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 sort of behavior did Tennessee Williams exhibit that indicated he'd not taken Dr. Kubie's recommended steps back to sanity and reality? (from Waving and Drowning)

He refused to enter a psychiatric hospital because the patients were all deranged.

Williams continued his life at the same frantic pace, writing hits, then flops, drinking and using drugs and running from reality instead of facing it.

Williams abandoned his mother and brother in New York after his play, "The Milk Train doesn't Stop Here Any More" flopped.

Tennessee remained obsessively fixated on Frank Merlo after his death, which made it impossible for him to live in the present.

What were the two biggest challenge Tennessee Williams faced at the zenith of his dramatic career? (from Fugitive Mind)

Williams was plagued with self-doubts despite his successes, and the up-and-down nature of hit or flop with his plays tended to undermine his confidence.

Motion picture studios were less enthusiastic about his work, and critics descended upon him like vultures on a piece of dead meat.

He could no longer afford the upkeep of his sister, Rose, and the Screen Actors Guild picketed one of his films.

He had trouble getting the drugs he wanted and the partners he craved.

What was the darker side of Tennessee's success following "The Glass Menagerie?" (from The Erotics of Absence)

Williams' descent into alcoholism and drug addiction.

His resentment at feeling "bullied" by fans and sycophants, and a growing sense of paranoia that he had written himself out in the face of success by other playwrights such as Arthur Miller.

Williams' loss of confidence in himself as an honest artist.

The playwright's inability to sustain an intimate relationship.

What caused the rupture in Williams' relationship with Elia Kazan? (from Kookhood)

Elia Kazan demanded more money than agent Audrey Wood thought appropriate.

Kazan told Williams he should incorporate more black actors and roles into his works.

Kazan reneged on a promise to direct "Period of Adjustment" and instead went to work on a production for rival playwright William Inge.

The two got into a shouting match on the set of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

What indications were there that Tennessee WIlliams had taken his own life? (from The Sudden Subway)

The toxicology report showed that Williams' body was saturated with intoxicants.

He told his friend John Uecker that because he could no longer write, he wanted to die.

Depression had dogged Tennessee throughout his career and fueled his addictions.

He'd spoken of death and suicide often, but more frequently in the time leading up to his death.