessee Williams the Work

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 also another instance of his family background being used as material and inspiration for his plays and as a motivating factor for his often cynical and pessimistic worldview. Another theme that tends to occur in many of the main plays is that of the outsider or the marginalized, sensitive individual who feels an outcast in society.

The central theme on which he based most of his plays is, "the negative impact that conventional society has upon the "sensitive nonconformist individual" (Haley, D.E). This theme can possibly be linked to Williams' homosexuality in a time when homosexuals were not accepted and discriminated against. This was also to lead to problems such as his alcoholism, which is often echoed in characters in his plays. Williams had a relationship with Frank Merlo, his secretary until 1961, when Merlo died. After his death Williams entered a stage of deep depression.

This was also exacerbated by critical reviews of his work and by the censure of his lifestyle by a conservative public. A play that explores the theme of homosexuality in society and also critiques the norms and values of the modern world is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This play, which opened on Broadway in 1955, was to be one of Williams' greatest successes. It was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The play deals essentially with the falsehoods and lies that distort reality.

It is a moving and emotional portrait of a Southern family and in particular, the relationship between Brick and Skipper. The social consequences of their relationship are also examined and Brick is driven to drugs and alcohol. It is not clear in the play whether the relationship between these two characters is one that is physical or platonic.

As one critic notes; "Was Brick in love with Skipper, or was theirs the simple and profoundly deep love of friendship that Brick proclaims it to be? "(Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Themes). The play also poses questions; such as whether two men can have a physical homosexual realtionship "…without harming.