By Sav Robinson
for Seminar in Literary Interpretation: Tennessee Williams
That there are connections between Tennessee Williams’ life and his works is not an unearthed suspicion. More frequently than with most other authors, any reader can skim a biographical synopsis of his life, especially one involving The Glass Menagerie, and find at least one statement that points to a stark resemblance between the facts of Williams’ life, and a particular character or central theme of his works (Poetry Foundation). Whether it is about Williams himself—who has been regarded widely, even by his contemporaries, as the foremost playwright of the 20th century (which tends to evoke a Godly presence in and of itself)—or in the content of his plays, the concept of religion has always seemed to trail beside him. There are very palpable and complex threads between the religious symbolism in his plays, most potently in The Glass Menagerie, and his own life.
January 10th, 1969 was a pivotal day in Williams’ history: it’s the day he was received into the Catholic Church by Joseph LeRoy, S.J., an attempt at rebirth for the, at this point, dishearteningly medicated and hard-drinking playwright. While this baptism was performed when Williams was nearly 60 years old, and thus technically, an autonomous individual, this process was nevertheless largely instigated by his younger brother, Dakin (America Magazine). Dakin contacted Father LeRoy, pastor of the Church of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West, Florida, where Williams lived. Williams consented to the interaction, expressing hope that a Catholic baptism would help him “get [his] goodness back” (America Magazine). Still, he was heavily medicated at the time of the priest’s visit, which undoubtedly interfered with his daily functioning, let alone his ability to make completely unperturbed decisions. His prebaptismal confession was, after all, in Father LeRoy’s words, “the shortest confession he had ever heard” (America Magazine).
Several facts which occurred after his second baptism point to Williams’ unorthodox or complicated perspective of Christianity as a “practicing Catholic.” As he later was quoted as stating, “I have always loved the richness of the Catholic ritual, the aroma of the incense, the splendor of the art...but the tenets of the church are ridiculous” (America Magazine). It is also known that Williams only ever prayed in the quiet of empty churches, claiming that large congregations disturbed him (America Magazine). Later, during the 1960’s “God is Dead” movement, he added “I do believe in God, and I don’t think he’s dead like people say. But I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing” (America Magazine).
Herein lies some principal connections between characters and themes in The Glass Menagerie and Williams’ own life, as evidenced in the very first scene. Tom, who is already an omnipresent, and therefore “righteous” presence in the play as the narrator, commands “I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion” (Williams 4). While it is not clear who the stage magician and the opposite of the stage magician might represent in the context of Catholicism, there are a variety of inferences that can be made. Being that he seemed to have had a complicated relationship with the doctrines, and even more specifically, the bearers of the Catholic word, the “stage magician” could point to Fathers or Priests. Or, the “illusion” could be in reference to organized religion itself, with him and his means of practicing Catholicism being “truthful” under an appropriated guise (i.e. the historical dogma of Catholicism). Perhaps one might even look toward the first description of Tom and Laura’s father, Mr. Wingfield, to understand Tennessee’s view of organized Catholicism. Williams starts: “A blown-up photograph of the father hangs on the wall of the living room, to the left of the archway...He is gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say ‘I will be smiling forever’” (Williams 4). This description is completely devoid of any feeling of closeness or concrete familiarity between Tom and his father—yet, as perceptible through the language, there is an undoubtable power surrounding him in their home all the same. In this way, this image can be seen as alluding to something above Tom’s head entirely, literally and metaphorically speaking. That is, the “blown-up photograph” functions like a large image of Christ, a site of worship that is traditionally found in Catholic homes. The connection between Tom and his father (with his accompanying allusion as a Godly figure) is multi-layered and resurfaces with the preface of Scene Four: “After each solemn boom of the bell in the tower, [Tom] shakes a little noisemaker or rattle as if to express the tiny spasm of a man in contrast to the sustained power and dignity of the Almighty ” (Williams 27).
Here again, the connection between Tom and a Godly image — his father’s Godly image—is drawn. Tom did not know his father beyond the disastrous legacy he left, which is passed down from his mother, Amanda, like literature. According to Amanda, his father did not know the magnitude of the love he had—he smoked, drank, and “stayed out late” until ultimately abandoning them altogether (Williams 32). Yet, in his absence, he still maintained an enduring power in their house with his “larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel” (Williams 5). Williams’ household functioned much in the same way. Although he was a travelling shoe salesman, a title which meant he was frequently away from home anyway, Williams’ father was also a raging alcoholic—such that his presence, and the suppressing anger that rose from it, always lingered (Poetry Foundation). This passage is penultimately the most direct reference to Christ that follows but pages later where Tom inquires, “What do Christian adults want then, Mother?” (Williams 34). Appalled, Amanda replies “Superior things!...Surely your aims are somewhat higher than...monkeys — pigs — ” and Tom replies, “I reckon they’re not” (Williams, 34).
All of these segments can be seen as one sweeping effort on Williams part to separate Tom, and therefore arguably, himself, from his father (Mr. Wingfield and Mr. Cornelius Williams, who are rumored to be one in the same). Under this summation, with Mr. Wingfield assuming the role of Christ, it might then be accurate to say that Williams (through the character of Tom) was also detaching himself from Catholicism as it is traditionally practiced through organized religion. As stated earlier, it’s not that Williams did not believe in God, but rather that, unlike some practicing Catholics, he felt that he couldn’t pretend to know Him tangibly. The same could be said of Tom’s relationship to his father, who “left [them] a long time ago” being that he was “a telephone man who fell in love with long distances” (Williams 5). Thus, the same could be said of Williams’ father, whom the character of Mr. Wingfield originates.
Then again, who truly knows if Williams meant to foster a connection to Christ earnestly—or by his own, willful accord—in the first place? Within the general trajectory of his life, it never once seemed as though he sought religion for himself: he was born to a religious family and baptized as an infant by his Reverend grandfather. When he was “reborn” nearly 60 years later, he was desperately ill, and thus, highly impressionable—especially to anything that presented a glimmering prospect of recovery and redemption. Speculation aside, Williams’ connection to the religious symbolism present in his plays is fascinatingly sprawling, like a cancer, and completely undeniable.
Works Cited
Poetry Foundation. “Tennessee Williams.” Poetry Foundation , Poetry Foundation, 2019,
www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/tennessee-williams .
Tueth, Michael. “His Final Act: The Catholic Connections of Tennessee Williams.”
America Magazine , 22 Mar. 2016, www.americamagazine.org/issue/his-final-act .
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie . New Directions, 1999.
Wong, Natalie. The Glass Menagerie as Biblical Allegory . The First Academy, Apr. 2018,
www.thefirstacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Glass-Menagerie-as-Bibli
cal-Allegory.pdf .