Misguided Love in The Glass Menagerie Essay

The loss of her husband causes Amanda to develop a dependence on her children. She wants Tom and Laura to become successful. Amanda complains that Tom does not earn enough money at the shoe factory. She wants him to attend night school so he can attain a better career.

Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams, wrote The Glass Menagerie, a play which premiered in Chicago in 1944. This award winning play, autobiographical in nature, represented a time in which Williams felt the obligation of his responsibilities in regards to the care of his family. Robert DiYanni, Adjunct Professor of Humanities at New York University, rated it as, “One of his best-loved plays...a portrayal of loneliness among characters who confuse fantasy and reality” (DiYanni 1156). Alternatively, The Glass Menagerie, a play set in the era of the Great Depression and written from the narrator’s memory, was meant to teach us the how our relationships with one another can alter our futures, for better or worse. Everything about this particular play was a direct and clear symbolization of Williams ' life growing up. Williams uses characterization to depict several people from his real life in this play; his sister, himself, his overbearing mother, absent father, and a childhood best friend. Williams does a splendid job transforming his personal life into a working piece of art. In Tennessee Williams ' play, The Glass Menagerie, his character, Laura, is central to the structure and focus of the story due to her individual ties to all of the supporting characters throughout the seven scene play.

Everyone in the family sticks to their societal role, Tom takes care of the Amanda and Laura, Amanda does some work, but she does do a lot of work in the house, and Laura is attempting to find someone to marry so she does not have to go to work. When Amanda was younger, she tells the reader that she always had gentleman callers, and she is always hoping that Laura will get gentleman callers. An example of Amanda projecting this belief onto Laura is when Amanda says “"Resume your seat, little sister – I want you to stay fresh and pretty – for gentlemen callers! (1.14)”. However, having to take care of his sister and living with Amanda causes tension in Tom’s life. Tom works in a factory, as most men did in the 30s, and this meant that he worked long hours for little pay. Tom wanted to be a poet, but he had to keep working because he had to support his family. Amanda puts a lot of pressure on Tom to be there for his sister, to be his older sister’s guardian, and she gets upset when Tom is out late drinking and going to the movies as his

   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.

Tom breaks Mrs. Wilson’s nose because he can, he has more power than she does. In his mind, she overstepped

Along with the character transformation in “A Doll’s House”, Tom, from “The Glass Menagerie”, also goes through some character changes. Throughout the entire play, Tom was working in a warehouse trying to support his family. While working there, he was struggling with his dreams of becoming a merchant marine. Towards the end of the play, when Tom introduces his friend Jim O’Connor to his sister Laura, his mother hopes that this could be a man that Laura could settle down with and someday marry. When Amanda finds out that Jim is already engaged, she blames Tom. She is furious that Tom brought a gentleman caller over

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams narrates the story of a dysfunctional Southern family during the Great Depression struggling to achieve their dreams. The novel is written as a memory from Tom Wingfield’s mind as he looks back on his past. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, unable to come to term with the reversal of economic and social fortunes, controls her children’s lives. Laura Wingfield, her daughter, is terribly shy and just wants to stay home, while Tom, Laura’s brother, hates his job. Amanda wants Laura to become get married soon, while Tom wants to escape his boring life and experience adventure. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams should be added to next year's curriculum because of its insight on distorted reality and

Amanda would find the smallest things to argue with him about. Whether it was he needed to comb his hair, or why he went to the movies so much. It seemed that Tom appeared to not like living in his home. He would leave every night, and say he was going to go out to the movie. Tom said that this gave him adventure, because he didn’t get to have adventure at the shoe wear house were he worked.

As the others are finishing dinner, the lights go out, and as punishment for not paying the light bill Amanda makes Tom do the dishes. Jim goes to the living room to keep Laura company. He seemingly does not remember her from high school. The two hit it off very well. They talk about high school and their lives now and then hey dance to music that is heard coming from nearby and then he kisses her.

After she says this, Tom walks into the kitchen to have his morning coffee, eventually talks to his mother, and apologizes for the things he’s done, no doubt because Laura was so convincing (4.3. 5-20). The family has their differences and it is a perfect representation of the sort of family Williams had at this age; they sometimes fight, but they cannot function without one another. Without Tom, the family has no financial income and Laura does not have a brother in which she can confide in. Without Laura, Amanda and Tom would fight all the time and neither of them would apologize because there is a huge lack of motivation due to Laura’s absence. Without Amanda, there is no one to take care of the two of them, and neither of them would have a motherly figure around the house. All of the members of the family are critical instruments in conveying the story of Williams’

He is resentful at his mother Amanda who constantly criticized him to improve himself causing Tom to fill the role as a father figure. He yearned to escape his situation. Tom feels that life is just passing him and says, “whenever I pick up a shoe, I shudder a little thinking how short life is and what I am doing” (62). Tom’s felling of despair and resentment comes from his dreadful job his needs to support his family, and to unavailability to live out his dream. He is frustrated how his father abandoned the family and how he is now the person in charge of supporting them. Tom is reminded every time he picks up a shoe in the warehouse that life is passing him by and he might be stuck in this situation forever. Tom desires to escape this life and become a writer, however at the same time he feels guilty about deserting the family. He shudders as almost in disbelief that at this point in his life he is not living out his dreams causing him to realize they may never become a reality. Tom also faces the conflict between desire and responsibility when he articulates, “[he’s] like [his] father. The bastard son of a bastard! Did you notice how he’s grinning in his picture in there?

Tom escapes into his world of poetry writing and movies. He cannot handle his menial job and his unsatisfying home life. He believes that the atmosphere is stifling and damaging to his creative capacities. Finally, when he does leave the Wingfield apartment, he is still trapped by his memories (the past) of Laura. As a result, he is unable to function in the present and wanders aimlessly thinking of his sister.

Tom, the son in the Wingfield family, works in a warehouse. He dreams of adventure and longs for some sense of purpose beyond the town that he lives in. Although he takes care of his family’s financial stability, he clashes with them constantly. Tom and his mother, Amanda, argue very often, for example when he gets irritated by her interrupting his writing. Tom rants, “Look, Mother—I haven’t got a thing, not a single thing left in this house that I can call my own,” (1.3). Tom lets all of his anger out at once, building it up until the moment he snaps. Instead of settling his problems in his life at home assertively, he claims to go to the movies, only coming back after hours of being away. However, this is classified as a positive trait. It’s better for him to calm down and settle the issues later on, when he won’t risk saying something impulsive or upsetting. When he gets home after his trips to the movies one night, he speaks to his mother after she claims she will not speak to him again, “I’m sorry, Mother. I’m sorry for all those things I said. I didn’t mean it. I apologize,” (1.5). Another positive trait about Tom is his gentleness towards Laura. When he converses with her, his guard is let down and speaks to her kindly. Even though he tries to appear bleak on the outside, once he opens up he shows his softer, more careful side.

Set in St. Louis Missouri prior to World War II, Tennessee Williams reflects back on his deeply tragic and dysfunctional familial experiences in, “The Glass Menagerie”. Williams brilliantly incorporates real aspects of society to reveal how they contributed to the nonreal aspects and the conflicts which affected his family. The real aspects of the play which had a significant impact on the lower middle-class families such as the Wingfields included, the economic hardships surrounding the Great Depression, the fall of the American south, society’s intolerance towards homosexuality, and many threats abroad. Although Williams play was merely a series of hazy memories, the nonreal aspects combined with the major societal conflicts contribute

Amanda forces the action in the play by pushing both Laura and Tom, this often causes friction between herself and Tom