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Street car named desire (Click to select text)
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911. In 1947 Williams composed the New York Drama Critics Award, and Pulitzer Prize winning A Streetcar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams' family life was full of tension and despair. His parents often engaged in violent arguments. His father, Cornelius, was a stern businessman who managed a shoe warehouse. Cornelius' bouts with drinking and gambling (habits that later ailed Williams) sent rumors about the family throughout the towns in which they lived (Williams moved 16 times in 15 years) . In the fall of 1929, Williams enrolled at the University of Missouri to study journalism. His father, angry that Hazel Kramer, Williams's childhood sweetheart had also enrolled there, threatened to withdraw him. The romance soon ended, and Williams, deeply depressed, dropped out of school. He survived his depression for awhile through his poetry, plays, and stories, but the strain soon resulted in a nervous breakdown. "Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory" Williams once said. Tennessee used his stories to express his childhood pain. Alcohol was a prevalent theme in his childhood. His father's drunken attacks on his mother had a great impact on Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. "Drunk - drunk - animal thing, you!" screamed Stella Kowalski at her husband Stanley. Stanley had just finished throwing their radio out the window, because it was interrupting his poker game. After a small dispute Stanley hits Stella. This exemplified William's experiences at home with his abusive father. The poker game contains symbolism as well. It displays William's father's gambling addiction. Tennessee describes the game, for he needs the relief. He (and his family) suffered so much pain, because of the gambling problems. Tennessee's older sister Rose, was a mentally disturbed woman. She spent most of her life in mental institutions. "Wait a minute. I can't hear what you're saying and you talk so little that when you do say something, I don't want to miss a single syllable of it . . . . What am I looking around here for? Oh, yes - liquor! We've had so much excitement around her this evening that I am boxed out of my mind! Here's something. Southern Comfort! What is that, I wonder?" Those were the words spoken by Blanche Dubois. Blanche is a lost cause; she lives in a dream world and is afraid of reality. She was quite drunk when she spoke these words; again the theme of alcohol is involved. It is her steps towards insanity, however, that influence this scene. Tennessee uses his sister's disturbed life and applies it to Blanche's character. Blanche seems like the model character that represents Williams. She is heavily involved with alcohol and she less than living in reality. Tennessee Williams used his work A Streetcar Named Desire as a scapegoat for his childhood problems. He includes many aspects of his life in his writings. Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is his life. Through an examination of symbolism within the play, and Williams' personal life it can be said that A Streetcar Named Desire was Williams' out let to express his pain, and bitterness towards his childhood.
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