Tom Wingfield represents well Tennessee Williams because the writer, in his childhood, also wanted to escape from his family. It's during this period that Tennessee Williams gets really attached to his grandfather which treats him like a normal human being and also, sometimes takes him around the United States to visit other states. And since the writer really liked Tennessee State he started calling himself like this. .
Another very reflexive character in this play is Laura. Laura is Tom's sister in the play. With her fragility and her illness she in fact is very alike Tennessee Williams" sister Rose. We can very clearly see the link between Laura and Rose, not only because of the many resemblances but also because of the nickname that Jim O"Connor gives her, "Blue Roses". A really important symbol in the play is the glass unicorn which is Laura's favorite animal and represents her fragility and her peculiarity. As Jim tells her: "Unicorns are extinct, and are really different from normal horses" (Williams 223). Later, when Jim will kiss Laura, the unicorn's horn will brake off, and it will become just like a normal horse. This makes feel Laura a normal girl but eventually she will give the broken unicorn to Jim because without the horn the unicorn is more appropriate for him that for her. Also, Laura Wingfield lives in her own world, because she doesn't accept reality. Maybe this is a way to symbolize how Rose Williams lives in her own world after .
the brain lobotomy that she has, due to her hysteria. This will leave her out of touch for the rest of her life.
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One of the most important plays of Williams is "A Streetcar Named Desire" this is a great example of an autobiographical play. In fact "William was able to do his particular thing, to take the fragments of his divided self and turn them into the dramatist personage of an ideal conflict" (Kroll 109). Also "Williams found images and rhythms that are still part of the way we think and feel and move" (Kroll 109).