Shannon and Nonno: The Present and Future Worries of Tennessee Williams

​

The Night of the Iguana can be considered one of Tennessee Williams more autobiographical plays because of Williams discussing his ideals of God through Shannon, the setting representing Williams’ time in Mexico, and his fears of the future shown through Nonno, Hannah’s grandfather in the play. Specifically, the characters of Shannon and Nonno both reflect a different side of Tennessee Williams. Even though it would be assumed that Nonno resembles Grandfather Dakin, Tennessee Williams’ fear of becoming obsolete as a writer, becoming senile in old age, what happens in death, and becoming dependent solely on another person as he becomes older is very evident in Nonno’s character. In contrast to Williams’ fears, Shannon reflects Tennessee Williams at his current stage in life. Even though Williams is not a defrocked priest, he is still searching for a way to not be trapped by alcoholism, his internal battle of whether he is a monster for being a homosexual, and what he believes about God. 

​

Tennessee Williams utilizes Shannon to flesh out some of the ways he feels trapped and his concepts of God. Shannon is trapped by his inability to go back to the church as a priest due to his sexual relationships with under age girls, his “atheistic sermons” as Maxine calls them, and his corrupted views of God. Shannon’s problems first started, according to Maxine,

“You told him that Mama, your Mama, used to send you to bed before you was ready to sleep – so you practiced the little boy’s vice, you amused yourself with yourself. And once she caught you at it and whaled your backside with the back side of a hairbrush because she said she had to punish you for it because it made God mad as much as it did Mama, and she had to punish you for it so God wouldn’t punish you for it harder than she would” (Williams 390). 

Shannon based his beliefs on God and his feelings of anger and shame toward sexual pleasure on the words that his Mom told him as a little boy. Maxine goes on to say that it created a resentment towards God and his mom (Williams 390). Even though there is no record of this happening in Tennessee William’s childhood, it is known that Williams held a resentment toward his mother (seen through her depiction in The Glass Menagerie). Williams held a resentment for God because of his struggle with his desire for men and the terrible situations that occurred throughout his life. 

One of Williams primary discussions in his plays is whether he is a monster for being attracted to men. As the play progresses, Shannon’s humiliation and shame of having sexual relations with under age girls is evident through his actions right after he finishes sleeping with them. Charlotte, one of the college girls on the trip that he slept with, describes Shannon’s actions after they slept together. She says, “Yes, I remember that after making love to me, you hit me, Larry, you struck me in the face, and you twisted my arm to make me kneel on the floor and pray with you for forgiveness” (Williams 364). Shannon sees himself in Charlotte and is punishing himself by punishing Charlotte. He cannot help himself, even though he tries to deny her advances and the others. At the end, Shannon gives up trying to deny his pleasure and sleeps with them. At the end of the play, he agrees to stay with Maxine, sleeping with the girls and women who stay at the Costa Verde. He decides to give into his desire, which is easier even if it will cause him more shame and punishment from God. This is how Williams feels; he cannot deny his want for men. In his teens and early twenties, Williams had girlfriends and even a prospect of marriage so he could behave as society thought he should. However, in his twenties, he decided to follow his attraction for men and stop hiding his desire. To give in to desire though would mean that Williams would have to deal with the shame, punishment from God, and hate for himself for the rest of his life. He is working through his thought process with Shannon’s character, except instead of underage girls, it is his desire for men.

​

Not only does Shannon and Williams feel trapped by their sexual desires, they also feel trapped by alcoholism. Whe Shannon arrives at the Costa Verde, Maxine offers him a rum-coco, a fruity alcoholic beverage, and he rejects it saying, “No, no. I want a cold beer. If I start drinking rum-cocos now I won’t stop drinking rum-cocos” (Williams 331).  Shannon has built the illusions that by having beer, he is not giving into his alcoholism with hard liquor. Not only does drinking a rum-coco mean that Shannon is giving into his desire for alcoholism, it also represents him having to stay at Costa Verde. By giving into one of his vices, Shannon believes he will never go back to the man he was. As the play progresses, Shannon loosens his resolve to alcohol. His desire becomes too much, and he gives in to the rum-cocos and Maxine’s prodding. At the end of the play, after Shannon has decided to stay with Maxine at the Costa Verde, he takes the rum-coco from her and says, “You want a drinking companion?” (Williams 427).  Shannon knows he is now trapped at the Costa Verde, and he will never go back to the church or go traveling with Hannah so he succumbs to alcohol. Drinking is also an escape for his entrapment. It is one of Shannon’s ways of coping with the shame for himself and the miserable life he lives.

