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Learning Objectives 

Students will: 

• Analyze Tennesse Williams’ plays and distinctive American voices that emerged in 20th-century drama.
• Examine the way drama is an effective vehicle to indict injustice.
• Explore the impact of dramatic theater as a catalyst for social, political, and cultural change.
• Examine the damaging effects of rigid philosophical views imposed on others.
• Analyze the structural patterns of a composition.
• Discuss the implications of entrenched attitudes and values in the shaping of the American character.
• Probe the nature and consequences of guilt in American society.
• Compare character roles from plays. 
• Use the writing process, oral skills, skills of research, contextual analysis, and collaboration to write an essay.

Standards Alignment

National Core Arts StandardsNational Core Arts Standards

Common Core State StandardsCommon Core State Standards

Recommended Student Materials

Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.

• , 

Digital or Print Text

• Copies of Tennessee Williams Plays Books

Websites

Teacher Background

Teachers should know that plays by Tennessee Williams contain adult content. Teachers should review the conflicts, themes, and events in each drama prior to teaching the lesson. Read the following resources to gain or enhance knowledge of Puritanism and Tennessee Williams’s plays: 

-Readings on the basic tenets of Calvinist doctrine, the “Elect,” 

-Excerpts from William Bradford’s, History of Plymouth Plantation.

-John Winthrop’s, A Model of Christian Charity and A Little Speech on Liberty

-Excerpts from Cotton Mather’s, The Wonders of the Invisible World London

-Charles Upham’s, Salem Witchcraft

-Excerpts from Jonathan Edward’s sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

-Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter

Student Prerequisites

Students should have some general knowledge of theater and Tennessee Williams’s work.

Accessibility Notes

Modify handouts, text, and utilize assistive technologies as needed. Allow extra time for task completion.

Engage

1. Distribute the following resources to students, , , and . Allow students time to read and discuss vocabulary.

2. Introduce Puritanism to students. Have students read the history of and specifically review the section on “Puritans in American Life.”  Share with students the scholarly argument that, although Puritanism in New England crystallized, cracked, and crumbled on the surface, in actuality, Puritanism went underground, and has remained a strong influence in American culture. 

3. Have a class discussion about Puritanism. Ask students: Do Puritan values still prevail in American culture? What do you consider to be Puritan “attitudes” and/or values? What specific ways do they think these attitudes and values have sustained in American culture? Do you perceive any of the dramas you have read, viewed, or participated in to be a reflection of the rebellion against Puritan strains embedded in the American psyche? Do you think American drama has helped ignite societal and cultural changes in attitudes and values over time? Use the resource to review possible student responses. 

Build

1. Share with students that some Tennessee Williams scholars believe many of Williams’s characterizations, plots, and themes reflect a strong indictment of Southern Puritanism. Have students review the resource to gain perspective on their analysis of Williams’s work. 

2. Divide the class into three sections. Have students reexamine the possible strains of Puritanism embedded in American culture. Assign individuals in each section one of the following .

3. Engage students in a discussion, sharing main points from their essays. Ask students: How is the theory about Williams’s reaction to “Southern” Puritanism valid/invalid?

4. Tell students that critics have been very divided in their response to Williams’s dramas. Many have decried that Williams has an obsession with sex in the development of his plays and protested against his work. Others argue that Williams' recurring sexual themes are evidence of his avowal to strip back the artificial layers of human behavior and tell the truth about human instincts and longings.

5. Divide students into collaborative groups. Tell students they will research well-known critics of Williams’s work. They will read reviews by critics published in the late 40s, 50s, and 60s. Review the web resources from, . Students should select one of the following critics to research or the teacher can assign one: Brooks Atkinson; Joseph Wood Krutch; Eric Bentley; Irwin Shaw; Mary McCarthy. Advise each group to take notes and prepare a summary of their findings to share with the class. 

Optional: Ask all groups to research the New York Times article (June 12, 1960), “Tennessee Williams presents his POV” in which Williams defends his use of themes that probe the hidden facets of human behavior.

6. Use the assignment to engage students in a discussion. Ask students: How do current studies align with long-held notions of Puritan attitudes about sex? Do you think Williams’s plays could have been a strong influence in igniting the “sexual revolution” and feminist movements of the 20th century?

Apply

1. Explain to students the relationship between ideological conflict and theater. Arthur Miller comments, in his “Overture” statement at the beginning of Act I of The Crucible, that “it is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions, and that the balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom.”

Great drama, like great literature, is built off of conflict, and many of the world’s most valued plays are driven by the conflict and consequences that ensue in the confrontation with, the resolve to preserve, or the search for some kind of “order” something presumed to bring coherence and meaning to life—without repressing inner drives and individual freedom.

Modern American drama provides a rich laboratory for examining trauma as characters strive to find a balance between order and individual freedom. Tennessee Williams’s plays offer provocative opportunities for the study of conflict. For example, in Williams’s introduction to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he states “I still don’t want to talk to people only about the surface aspects of their lives” but “as freely and intimately about what we live and die for as if I knew you better than anyone else whom you know.”

2. Working in pairs, have students examine one (or more) of Tennessee Williams’s plays. Ask students to define what they consider to be the during a conflict. Have students support their conclusions with specific evidence from the play.

3. Share ideas in a class discussion and/or share papers. One approach could be to share the essays in small collaborative groups (perhaps peer evaluation) followed by each group presenting a summary of ideas developed in the essays shared.

Reflect

1. Assess students’ knowledge with an essay assignment. Introduce . Ask students to select a topic and write a culminating essay based on the information and research gathered from the lesson. Review the with students prior to beginning the task.

2. Confer with students and provide feedback on their essays. Allow time for peer editing and revision.

3. Have students engage in a collaborative discussion about their essays. Encourage students to make comparisons or share differing points of view.

Extend

1. Trace the background of some of the famous actors and actresses who have played the lead roles in performances of Miller’s and Williams’s plays. Some actors and actresses who played key roles in The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof include Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Bel Geddes, Burl Ives, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, and Marlon Brandon. Williams’s response to different “star” performances—especially that of Tallulah Bankhead as Blanche Du Bois—could be an added topic to pursue.

2. Have students select an additional group project, essay, or class presentation from the list.