FREE ESSAY ON TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'S LIFE STORY

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS'S LIFE STORY

Tennessee Williams's Life Story
Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, originated in the memory of Williams.
Williams' family embodied his father, Cornelius Williams, his mother, Edwina Dakin
Williams, his sister, Rose Williams, and his younger brother, Dakin Williams. Cornelius
was an alcoholic, always away from home; Tennessee and Cornelius did not have a strong
relationship, By the late 1920s, mother and father were in open warfare, and both were
good combatants. He came home drunk and picked up a bill-perhaps for Tom's clothing or
schoolbooks-and he'd fly into rage.(Spoto, 18). Edwina, on the other hand, revered
refinement and the good manners of Southern gentry. (Barron's Book Notes, 2). Tennessee
adored Rose immensely and were close as they could be. The Glass Menagerie is based on a
mother and her two children who live in a dream world away from society. Williams' play
is drawn heavily upon his family life and experiences; they are very much parallel to the
events that occur in Williams' life.
Tom is modeled after Tennessee, an ardent poet who works in a shoe factory; Williams was
passionate about writing, He[Cornelius] saw that Tom devoted to his writing as unnatural
for a boy his age... worse, Tom did not have companions among boys of his own age, not
did he participate in 
sports.(Leverich, 82). Tom tries to support his mother and sister by working in a shoe
factory even though he dreams to become a poet. His mother disapproved of him writing as
well as his father, Despite Tom's being published, Cornelius persisted in his belief that
his son was wasting his time and should be thinking of a more practical way of making a
living.(Leverich, 82). Tennesse felt so doleful and devastatingly miserable that he did
not know another way of escaping reality but to write, At the typewriter he transformed
the confusion, the bitterness, the longings into poems, and for a time he cracked out a
diary in which he recorded little anecdotes about St. Louis street life.(Spoto, 20).
Williams's character, in like manner, felt that same emptiness, He[Tom] is a poet by
nature and feels that his environment is destroying his creative abilities.(Cliff Notes,
9). 
Amanda Wingfield mirror images Williams's mother, Edwina Dakin Williams. Both of these
women live in the past; Amanda and Edwina were both southern belles who still dream of
their gentlemen callers from the past. (Cliff Notes). Also, Amanda Wingfield is a member
of the Daughters of the American Revolution just like Williams' mother was, In 1905,
Edwina was invited to join the Columbus Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, and to her at the time, as it would be all her life, this was a singular
honor.(Leverich, 25). Amanda realizes that Laura does not have any interaction with the
public and needs to procure some sort of skill so that she will be able to support
herself in the future, so she enrolls Laura in a business school just as Edwina did for
Rose, Her mother, soon after, enrolled her at the Rubicam Business College, hoping she
would learn to be a stenographer, but that did not turn out well either, but she 
could sustain neither the pressure nor the group contact.(Spoto, 20). But even with the
persisting mothers, both Laura and Rose drop out of the class because 
they are shy,  ...and all the dates you were absent until they decided that you had
dropped out of school.(Williams, 40). Williams also portrayed Laura as being quiet and
shy just like Rose. Rose lived in her own world, just like Laura. Rose became a model for
Laura when Williams was writing this play. Laura would rather have collected tiny glass
animals rather than correlating with other people. Rose and Laura are similar that their
gentlemen caller has the same name, Jim O'Connor. Laura is so shy that when she finds out
who the gentlemen caller is she repudiates to join dinner, There was a Jim O'Connor we
both knew in high school...if that is the one that Tom is bringing to dinner-you'll have
to excuse me, I won't come to the table.(Williams, 89). When Jim does come to eat dinner
at the Wingfield's house, he is the only character in the play that brings reality to
them, Since Laura lives in a world of illusion and dream, Jim, as the ordinary person,
seems to Laura to be wonderful and exceptional. He is so different from her own world
that he appears to be the knight in shining armor.(Cliff Notes, 32). 
Rose's retreat into her own dream world caused her to become emotionally fragile just as
Laura. She not only became emotionally fragile, but self-destructive as well; Rose blamed
Cornelius of trying to get her in bed which might have added to her mental deterioration.
Tennessee is encumbered by Rose's illness; he wants to pursue his career of writing, but
he feels responsible for his family. In the play, Tom feels the need to leave his mother
and sister, 
Don't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who's crippled and has no
job! Don't let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure! Just go...!(Williams, 136).
Amanda construes to Tom that she knows he wants to leave to supervene his dream of
becoming a writer, but that he should at least be responsible enough to take care of his
family until Laura is well taken care of in the future, I mean that as soon as Laura has
got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent-why, then
you'll be free to go wherever you please, on land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows
you! But until that time you've got to look out for your sister.(Williams, 65). Amanda
requisites Tom to bring home a gentlemen caller in order so that he can leave soon, and
that she can be rest assured that her daughter will be well provided. 
The apartment talked about in The Glass Menagerie is identical to the one that the
Williams' relocated to in St. Louis, An ugly city apartment building of mustard-colored
brick, since demolished, it became the 'tenement' of The Glass Menagerie...(Leverich,
79). The apartment is cramped and dark, almost like a jail cell(Barron's Book Notes).
Laura and Tom do not like the dismal atmosphere of the apartment, The new apartment had
only two small windows, in the front and in the rear rooms, and a fire escape blocked the
smoky light from a back alley.(Spoto, 16). Tom uses the fire escape as a break from the
real world, As he climbs the few steps to the fire escape landing light steals up
inside...At last he find the key, but just as he is about to insert it, it slips from his
fingers. He strikes a match and crouches below the door.(Williams, 55).
Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, is drawn heavily upon Williams' family life and
experiences; they are very much parallel to the events that occur in Williams' life.
Tennessee's and Tom's whole life revolved around their mother and sister. They were
struggling with life's cruel realities which they were not able to face and defeat, but
instead, ran away from. Tom can not lose his memories of Laura. He needed to find his own
identity and try to find a place for himself in the world.(Barron's Book Notes). If he
had stayed with his mother and sister, their illusions and dreams would have deceived
him. 
Bibliography
Ehrenhaft, George. Barron's Book Notes Tennessee Williams's The Glass
Menagerie & A Streetcar named Desire. New York: Barron's Educational 
Series, Inc., 1985.
Leverich, Lyle. Tom the Unknown Tennessee Williams. New York: Crown 
Publishers, 1955.
Rasky, Harry. Tennessee Williams A Portrait in Laughter and Lamentation. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc., 1986.
Roberts, James L. Cliff Notes Williams' Glass Menagerie & A Streetcar named Desire.
Lincoln: Cliff Notes, Inc., 1965.
Spoto, Donald. The Kindness of Strangers The Life of Tennessee Williams. Canada:
Little, Brown & Company, 1941.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: The Dramatists' Play Service, 
Inc., 1972.