The Personal Strife of Tennessee Williams :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Personal Strife of Tennessee Williams Tennessee Williams was a sound renowned playwright, who highlighted his personal experiences in his plays and stories. He had a colorful action and he enjoyed writing about what was considered taboo subjects in the 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s. Williams explored homosexuality, alcoholism, violence, greed and sex. He also infused humor into his work. Williams dissected the traditional American family, and he penned numerous stories about dysfunctional and volatile families. In the journalist Bruce Smiths memoir on Tennessee Williams entitled Costly Performances, Tennessee is quoted reminding his readers, I have had a life of ask endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer protrude and holding on tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock music higher than the one caught hold of before.... (Smith, 6) Williams was born doubting doubting Thomas Lanier Williams in his parental grandfathers rectory in Columbus, Mississippi on March 26, 1911. His father, Cornielus Coffin Williams, was a shoe salesman at a shoe factory. He was an alcoholic and he was often verbally abusive to his family. Williamss mothers name was Edwina Lanier Williams and she encouraged the young Thomas to write. Williams later ground the character of Amanda from his play The Glass Menagerie on his mother. He had a sister named Rose, who was two years older, and when they were growing up they were very close. Rose was a very sensitive child and by her early twenties she was classified as a schizophrenic. She was later send and eventually given a lobotomy. His sisters condition devastated Williams, and he was afraid passim his life that he would succumb to madness as well. He based the character of Laura from The Glass Menagerie on his sister Rose. Williams had a junior brother named Dakin, who was eight years younger. Their father doted on the younger brother, and at that place was a great deal of sibling rivalry between th em. He actually based Brick and Groopers relationship on his tumultuous dealings with Dakin. Also, Williams had a great interest in people who lived on the fringes of life, like Rose. He considered himself to be different and he was not popular in his youth. Thomas was teased as a youth by a boy named Brick, and Williams added that the character was weak minded and flawed.