The Life of Tennessee Williams
Playwright Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi, the second of Cornelius and Edwina Williams' three children. Raised predominantly by his mother, Williams had a complicated relationship with his father, a demanding traveling salesman who preferred work instead of parenting. Williams described his childhood in Mississippi as pleasant and happy. But life changed for him when his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. This sense of belonging and comfort were lost, however, when his family moved to the urban environment of St. Louis, Missouri. It was there he began to look inward, and to write— “because I found life unsatisfactory.” Williams’ early adult years were occupied with attending college at three different universities, a brief stint working at his father’s shoe company, and a move to New Orleans, which began a lifelong love of the city and set the locale for A Streetcar Named Desire.
Williams was also very close with his sister Rose. His sister Rose was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but a lobotomy was performed on Rose in 1943. Williams was horrified by the procedure, and the lobotomy left Rose brain dead. As a result, Rose had to be institutionalized for the remainder of her life. This had a tremendous impact on Williams and is often thought to be a source of his alcoholism.
When he was 28, Williams moved to New Orleans, where he changed his name (he landed on Tennessee because his father hailed from there) and revamped his lifestyle, soaking up the city life that would inspire his work, most notably the later play, A Streetcar Named Desire.
He was brilliant and prolific, breathing life and passion into such memorable characters as Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski in his critically acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire. And like them, he was troubled and self-destructive, an abuser of alcohol and drugs. He was awarded four Drama Critic Circle Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was derided by critics and blacklisted by Roman Catholic Cardinal Spellman, who condemned one of his scripts as “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, offensive to Christian standards of decency.” He was Tennessee Williams, one of the greatest playwrights in American history.
The 1960s were a difficult time for Williams. His work received poor reviews and increasingly the playwright turned to alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms. In 1969 his brother hospitalized him. Upon his release, Williams got right back to work. He churned out several new plays as well as Memoirs in 1975, which told the story of his life and his afflictions. But he never fully escaped his demons. Surrounded by bottles of wine and pills, Williams died in a New York City hotel room on February 25, 1983.
Tennessee Williams’s Philosophy
He believed that his dramas succeeded because of the passion of his characters. Williams always stresses the essential ambiguity of people rather than their essential dignity. He believes the human condition that we are all civilized externally, but we are savages at heart. We are covered by a thin veneer of civilization that can be ripped away at any moment, showing the savages we are at heart.
Williams believes in the concept of universal guilt. For example, most of the characters in A Streetcar Named Desire suffer from some kind of guilt about an event which they would like to keep hidden.
There are two types of people: the brutes and the fragiles. One must not only be one type of person, but an individual fits into one of the two types within each relationship or event. There are four types of fragiles or outcasts of society, and he saw himself as a part of all four. The poets must remove themselves from society to present the truth. The fugitives run from something which they do not which to face. The cripples are handicapped physically or internally, such as spiritually or emotionally. The downtrodden are those which can never seem to get ahead, but they continue to persevere.
Williams believes in the concept of universal guilt. For example, most of the characters in A Streetcar Named Desire suffer from some kind of guilt about an event which they would like to keep hidden.
There are two types of people: the brutes and the fragiles. One must not only be one type of person, but an individual fits into one of the two types within each relationship or event. There are four types of fragiles or outcasts of society, and he saw himself as a part of all four. The poets must remove themselves from society to present the truth. The fugitives run from something which they do not which to face. The cripples are handicapped physically or internally, such as spiritually or emotionally. The downtrodden are those which can never seem to get ahead, but they continue to persevere.