​

Tennessee Williams, when he wrote The Night of the Iguana, was also dealing with alcoholism. Williams started drinking in the 1950s to combat his anxiety and depression. Williams’ grandfather had also died in 1954 which can be attributed to a partial amount of his depression and anxiety. Shannon’s use of alcohol to deal with his circumstances can be equated to Williams’ feelings as well with alcohol. Williams used alcohol and drugs to deal with his anxiety, depression, and struggles in feeling trapped, the same as Shannon.

​

Shannon represents Williams’ concept of God as well as his vices. Shannon is a defrocked priest who has held a resentment toward God his entire life and finally gave up trying to suppress his desires to please God at the end of the play. Throughout the play, Shannon reveals more and more about his journey as a priest and how he views the Lord, which can be equated to Williams’ views of God. In the first act of the play, Shannon is telling Maxine that he is contemplating going back to the church when Miss Fellowes tells Shannon that they want to go to their original destination in Mexico. Shannon tells her to be compassionate with him because he is at the end of his rope. If Miss Fellowes does not show him compassion, then it would, “Shake if not shatter everything left of my faith in essential … human… goodness!” (Williams 343). Shannon is holding onto the existence of God and the goodness of people. Shannon has been defrocked from his church when he needed help and compassion, his tour groups do not care about him, and Maxine is flirting with him right after her husband died. Shannon was looking for one shred of compassion from Miss Fellowes which he does not receive, but he does receive it from Hannah, the trapped artist. In comparison with Tennessee Williams’ life, Williams is searching for love and kindness from people who actually care. Williams received much criticism about some of his plays and his lifestyle. The family member who supported him completely, his grandfather, had just died a couple of years earlier. WIlliams, like Shannon, is trying to find the essential human goodness. 

​

Shannon sees God as an all-powerful being who punishes humans severely when they mess up. This is due to his mother telling him this as a child, and the church’s punishment towards Shannon when they found out he was sleeping with under-age girls. On the Sunday after the church finds out about his sexual promiscuity in his anger, Shannon said that the church’s theology, “accuse God of being a cruel, senile delinquent, blaming the world and brutally punishing all he created for his own faults in construction…” (Williams 369). Shannon was angry that God was punishing him for the desire that he believed God put in him. Why was God punishing him for the desire to sleep with younger women if it was God’s fault for putting the desire there? This idea equates to Williams who could not understand his desire for men. Growing up in a Christian society, Williams struggled as a child and struggled in adulthood with why his desire was wrong if the Lord created him. 

​

​

As Shannon progresses, it is learned that he moves away from the thought of God being a senile delinquent, but a storm. Shannon tells Hannah, “It’s going to storm tonight – a terrific electric storm. Then you will see Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon’s conception of God Almighty paying a visit to the world he created. I want to go back to the Church and preach the gospel of God as Lightning and Thunder … and also stray dogs vivisected…” (Williams 369-370). Shannon’s true picture of God is of a powerful being who dominates nature and experiments on his creation. People are unaware when lighting and thunder will happen except during a storm. God is unpredictable to Shannon. He is powerful, makes himself known, and does whatever he wants with mankind. Shannon equates himself to a stray dog being vivisected by God. Shannon is an experiment for sexual desire and what would happen if that person were made a church figure. Tennessee Williams here is expressing how he feels in relation to God. He feels like Shannon, a stray dog being experimented on for his sexual desire, but instead of being for underage girls, it is for men. 

​

In relation to Shannon believing God is Thunder and Lightning, Hannah brings in a contradictory point of who God is that makes Tennessee Williams’ views on God a complex discussion. Hannah states that Shannon should on his next sermon, “Lead them beside still waters because you know how badly the need the still waters, Mr. Shannon” (Williams 370). While Shannon discusses displaying the view of powerful, experimenting, punishing God to his congregation, Hannah points out what the congregation and Shannon really need. Instead of being punished, scolded, or putting the fear of God in them, they need love and peace. Hannah is the pure, kind soul that Shannon has been looking for since his journey began at the beginning of the play. He was searching for a human to show compassion and restore a little faith in humanity. Hannah is the persona of what Shannon wants from his congregation and for himself. He wants to be led with kindness and grace to God who will calm him and his shame for his mistakes and desires. Hannah is also conveying what Williams wishes in regards to God; a God who will not make him feel shameful for what he has done but create peace in him. 

