Tennessee Williams Life In A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams was “born as Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi (Tyrkus and Bronski 1).” Cornelius and Edwina Williams' had three children; Tennessee Williams was the second child. His mother raised him because his father was a traveling salesman; that had no interest of raising children or being a father. Williams “saw himself as a shy, sensitive, gifted man trapped in a world where “mendacity” placed communication, brute violence replaced love, and loneliness was all too often, the standard human condition(Gale 3).” In a “Streetcar Named Desire” Blanche a woman with an unknown background comes to visit her sister, Stella after not seeing her for years. Blanche, is escaping to New Orleans to see Stella and
Both are unhappy with the way their lives were going. Both were very heartbroken and stressed out over simple life events and death. Tennessee Williams life style very stressful and caused him to slowly go crazy. His down fall to madness started as early as his childhood. Williams “was often ridiculed by other children as well as his own father, who tormented the younger Williams with the nickname "Miss Nancy", for being less than masculine. Instead of making friends, Williams remained isolated(Tyrkus and Bronski 1)”. “ It wasn't long before the general malaise and unhappiness in young Thomas Lanier's life would lead him to writing as an escape. To make matters worse ”his sister Rose was placed in a mental hospital(Tyrkus and Bronski 1)” where she spent her whole life. Williams loved his sister very much and was very upset the his parents put her in the hospital after an operation his parent made her have.“As a young woman, his older sister Rose suffered from a number of emotional disorders, and was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic. Williams was very fond of his sister and was greatly concerned for her welfare. Although her emotional decline was difficult for him to observe, he later wrote about her mental illness. Williams believed himself to be physically frail as a result of a near fatal bout with diphtheria when he was a child. He also believed that he had suffered irreparable heart damage(Tyrkus
Death, Alcohol, Madness, and sexuality are the main themes that show some of the hardship Tennessee Williams felt growing up until he died. Even the way he died suggests just how dulled he was in the world around him. Just as Blanche was in the ending of “ A streetcar named desire” she slowly lived on her fantasies and never truly looked at her surrounding the same way again. Tennessee Williams could easily be admired because “although traumatic experiences plagued his life, Williams was able to press "the nettle of neurosis" to his heart and produce art, as “critic”Gassner observed. Williams's family problems, his alienation from the social norm, resulting from his homosexuality, his sense of being a romantic in an unromantic, postwar world, and his sensitive reaction when a production proved less than successful all contributed significantly to his work. Through the years he suffered from a variety of ailments, some serious, some surely imaginary, and at certain periods he overindulged in alcohol and prescription drugs. Despite these circumstances, he continued to write with a determination that verged at times almost in desperation, even as his new plays elicited progressively more hostile reviews from critics(Gale