Reading Tom Wingfield's Homosexuality In Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams is a brilliant and prolific playwright in American drama history. In more-than-half-a-century's writing career, he transformed his passion for life into a multitude of gorgeous works, many of which were performed successfully in Broadway. For all the immortal works and memorable characters he left to the world, he was awarded almost every important honor of American theatres. With lyrical style and distinctive thematic concern, Williams has exerted a profound effect on American theatre. In addition to his natural talent and persistent passion for writing, his special desire for homosexuality theme makes him distinctive, too.But because of the homophobic atmosphere and strict censorship at his time, he was forced to conceal this taboo subject in an obscure and hidden way, which leads to long-term misunderstandings of his plays, especially of his first sensational autobiographical play The Glass Menagerie. The present thesis attempts to disclose the hidden homosexuality theme in The Glass Menagerie by analyzing some unnoticed textual information related to Tom's sexuality, and to explore the purpose and root of Tom's homosexuality by tracing the social and family background. In order to make the interpretation more convincing, it probes into the similarities between Williams and Tom on the one hand, and illuminates the writing background of the play and Williams's desire for the expression of the taboo subject on the other hand. The tentative analysis of the homosexuality theme in the play not only enables us to understand the great play better, but also gives us an access to William's younger years and his determination of defending the marginal group.