​

Whereas Shannon represents Tennessee Williams in the present, Nonno represents what Tennessee Williams fears in the future which is becoming obsolete as a writer, becoming senile in old age, what comes in death, and becoming dependent solely on another person as he becomes older is very evident in Nonno’s character. Tennessee Williams wrote up until his death; his fear of running out of things to write was his greatest worry. Nonno represents his fear as a poet who is stuck on a final poem to publish before he dies. The way Hannah and Nonno make money is for Hannah to sell portraits and for Nonno to recite his poetry. Nonno ws an average poet, and no one remembered his poetry. He is at Costa Verde to finish his final poem, and when he finishes it, it is mediocre. Hannah promises to publish it for him, but Nonno has no control over whether she actually does because he dies immediately after. Even though Williams focused on plays, this scenario that Nonno faces is what Williams fears the most. Will his final play be mediocre, and will those who read it lie and tell him it is beautiful? Will that mediocrity be what he is remembered by? These fears plagued Williams, and they shine through in Nonno’s character.

​

Nonno also represents Williams’ fear of becoming senile in old age and transitioning back to a toddler that needs to be constantly cared for. Nonno throughout the play rejects the acceptance of his elderly age. When Hannah and Nonno are first introduced, Nonno says about his current state, “Hannah, tell the lady that my perambulator is temporary. I will soon be ready to crawl and then to toddle and before long I will be leaping around here like an – old – mountain – goat” (Williams 350). Nonno wants to believe that he is still young and will be able to care for himself again, but he is trapped in his elderly body. He must rely on Hannah to take care of him at all times and be the one who can save his writing from becoming obscure after his death. 

​

Nonno is equated to the iguana in the story as being trapped by his old physical body and the want of a last poem. Shannon confronts Hannah who wants to free the tied up iguana, “ Can you look at me and tell me truthfully that this reptilian creature, tied up down there, doesn’t mostly disturb you because of its parallel situation to your Grampa’s dying-out effort to finish one-last poem, Miss Jelkes?” (Williams 424). Nonno will not die because he can not allow himself to die without a piece of poetry that will allow him to stay relevant after his death. Instead, he is forced to be made fun of and gawked at by people as he recites his poetry until he can create his last work. Nonnno is similar to the iguana in the fact that the workers would poke, prod, and make fun of the iguana tied against the pole.  Tennessee also feels like this iguana and is scared that he will still be like Nonno in his old age. He will be trapped reliving his former plays while he struggles to come up with one last play to keep him from dying into obscurity and mediocrity. 

​

Nonno’s final poem is one that deals with the fear of death. His last stanza is, 

“O Courage, could you not as well

Select a second place to dwell,

Not only in that golden tree

But in the frightened heart of me?” (Williams 425).

 

Nonno is asking for courage in death; he does not know what death will look like or where he is going. Nonno right before dies says he needs to pray, but before he can utter a word, he passes away. The audience is unaware of whether Nonno was a religious person or not; the only hint that is given is Nonno asking to pray at the end of his life and the expression of fear of death. Nonno asking for courage in death, not knowing what is next or whether he will stay relevant in life translates to Tennessee Williams. Since Williams has come to the conclusion that God is thunder and lightning, a punisher of those who do wrong, Williams must fear death. Nonno’s poem reflects Williams’ life of what death will look like for him. If Williams believes in God then he will be punished in the afterlife for being a homosexual alcoholic, but if he does not believe in God, then there is no idea of what the afterlife will look like for him. Williams is asking for courage to go into death through Nonno’s poem. He shares the same fear as Nonno for not being remembered and what will come in death. 

​

The Night of the Iguana is an autobiographical play that conveys Tenessee Williams' feelings in the present and his fears as he ages. Williams uses the defrocked Reverend Shannon, who is trying to find his purpose and who God is, to convey and discuss his thoughts on God, his feelings of entrapment, and his shame he feels towards his desire for men. Williams in turn uses Nonno, Hanna’s grandfather and pet, to convey his fears as he ages. Williams uses Nonno to discuss the fear of obscurity, mediocrity, becoming senile and dependent on another person, and death, with or without God. The Night of the Iguana is an autobiographical work by Williams used to express his feelings in the present and his fears for the future.