Thomas Lanier Williams was an American writer who grew to influence many with his work. He was a dramatist, a playwright, and a writer. Tennessee Williams lived from 1911-1983 and his career lived from the 1930s-1983.

Though Tennessee Williams did not have the easiest life, he grew to win many awards for multiple works. His plays are still being performed today. "Tennessee Williams was not only celebrated by theater-goers, but he was awarded the Drama Critics Circle Award for "The Glass Menagerie", along with the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Lombardi).

"He is widely considered the greatest Southern playwright and one of the greatest playwrights in the history of American drama." (Gradesaver).

Biography

Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams March 26, 1911 in Mississippi to Corneilious and Edwina Williams. Corneilious was a shoe salesman and both a heavy drinker and gambler. Thomas was the second child, after his older sister Rose. Thomas was diagnosed with diphtheria at the young age of seven. Being a sick child, Thomas was not able to go out and do as much as the other children. He was highly encouraged by his mother to use his imagination, and from this his writing began. While in school he worked for many years in  a theater which he got his learning on and while spending time in the theater he discovered how scriptwriting could be in his future. 

Education

In 1929, Thomas began attending the University of Missouri. Not long after, his father made him withdraw. Some say the reason behind his father's decision was because he did not agree with Thomas' career path. Others say it was for failing. After being pulled out of school Thomas began working with his father in the shoe business. In 1935, however, Thomas suffered a nervous breakdown. After recovering, he was allowed to go back to school. His sister became sick during these years and suffered a breakdown herself. Their parents had her lobotomized. This is said to have influenced Williams' later works. He spent a short time at the University of Washington, and then attended the University of Iowa. It was at the University of Iowa that Thomas began to be known as Tennessee because of his southern background. Tennessee graduated from the University of Iowa in 1938 and moved to New Orleans.

Career

Fresh out of college, Tennessee had to find a way to take care of himself. "He worked as a Teletype operator, a poetry-recycling writer, and a theater usher. In 1943, he got the job as a scriptwriter" at MGM. (Lombardi). In 1944, he got his big break with The Glass Menagerie. The play was produced, and in 1945, won the NY Critics Circle Award. Tennessee then began work on A Streetcar Named Desire,which ultimately won him his second NY Critics Circle Award, as well as Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Success enabled Williams to continue work and in 1951, he wrote The Rose Tattoo, which awarded him his first Tony. With enormous success, Tennessee continued to write and further his career throughout his life. Near the end of his career (and life), however, Williams' downward spiral into depression greatly affected the style and content of his work (and, consequently, its reception); the plays he wrote in the last 20 or so years of his life were "more experimental" in nature and not widely received. (Lombardi)

Death

Like his father, Tennessee fell into a trap created by drugs in his later years. Williams' partner Frank Merlo passed away in 1961, shooting Williams into depression. On the night of February 23, 1983, Tennessee was in laying in bed. It is said that he woke up and went to take some more of his medication. He had somehow dropped the pill bottle's lid into his mouth, and ultimately choked to death. 

Influences

Tennessee was first influenced by his mother, who bought him a typewriter at a young age when he was too sick to go outside and play with the other children. "The young Williams was also influenced by his older sister Rose's emotional and mental imbalance during their childhood." (Gradesaver). It is also said that because his father was a heavy drinker and was often away from the house, his personal life and feeling the need to provide for his mother and sister were influential pieces to Williams' later works.

Movement

Tennessee Williams' work has been classified as a part of the Beat Generation, or Beat Movement. The Beat Movement focused on personal liberation from all restraints - spiritual, moral, and sexual - that society implicitly (or explicitly) imposed. It embraced individuality. The Beat Generation questioned both society and authority. The members of the Beat Movement are said to have "broke the mold and changed writing forever." (Wisegeek). Williams was no exception; he embraced the Movement's freedoms and wrote about such controversial subjects such as "murder, rape, homosexuality, nymphomania, drug and alcohol [addiction], and mental illness" (Lombardi).

Key Elements

Some of the key elements used in Tennessee Williams' works are his personal experiences. Some of his plays are written as though somewhat biographical. The Glass Menagerie focuses on a character named Tom who is struggling to support his mother and sister, similar to Williams' real life.

Themes

Some of Williams' themes were controversial and sometimes not widely accepted, especially for his time. Some of his works focus on themes of homosexuality and cannibalism. "He was deeply interested in something he called "poetic realism," namely the use of everyday objects which, seen repeatedly and in the right contexts, become imbued with symbolic meaning." (Lombardi). "His plays also seemed preoccupied with the extremes of human brutality and sexual behavior: madness, rape, incest, nymphomania, as well as violent and fantastic deaths." (Gradesaver).

