Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh Quiz

Take our free Tennessee Williams quiz below, with 25 multiple choice questions that help you test your knowledge. Determine which chapters, themes and styles you already know and what you need to study for your upcoming essay, midterm, or final exam. Take the free quiz now!

What effect did Williams' addictions have on his personal and professional lives? (from The Long Farewell)

His addictions to drugs and alcohol fed his paranoia, which destroyed his relationship with his literary agent, Audrey Wood, and crippled his association with Elia Kazan.

Except for the support he gave his sister, Williams was practically penniless because he wasn't producing anything that could be staged.

Although he was lonely, his scorn drove many away, with the result he was more isolated.

Williams lost his work routines and motivation to write.

What did Dakin Williams do to intervene in his brother's downward spiral after the dearth of Frank Merlo? (from Waving and Drowning)

He convinced Tennessee to come with him for a visit to their sister, Rose.

Dakin convinced Tennessee to come with him to a specialty hospital in St. Louis to be treated by a world-renown psychiatrist.

Dakin affirmed for his brother that they were the products of an insane family and that they were, in fact, sane.

Dakin bought Tennessee a dog, to replace the one that had attacked him in Key West.

What caution did Elia Kazan give Tennessee Williams about "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" before it went into production? (from Thunder of Disintegration)

Kazan told Williams to be certain the script was complete and finished, unlike "Camino Real" which failed because of a defective script.

Kazan told Williams he should quit drinking.

Kazan said the actors should all speak with the same southern accent.

He told him not to cast Barlon Brando as Brick Pollitt.

How was Tennessee Williams' true attitude toward his homosexuality expressed? (from The Heart Can't Wait)

Ambivbalence: joy and affirmation of his unique identity combined with revulsion at the endless stream of faceless partners.

By presenting himself as a normal, heterosexual male.

In his unstable, sometimes-bitter, relationships with women.

Through characters in his plays such as Sebastian Venable in "Suddenly, Last Summer" and Tom Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie."

How did Tennessee Williams characterize his life? (from The Sudden Subway)

As a constant discovery and revelation of truth.

As a search for sanity and serenity is a life and world filled with madness.

As "a never-ending contest with the squares of the world."

As the struggle of a gay artist to be accepted despite his sexual preference.