Character Analysis Of The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a celebrated and cherished play that has affected generations. Written in 1945, the play very well may have been an outlet for Williams to accept what had happened to his own sister. Rose Williams had been lobotomized due to schizophrenia, affecting her brother greatly. While Williams’ family may be real, his characters are over dramatic and eccentric. The characters of Amanda, Tom, and Laura make up an extremely dysfunctional family living together in a 1930’s Saint Louis. By the end of the play, each character has affected themselves and each other. The characters spend the majority of their lives inventing someone who will make the rest of their family members happy, and when these facades crumble,

In the play “The Glass Menagerie” each of the characters uses different escape mechanisms to avoid real life. Amanda, the mother, consistently tries to live in the past. Laura, the daughter, avoids the real world by using her own escape mechanisms; her glass figures, and her music and taking walks. Tom, the son, is always avoiding the real world by either going to the movies every night, or going to get drunk. Throughout this paper the reader will gain knowledge of how each character escapes from their everyday lives that they are living.

   Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, describes three separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they face in a modern world.  The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Williams' use of symbols adds depth to the play. The glass menagerie itself is a symbol Williams uses to represent the broken lives of Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield and their inability to live in the present.

In the memoir, The Class Castle, by Jeanette Walls, themes of unconditional love and loyalty is explored. It is the story of author Walls’ coming-of-age experience, and her relationship with her charismatic yet alcoholic father and her artistic mother who constantly neglects her children. Throughout the years, the family of six repeatedly crumbles apart, then finds a way to come together again and again. All her life, Jeanette’s father had promised to build her a glass castle, which was never completed, or even started. The symbolism of the Glass Castle as the the family’s dream evolves as the author matures, inspiring us with the never ending loyalty between father and daughter.

While reading our section of The Glass Castle today, a quote that was brought to my attention was on page 200, where the narrator remembers thinking, “But I knew that boys were dangerous. They’d say they loved you, but they were always after something” (Walls 200). Jeanette's opinion about men is very understandable and can be traced back to her past experiences. For example, her experiences at Battle Mountain had taught her that men were always after something, with her father tricking her into giving him the families only money for booze. Jeanette also has reason to believe that boys are dangerous, as again in Battle Mountain, a young boy named Billy came after her and her siblings with a BB gun. All throughout Jeanette's life, men have been

Amanda is a desperate mother who is “clinging frantically to another time and place.”() Caught between the past and the present, she has a hard time coming to terms with the fact her life had passed her by. She hopelessly uses escape

            The complexity of Amanda's character directly affects her action and dialogue with her children. In her role as mother she exhibits an overwhelming desire to see her children succeed in life. In trying to push them toward her ideal of success, she at times unwittingly hurts them even though she means well. Her actions often hide her intense love for her children, but it is an important driving force in her motivations. She loves them too well--at times to a point of smothering them (perhaps the reason for the departure of her husband)--which results in her attempt to push them towards all the good things she has known and remembered and away from anything that does not suit her ideal.

In this quote, it becomes evident that Amanda is in denial of Laura’s popularity (or lack thereof) with “gentleman callers”, thus solidifying the concept that Amanda is in denial of the state of her family. She instead chooses to endlessly relive her youth as a southern belle, but this time, through Laura.

In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams beautifully encapsulates man’s desire to escape from uncomfortable emotional and physical situations. Whether he’s showing a young man trapped in a factory job he hates, an aging single mother who mourns for her life as Southern belle, or a young lady who fears that she’ll spend her life alone, he clearly demonstrates these desires and fears for his audience. Williams shows us through the actions of his characters how humans handle a wide variety of uncomfortable situations, and how these situations dramatically influence one’s ability to thrive. The playwright doesn’t seem to believe in the idea of “bloom where you’re planted”, and the desire to escape becomes a major theme of the play, demonstrated across multiple characters in a wide variety of ways. Creative individuals often do not thrive in noncreative, industrial environments. Williams demonstrates this clearly in this “memory play”, which carries many autobiographical element. Tom Wingfield represents his own character, Williams himself, and also serves as a narrator, making him quite the complex character. Williams’s uses Tom to show how an emotionally complex, creative individual can quickly feel trapped and tied down in a factory job, longing to get out, see the world, and pursue a job with more creative elements. Tom’s escapism, drinking, and evening theatrical adventures all reflect the life of the playwright himself, as Williams was known to struggle with alcoholism

Amanda loves to remember and remind anyone who is listening about her past when all the male suitors wanted her. She likes to close her eyes and escape from her reality as often as her children do. The only thing Amanda is truly invested in is her kids, who she only really uses as an escape and a distraction. She fills the void of her husband's absence with trying to push her kids in the right direction. Unfortunately for Amanda, what she wants for her kids and what they want is different and her actions only serve to push her children further

This play is a memory play introduced by the main character and narrator, Tom Wingfield, based on his recollection of his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura. After their father leaves them their family is stuck living in the past. Tom works at a warehouse trying his best to support his sister and mother. Tom often finds himself bored and uses cinema movies and drinking to escape his everyday life. Amanda, Tom’s mother, is obsessed with finding a gentleman caller for Tom’s sister, Laura, who spends most of her time with her glass collection. After Tom brings Jim, a gentleman caller who turns out to be engaged, home Laura learns a valuable life lesson.

“ Oh Amanda, you're a young beautiful girl and you should not go through this” Shared her mother.

This play is a story of the trials and tribulations of the Wingfield family. Amanda, the overbearing mother, lives with her two adult children and Tom. Amanda's husband left them long ago as he was not only a drunk but wasn't a stable man who wanted to travel. Amanda wants nothing but the best for her two kids. Throughout the play Amanda is worried of her son Tom as she consistently reminds him not to become of what his father was, a drunk. More importantly she does everything in her power to help her daughter become something of herself by admitting her into business school and find a man for her to wed. The goal of Amanda is to have her become more social to marry her off so she isn't so dependent and find another interest other than her

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams had ordinary people in an ordinary life that closely resembled the influences of Williams’ personal life while having reoccurring themes and motifs throughout the story. The play has been done by many with some variations in the scripts and setting while still clinging to the basic ideas of the original play.

As a mother, Amanda Wingfield had always encouraged her children to be all they could be. When Laura asked about clearing the table, Amanda’s responded by telling her to “…go in front and study your typewriter chart. Or practice your shorthand a little. Stay fresh and pretty! It’s almost time for our gentlemen callers to start arriving” (Williams, Scene 1, 976). This quote showed two aspects of the nature versus nurture debate. Amanda intended to nurture Laura’s success by encouraging and pushing her to study hard, to practice her writing, and look pretty while naturally, Amanda was concerned about taking care of herself and making sure her children make the right decision so that they may provide for her all the things she never had.