Tennessee Williams and Works, a Look at Illusion Vs. Reality

Illusion Vs. Reality

Tennessee Williams and his works deal heavily in the contrast of illusion and reality and the characters’ struggle with this. Illusion vs. Reality is a major theme is mostly all of his dramatic works. The majority of these characters find themselves in a state of illusion. This was intended by Tennessee Williams to show how unavoidable and definite falling into illusion, or insanity, can be. Williams’ sister Rose affected him greatly when she became schizophrenic. This influenced all his works by Tennessee writing all them with one female character that struggles to stay sane, or to stay delusional. Tennessee Williams had a good life before that when he was great friends with his sister and she did not have a mental illness.

Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911. He was named Thomas Lainier Williams. Williams grew in St. Louis, Missouri for most of his childhood life. He went to University of Missouri, then Washington University, finally he received a B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1938. He worked a couple of odd jobs until he made a play called the Glass Menagerie. The play was performed on stages all over the world, and he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for it. He wrote A Streetcar Named Desire which also won him the Pulitzer Prize. Later, he wrote many other plays like

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Night of the Iguana. Although Williams continued to write throughout his life, most of his later works were not well received as were his

first