What is Real?
When we are young we are taught to differenciate Reality and Illusion/Fantasy. We are taught real versus unreal and truth versus make believe. There are times that we wished that we lived in a fantasy or in a world of illusion instead of living in reality. Tennessee Williams along with the characters from his plays, suffered from trying to live in an illusion. As Williams and his sister suffered from mental illness and as the characters in his plays would rather live in a fantasy, that is a big issue to overcome. Being a woman in society, where you are criticized for being single after a certain age now is something that is not that often seen, but living in the times of Laura Wingfield, and Maggie this was a big issue.
The idea of reality versus illusion is something at a very young age we are taught to differenciate them. Our parents see what we have around us, and they teach us to tell the difference. Now we see all these make believe, and fantasy on the television, in movies, etc. that it's no wonder why our generation would want to live in a fantasy world. Seeing this prompts us to teach our children to tell the difference between real versus fake. Living in the era of Amanda Wingfield and Laura Wingfield you really can't protect one from wanting to live in an illusion. Amanda was always living in the past and always imagining what life would be like, like in a dream, that it's no wonder that Laura would want to live her life that way. Tennessee Williams probably created these characters around what he wanted his life to be. Maybe he was one of the many that wished he lived in a world of fantasy or in a dream where he never wanted to wake up from.
Why did Williams base the majority of his plays around the theme of illusion versus reality. Williams was probably lining in his reality, but what he really wanted was to live in an illusion with his lover, where no one could criticize him about anything. His plays "The Glass Menagerie"(1945)...