NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. He was the second of three children of Cornelius Coffin and Edwina Dakin Williams. His early childhood was troubled with illnesses that left Tennessee a terminal hypochondriac throughout the rest of his life. He turned to writing as a method of escaping the unhappiness that surrounded him. His first published work was a response to an essay question that appeared in Smart Set magazine in 1927. In 1929, Tennessee began college at the University of Missouri.
During this time he wrote poetry, pledged a fraternity, and began a life-long dependency with alcohol. Upon failing ROTC in his junior year, his father sent him to work in the International Shoe Company warehouse. This experience was one of boredom and endless repetition that launched Tennessee into depression and eventually into a nervous breakdown. Only after many years could he use this horrifying ordeal to be portrayed through the partially autobiographical character of Tom in The Glass Menagerie.
Tennessee spent time recovering from the breakdown with his grandparents in Memphis. It is during this time that he was introduced to drama. His first attempt as a playwright was through a farce entitled Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay. The play was performed by the Memphis Garden Players on July 12, 1935. He was so captivated with theatre that he decided to enroll in Washington University and pursue writing as a career. In 1937, Tennessee's sister, Rose, was institutionalized as a schizophrenic.
He was extremely close to his sister, and her hospitalization had a great affect on him. He transferred to the University of Iowa and completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1938. After graduation, Tennessee worked in several places while continuing to write short stories, poetry, and plays. The decade of the 40 's brought much recognition to the budding playwright of the era. The Glass Menagerie is perhaps one of his most successful plays written in the 1940 's. The Battlefield of Angels and 27 Wagons Full of Cotton are only two more of the plays from this prolific time for Tennessee.
A Streetcar Named Desire came out in 1947 and earned Tennessee his first Pulitzer Prize. Finally successful and Monetarily secure, Tennessee had a difficult time adapting to his good fortune. He became more and more dependent on alcohol to help him cope. The 1950 's saw Tennessee attempt to write longer fiction as well as continuing to write plays and poetry. A short novel, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone was published in 1950.
Not only did this period bring changes in Tennessee's writing style, but it also was the beginning of a new lifestyle. This lifestyle was the moderately quite and basically monogamous relationship with his friend, Frank Metro. The relationship lasted until Frank's death from lung cancer in 1963. Some of his plays that evolved in the 50 's were The Rose Tatoo, Camino Real, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which won Tennessee his second and last Pulitzer Prize. In 1957 after his play, Orpheus Descending, failed to become a hit, Tennessee went into psychoanalysis. His dependency on alcohol was growing as rapidly as his claustrophobia, depression, and his fear of suffocation.
His concern for his schizophrenic sister never subsided during this troubled time. The era of the 60 's found Tennessee's writing more startling and more personal than in the previous years. His works were intensely emotional and not as critically well received as his earlier plays. The Night of the Iguana, which was Tennessee's last award winning play, appeared in 1961. Although he did not win any more awards. Tennessee did not stop creating plays.
In 1969 Tennessee's after poorly received play In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel closed, he had a nervous collapse. It was during this time of recovery that he broke his drug and alcohol dependency. During the 1970 's, Tennessee continued to write plays with none of them being critically applauded. The only fruitful work of this era was the publication of his memoirs. On February 25, 1983, in a New York hotel, Tennessee Williams choked to death on the cap of a bottle of eye drops, thus permanently extinguishing the life of one of the respected playwrights of the twentieth century.
Bibliography: Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia
Free research essays on topics related to: tennessee, williams, glass menagerie, pulitzer prize, tennessee williams
Research essay sample on Pulitzer Prize Glass Menagerie
