Honors American Literature
Zachary Praiss
Tennessee Williams
1911 – 1983
In each of his plays, Williams poises the human need for belief in human value
and dignity against a brutal, naturalistic reality; similarly, symbolism is poised
against realism. But where the earlier playwrights were able to concentrate on
human values, Williams has been unable to do so because of his conviction that
there is a “real” world outside and inside each of us which is actively hostile to
any belief in the goodness of man and the validity of moral values. (Kernan 9)
Thesis A: Influenced by his personal struggles in life, Williams emerges with a distinctive
literary voice in his plays that sheds light on the harsh realities of the human condition to convey
his fundamental belief that all people need to confront and accept their reality.
Essay Map: Williams was a dramaturgical pioneer in his creation of realistic settings in his
plays. Within his innovative sets, Williams exposes the inherent struggle of the human condition
by focusing on the painful and often self-destructive lives of his characters. Moreover, through
his masterful use of literary devices – specifically, central symbolic elements – Williams
demonstrates the disillusionment of characters lost in desire.
Thesis B: Williams is a master American dramatist whose classic plays have stood the test of
time and deserve a permanent place in the American literary canon.
Biography:
1911 – Born in Columbus, Mississippi.
1929 – Attends the University of Missouri.
1931 – Works at the International Shoe Company
in downtown, St. Louis.
1936 – Enters and is later dropped from
Washington University in St. Louis.
1937 – His sister, Rose, is sent to the State Asylum
after a serious mental breakdown.
1937 – Rose has a lobotomy.
1938 – Graduates from the University of Iowa.
1963 – Long-time partner, Frank Merlo, dies from
cancer.
1983 – Dies in his New York City apartment.
Literary Works:
Battle of Angels (1940)
The Glass Menagerie (1944)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
Summer and Smoke (1948)
The Rose Tattoo (1951)
Camino Real (1953)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
Orpheus Descending (1957)
Suddenly Last Summer (1958)
Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
Period of Adjustment (1960)
The Night of the Iguana (1961)
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1963)
Kingdom of Earth (1968)
In a Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
Out Cry (1971)
Small Craft Warnings (1972)
Awards:
1948 Pulitzer Prize for A Street Named Desire
1951 Tony Award for A Rose Tattoo
1955 Pulitzer Prize for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1980 Presidential Medal of Freedom
Distinctive Features of Williams’ Plays
I.
Williams pioneers the creation of realistic and dynamic settings in his plays that reflect the scene of
the American South.
A. Literary Example: In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams constructs a lively quarter in New
Orleans that is filled with the noise of the street life and echoes with the music of the distant Blue
Piano.
B. Critical Quotation: Williams’ work “is a world, by and large, of Southern manners that Williams
knows and conveys with heightened fidelity, right down to the raw nerve sheathed in translucent
speech. It is a world he can shape to the microcosm of the theatre with assurance” (Vowles 51).
II. Williams exposes the harsh realities of the human condition through his focus on the individual
struggles of characters.
A. Literary Example: Blanche DuBois, the central character in A Streetcar Named Desire, is alone
and isolated in the large world as a fading Southern belle in financial ruin.
B. Critical Quotation: Williams’ characters “are confused…their goals are unsure; but their struggle
for meaning in life is a real struggle that has its parallels in our living experience” (Sharp 12).
III. Through his masterful incorporation of such literary devices as symbolism, William juxtaposes the
disillusionment of characters with the harsh realities of life.
A. Literary Example: Through the symbolic nature of light, Williams illuminates Blanche’s fear of
revealing her lost fortune, old age, and relative isolation.
B. Critical Quotation: “Symbolism is present in Blanche’s effort to preserve illusion; she tries
desperately to keep her surroundings dark enough so that she will not look her age” (Popkin 58).
IV. Williams’ work culminates in his unique philosophical viewpoint of realism that ultimately
reveals the tragedy of desire.
A. Literary Example: Blanche becomes disillusioned – lost in the paradise of her past – as she
continues to cling onto believing in her youthful beauty. She spends nearly all her time bathing
and dressing in fancy outfits.
B. Literary Quotation: “There isn’t a goddam thing but imagination…Look at yourself! Take a look
at yourself in that worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for fifty cents from some rag-picker! And
with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?” (A Streetcar Named Desire 552).
C. Literary Quotation: “I don’t want realism…I’ll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I
try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be
truth” (A Streetcar Named Desire 545).
D. Critical Quotation: Williams’ characters are “helpless in the grip of the presently constituted
world, while [their] old world of social position and financial security is a Paradise Lost”
(Gassner 391).
E. Critical Quotation: “Williams is particularly affecting in his treatment of battered characters who
try to retain shreds of their former respectability in a gusty world. Self-delusion, he realizes, is
the last refuge of the hopelessly defeated” (Gassner 390).
V. Williams’ masterpiece plays from the mid-twentieth century deserve a permanent place in the
American literary canon. They capture a piece of the American story – a story infused with realism
and symbolism that portrays the struggle of the human condition that continues to this day in
confronting the tragedy of desire.
A. “The classics help us to understand who we are and where we stand” (Calvino 134).
B. Renowned critic Harold Bloom includes Williams in his list of classic American writers in The
Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (1994), recognizing The Glass Menagerie, A
Streetcar Named Desire, and Summer and Smoke as classic plays (533).
C. “It is quite apparent that Williams was nearly fully formed in [his plays] as a painter of a segment
of the American scene, a dramatist of desire and frustration” (Gassner 390).