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Tennessee Williams. The Glass Menagerie. Biography. Born Thomas Lanier Williams – Columbus, Mississippi, 1911 Son of a shoe company executive and a Southern Belle Later, family moved to St. Louis – lost the sense of comfort financially
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Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
Biography • Born Thomas Lanier Williams – Columbus, Mississippi, 1911 • Son of a shoe company executive and a Southern Belle • Later, family moved to St. Louis – lost the sense of comfort financially • Williams began to think inwardly in St. Louis, began writing, and attended 3 different local universities
Biography, continued • After briefly working for his father, Williams moved to New Orleans, which provided inspiration for the play A Streetcar Named Desire. • His first critically acclaimed play, however, was published in 1944 – The Glass Menagerie • During the 1940s and 1950s, Williams began working with director Elia Kazan for both stage and screen productions of his plays – A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Camino Real, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Baby Doll
Biography, continued • Williams began writing because he “found life unsatisfactory”. • His characters are self-abusive and destructive – adjectives used to describe Williams, himself • Although he was prolific in his writing and won 4 Drama Critic’s Circle Awards, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, his critics derided him and he was blacklisted by the Roman Catholic Church in America.
Biography, continued • Speaking of one of his scripts, Cardinal Spellman said Williams’ writing was “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, offensive to Christian standards of decency.” • In a career spanning just shy of his death in 1983 (last play written in 1980), Williams was criticized because he discussed taboo topics in his writing. • He discussed drug addiction, alcohol, and homosexuality in his writings, finally exploring his own personal life in his by writing Memoirs in 1975.
Biography, continued • He wrote one final play in 1980. • Clothes for a Summer Hotel was based on the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. • In 1983, Williams took his own life by downing pills with several bottles of wine while in his NYC hotel room. • Williams is considered to be one of America’s greatest playwrights.
The Glass Menagerie • Opened first in Chicago and quickly went to Broadway • Williams won the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award and the New York Film Critic’s Circle Award, when the play became a movie. • Play is mostly centered on Tom, a 21-year old, who is desperate to break free of his nagging mother and dependent sister. Only containing 3 characters throughout, the play is set in St. Louis, post-Depression/pre-American involvement in WW II.
