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Tennessee Williams 52 Quiz Questions
And Answers
Who was Williams's agent and friend? How did they meet? - ✔ ✔ Aubrey Woods, met after Williams won $100 from the Group Theater Writing Contest for one of his plays
What play put Williams on the map? When was it published? - ✔ ✔ The Glass Menagerie, 1944
Where and when did Williams write his most famous play? What is the name of this play? - ✔ ✔ A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947, in Mexico
Following the publication of his second play, Williams had enough money to buy a home where? - ✔ ✔ Key West
Who was Williams's lover, and when did he die? How did his death affect Williams? - ✔ ✔ Frank Merlo, died 1961, he turned to drugs and alcohol
Why were the 60s a bad time for Williams? - ✔ ✔ drugs, alcohol, work received much criticism
Who hospitalized Williams, and when? - ✔ ✔ brother Walter Dakin in 1969
What is the name of Williams's autobiography, and when was it published? - ✔ ✔ Memoirs in 1975
When and where did Williams die? What was he surrounded by? - ✔ ✔ 1983 in a NYC Hotel Room surrounded by bottles of wine and pills
What prestigious award was presented to Williams by the president? When did he receive it, and what did winning it imply? - ✔ ✔ Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980 - his work had added to the fabric of the nation and helped people the understand themselves
How did Williams aim to change theatre? - ✔ ✔ make it less about entertainment and more about viewers learning about themselves
The New York Times described Williams as what? - ✔ ✔ "a poet of the human heart"
In The Glass Menagerie, what characters are based off of which people in his life? - ✔ ✔ narrator Tom = him. unstable Laura = Rose. overbearing mother Amanda = Edwina.
Describe the plot of The Glass Menagerie. - ✔ ✔ narrated by Tom - mother Amanda wants her mentally unstable daughter to meet a man - -> the mother tells brother Tom to bring someone home from the shoe factory he works at, and Laura hits it off with Jim. when they learn he is engaged, Tom and his mother fight. Tom accidentally knocks over his mother's glass figurines (which made her happy), and they shatter. he leaves the family.
What other work that we read is similar to Williams's "The Glass Menagerie"? - ✔ ✔ "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor
Describe the plot of A Streetcar Named Desire. - ✔ ✔ sisters Blanche and Stella are from a reputable Southern family. Stella marries rough Stanley, they buy an apt in New Orleans, and a scandal at home forces Blanche to go live with them. Stanley had always thought Blanche looked down on him, and, now in a position of power over her,
have schizophrenia), and Williams was closest to her of any other family members.
What was Tennessee's brother's name? - ✔ ✔ younger brother Walter Dakin
Describe William's family. - ✔ ✔ very dysfunctional. emotionally fragile sister, traveling shoe salesman father who was barely home, never liked his brother, grandfather a reverand
What was Williams's father's job? - ✔ ✔ traveling shoe salesman
Williams was happy until his family moved where and when? - ✔ ✔ St. Louis, Missouri in 1918
What high schools did Williams attend? Which did he graduate from? - ✔ ✔ Soldan HS and University City HS, grad from University City HS
In what work does Williams reference Soldan HS? - ✔ ✔ The Glass Menagerie
What university did Williams attend until his father took him out? What did he study there? - ✔ ✔ University of Missouri, studied journalism
What were two possible reasons Williams's father removed him from his first university? - ✔ ✔ 1. girlfriend distraction / 2. failing the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program there
What did Williams do after he left his first university? - ✔ ✔ sales clerk for a shoe company, writing in spare time
When did Williams suffer a mental breakdown? Where did he go to recover? - ✔ ✔ 1935, grandparents' house in Memphis
What happened in 1935? - ✔ ✔ mental breakdown
When did Rose's mental health deteriorate? - ✔ ✔ 1936
What happened during a fight between Tennessee and Rose? - ✔ ✔ he tried to comfort her, and she thought he had sexual intentions
What psychosurgery did Rose receive to "cure" her schizophrenia? How did Tennessee feel about this? - ✔ ✔ lobotomy - he was adamantly opposed to it, but her parents had the power to make the decision
How did Tennessee respond to Rose's lobotomy? In what play did a character receive a lobotomy? - ✔ ✔ he felt he had lost his sister (she became vacant, in a vegetative state) and never forgave his parents, Suddenly Last Summer (1958)
At what university did Tennessee study alongside several poets? - ✔ ✔ Washington University
Tennessee graduated from what university, and when? - ✔ ✔ University of Iowa in 1938
Style of Williams's writings - ✔ ✔ Southern Gothic Style
What are three subjects of Williams's works? - ✔ ✔ violence, sexual behaviors, and dysfunctional families
When did he move around to different cities and jobs? Name one of his occupations at this time. - ✔ ✔ early 1940s- scriptwriter at MGM
When did Williams change his name to Tennessee? - ✔ ✔ after moving to New Orleans at age 28 (1939)
