Essay About Tennessee Williams And Younger Brother

Tennessee Williams
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“Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life,”
Elia Kazan said of Tennessee Williams. Williams, who is considered to be the
greatest Southern playwright, inserted many of his own personal experiences
into his writing, because he “found no other means of expressing things that
seemed to demand expression” (Magill 1087). He stated that his primary
sources of inspiration for his works were his family, the South, and the multiple
writers he encountered in his life. Therefore, he presented American
theatergoers with unforgettable characters, an incredible vision of life in the
South, and a deeper meaning of the concept he called “poetic realism” (Classic
Notes 1). Poetic Realism exists as the repeated use of everyday objects, so
that they would produce a symbolic meaning. Often, Tennessee Williams’
writing was considered to be melodramatic and hysterical; however, it is the
haunting and powerful life experiences included in Williams’ writing that makes
him one of the greatest playwrights in the history of the American drama.
Thomas Lanier Williams began his life March 26, 1911 as the second
child of Cornelius and Edwina Williams. His father, Cornelius, managed a shoe
warehouse and was a stern businessman. Cornelius’ bouts with drinking and
gambling (habits that Tennessee later inherited) made him increasingly abusive
as Tennessee grew older. Tennessee, his mother, his older sister, Rose, and
his younger brother, Walter, lived with Tennessee’s maternal grandparents until
1918, when his father was transferred to his firm’s main office in St. Louis.
Although, he began living with his father at age seven, his father remained
emotionally absent throughout his life. His mother, however, smothered
Tennessee with her aggressive showings of affection. The move to St. Louis
was shattering to Tennessee, Rose, and Edwina. The change from a small,
provincial town to a big city was very difficult for the lower class family. Because
of the ridicule from other children, her father’s abuse, and her mother’s
unhappiness, Rose was destined to spend most of her life in mental institutions
and she quickly became emotionally and mentally unstable. Edwina allowed
Rose’s doctor to perform a frontal lobotomy on Rose; this event greatly disturbed
Williams who cared for Rose throughout most of her adult life. Tennessee
remained aloof from his younger brother, because his father repeatedly favored
Walter over both of the older children. His parents often engaged in violent
arguments and Tennessee, Rose, and Walter repeatedly encouraged their
mother to leave their abusive father. Williams family life was full of tension and
despair; however, he said he found therapy in writing.
Unable to bear his life at home, Tennessee began his lifelong
wanderings. In 1931, he enrolled in the University of Missouri where he saw a
production of Ibsen’s Ghosts and he decided to become a playwright. His
journalism program was interrupted; however, when his father forced him to
withdraw from college to work with him at the International Shoe Company. His
family no longer could afford to send him to college and his help was needed to
pay bills. He was an employee for his father for two years; he despised the job
and considered it to be indescribable torment. However, he