Quotes

"How beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken."

— Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie)

I think that this quote goes to show how Tennessee Williams really used his personal life within his writing. Both his sister and he suffered emotional breakdowns in their lives, and his family life is what inspired Williams to write The Glass Menagerie. I think it shows how much he began to appreciate life at that point in time after what had happened to him and Rose.

"Don't you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour - but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands - and who knows what to do with it?"
— Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire)

This quote reminded me of how it is said Williams wrote in a biographical way in some of his works. After college, Williams moved to New Orleans, which was the setting for A Streetcar Named Desire. 

"I think that hate is a feeling that can only exist where there is no understanding."
— Tennessee Williams (Sweet Bird of Youth)

I believe this quote is an excellent example of some of the themes that Tennessee Williams wrote on. His themes were of controversy and topics that people did not want to understand during his time period.

Reception/Legacy

"Before his death in 1983, Tennessee Williams won 4 New York Drama Critics Awards, 3 Donaldson Awards; a Tony Award (for "The Rose Tattoo," 1951), a New York Film Critics Award ("A Streetcar Named Desire," 1953), the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award (1965), a Medal of Honor from the National Arts Club (1975), the $11,000 Commonwealth Award (1981), and an honorary doctorate from Harvard University (1982). President Carter honored Tennessee Williams at the Kennedy Center in 1979." (Lombardi).

"I, like almost everyone of my generation, went into the theater because of my exposure to Tennessee. In high school, we did those ridiculous, old-fashioned comedies, and then I got to play Tom in 'The Glass Menagerie,' and it was then I fell in love with theater.'' -Lanford Wilson

''Whenever I despaired of my own work, I thought of his courage in the face of so much pain, and I went back to work. I worked with Tennessee, this genius, and I saw the pain of creation and I saw the fleetingness of success. That's why he's so close to my soul.'' -Jose Quintero

Selected List of Works

• American Blues (1939)

• The Glass Menagerie (1945)

• A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

• One Arm and other stories (1948)

• Summer and Smoke (1948)

• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950)

• The Rose Tattoo (1951)

• Camino Real (1953)

• Hard Candy, a book of stories (1954)

• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)

• In the Winter of Cities (1956)

• Baby Doll (1956)

• Orpheus Descending (Battle of Angels, 1957)

• Suddenly Last Summer (1958)

• Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)

• A Period of Adjustement (1960)

• Night of the Iguana (1961)

• Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1962)

• The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1964)

• Kingdom of Earth (1967)

• In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)

• Dragon Country (1970)

• Small Craft Warnings (1973)

• The Two Character Play (Out Cry, 1973)

• Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed (1974)

• Moise and the World of Reason (1975)

• Memoirs (1975)

• The Red Devil Battery Sign (1976)

• Androgine, Mon Amour (1977)

• Tennessee William's Letters to Donald Windham (1977)

• Vieux Carré (1978)

• Where I live: Selected Essays (1978)

• A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (1978)

• Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)

• Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981)

• 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1982)

• Five O'clock Angel (1991)

• Collected Stories (1994)

• The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams: Vol. I, 1920-1945 (2000)

Further Reading 

• Kenneth, W. (2002).
• Tennessee Williams and the South
• Rasky, H. (2000). Tennessee Williams: A Portrait in Laughter and Lamentation
• Bloom, H. (ed.) (1999). Tennessee Williams
• Spoto, D. (1997). The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams
• Martin, R. A. (ed.) (1997). Critical Essays on Tennessee Williams
• Roudane, M. C. (ed.) (1997). The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams
• Murphy, B. (1992). Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan
• Devlin, A. J. (ed.). (1989). Conversations with Tennessee Williams
• Falk, S. G. (1978). Tennessee Williams

Works Cited

"Biography of Tennessee Williams" Gradesaver. 1999-2011. 07 July 2011. http://www.gradesaver.com/author/tennessee-williams

Lombardi, Esther. "Tennessee Williams: Plays" 2011. 07 July 2011. http://classiclit.about.com/od/williamstennessee/fr/aafpr_twilliams.htm

"Tennessee Williams quotes" Goodreads. 2011. 07 July 2011. http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7751.Tennessee_Williams

"What Was the Beat Generation" wiseGEEK. 2003-2011. 07 July 2011. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-was-the-beat-generation.htm

"Williams, Tennessee" 07 July 2011. 07 July 2011. http://www.booksfactory.com/writers/williams.htm

Tennessee Williams | Plays, Education, Biography, & Facts | Britannica