Themes of Tennessee Williams
In the three plays by Tennessee Williams the Glass Menagerie, The Long Goodbye, and Suddenly Last Summer, they all share the same general theme. This theme is that no matter how low you are in your life you can always rise above your problems and get your life on the right track. In The Glass Menagerie, Laura is the one that has to rise above her disability problem. She overplays her disability and this is what is holding her down from going onto bigger and better things. In The Long Goodbye, Joe thinks he just can't write anymore in the beginning, but in the end he comes through, and rises above his writing problems. In Suddenly Last Summer, the main character, Mrs. Venable is suffering from the tragedy of losing her son, so she tried to blame her loss on Catherine. This also relates to Tennessee Williams' life when he was younger. Older children mistreated Tennessee when he was young because he was a little different from the other children. After this happened he started to write, and express his emotions through words rather than fighting back and getting into trouble. He rose above his problems when he was young, and this characteristic is shown in his three plays previously listed.
In conclusion, although not all of the characters could successfully defeat the obstacles brought against them, they had a choice of what to do. They just could not handle the pressure that problem solving presents. First of all there is Laura: she did have a problem with her leg, but that went away and she still makes it a factor in her life. If she could have just put that in her past, she would be much better off. Next is Mrs. Venable, she did have a very depressing event in her life, but she goes too far when she tries to make a doctor perform surgery on her. She wants the doctor to do this because she feels as though Catherine is responsible for her son's death. Last but not least is Joe. He is the only one who could actually overcome his problems successfully. Although he wanted to quit in the beginning, he persisted and finally could express his thoughts clearly on paper and got his book published. Tennessee Williams related his life to these three plays, in that he had to conquer problems that arose when he was younger. In life everyone has problems, the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is how they cope with those problems. In the next play, The Long Goodbye, there is one character who is obviously the supporter of the universal theme that you can always beat the odds and come out on top of your problems. This character is Joe. Joe's attitude in the beginning of the play is not looking very good at all. His attitude can be shown very well by this quote. " I just can't make any sense with my writings anymore." The word can't is the main word in this quote, because when you say you can't, that usually means I won't. Whenever you are trying to achieve a goal or a standard, the most negative word you can say is I can't. That is why Joe's attitude is looking so glum. Joe is not like Laura and didn't give up right away, and tried hard to get back up after he was knocked down. This is shown by what his sister says in this quote. " I knew you could do it Joe, and you did, because you didn't give up." ys, The Glass Menagerie, Laura expresses the theme of you can overcome your obstacles in life no matter how hard they seem, by her actions. She has a disability with her legs and had to wear a special support on her leg to help her with it. She overplays her disability to the point that she will not go to Business College, she is very shy around other people, and will barely leave the apartment at all. You know how much La
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Approximate Word count = 1678
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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