Tennessee Williams: His Life in "Suddenly Last Summer" and "The Glass Menagerie"

Have you all heard of taylor swift? The countless boyfriends she has had. The way that every single one of her songs symbolizes one of her relationships. Is it weird that she cannot keep a man? Likewise, Tennessee WIlliams uses his play The Glass Menagerie to symbolize his personal life. The play is about the Wingfield family. A fatherless family that includes a mother, a sister, and Tom Wingfield as the narrator of the play and a character in it. Tennessee Williams uses his memory play The Glass Menagerie to symbolically reflect his life through the character of Tom Wingfield.

Set in the 1930’s, in a time where hope was scarce and the depression was dominant, Tennessee William’s play, The Glass Menagerie, tells the tale of a disappointed family whose life is dull and bland. However, Tennessee Williams gives his play substance through the use of alternative techniques, and as a result the audience and reader’s of the text are left captivated and intrigued. Williams’s play is a memory play, based on his life and family, and this in effect gives it its realistic feel. In scene one of the play Williams writes, ‘The scene is memory and it is therefore non-realistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic licence. It omits some details: others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for

“The Glass Menagerie” is a play by Tennessee Williams. There are only four characters in the drama with a fifth character referenced so much that his character is a big part of the story line. The play is about a southern woman named Amanda and her two grown children. Tom is the son who has the responsibility of taking care of his sister and their mother. Laura has a disability that limits her capabilities and her confidence; consequently, her mother does not seem to understand how these limitations have made her life events extremely different from her mother’s early years. The fourth character, Jim, is an acquaintance of Tom and is a gentleman caller who ends up doing more harm than good for Laura. Amanda’s husband, who abandoned the family long ago, is not in the play, but is referenced throughout the story line; the set even has a big portrait of him hanging in the living room. Williams portrayed the personalities as he typically has in other plays with “characters who prefer dwelling in a fantasy world” (Wang). The characters have such a fascination of past events that they are not able to focus on the best choices for the present.

Tennessee Williams', The Glass Menagerie, is a play that evokes great sympathy and in some cases, empathy for a protagonist who struggles to overcome two opposing forces; his responsibilities and his desires. There are many symbols and non-liner references that contribute to the development of characterization, dramatic tensions and the narrative. This essay will examine in detail, the aspects of the play that contribute to the development of the above mentioned elements.

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play written by Tennessee Williams in 1944 which tells about the life a family of three. This play is an incredible piece because it is based off the life of Tennessee Williams himself; the main characters are Amanda, the mother, Tom, the son, and Laura, the daughter. In Paul Newman’s depiction of the play which has been converted into a film, the film perfectly uses acts out every aspect of the play. Tennessee Williams keeps the audience attentive in his play, that’s why the film was successful. Williams accomplishes this through the character’s glass menageries, Laura’s emergence out of her shell and heartbreak, and the ending.

The Glass Menagerie is arguably the most symbolic and deep plays ever written. The Glass Menagerie isn’t just a story of Laura’s disability, it has a deeper meaning behind it, and it can be easily overlooked by mediocre minds. Although the story revolves around the Wingfield family, Tennessee Williams throws in symbolism that corresponds with his childhood. In a way, he found closure for the loss of his sister Rose through writing The Glass Menagerie. One of the symbols is the play that holds a different meaning for each of the characters is the fire escape. As the play evolves the fire escape brings out Laura’s, Tom’s, and Amanda’s true desires.

The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, is a play narrated by Tom Wingfield, one of the three main characters in the play. The story is based on Tom’s memories of his past life while living with his mother Amanda and sister, Laura, during 1937 in St. Louis. These memories are skewed because of his inability to escape from his feelings of entrapment and the abandonment from his sister. The title suggest that the characters are a hodgepodge of fragile, sensitive, opposite people striving to survive life in the unrealistic fantasy world they each have created for themselves during the great depression. This paper will argue the symbolism between the characters themselves and Laura’s actual glass menagerie. The characters in the play are symbolic of a glass menagerie in the following ways: the characters exist in an unrealistic fantasy world, they glimmer in certain lights but not in others, and they are extremely fragile.

The Glass Menagerie is a dramatic play which was written by Tennessee Williams that depicts a picture of a dysfunctional family. These characters are Amanda Wingfield, the mother of Tom and Laura, and Jim O’Connor, the gentleman caller and a friend of Tom. In this play, Amanda Wingfield was abandoned by her husband, who happens to leave her and the family. At this point, Amanda’s responsibility was to take care of the family and also see to it that her high expectations for her children was fulfilled. This play brings out some issues of life especially marriage, which affected the life of Laura and her mother. For this reason, Amanda had to find someone with certain qualities to marry her daughter. Some of these qualities were a man who does not drink, a man with a better job or pursuing a good career, and a man with good character.

In Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, surroundings have molded each character. This fact is especially evident in the character of Mrs. Amanda Wingfield, an aged mother from a traditional southern family, who is constantly controlling the lives of her children. Amanda is crippled with a fear of abandonment and an obsession with finding a man for her daughter since her own husband left the family. Mrs. Wingfield’s overbearing inclinations lead to the overall degeneration of the family.

Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie,” is a play about the Wingfield family. It describes the longing of the mother, Amanda, to find Laura, her daughter, a gentleman caller and the struggles of the Tom, the son. “The Glass Menagerie,” uses symbolism to describe aspects of the characters in the play and to signify themes throughout the play. “The Glass Menagerie” begins with a narration from Tom. In the narration, Tom mentions a gentleman caller and says, “He is the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world that we were somehow set apart from.”

  Tom Wingfield is the narrator and a major character in Tennessee William’s timeless play, The Glass Menagerie. Through the eyes of Tom, the viewer gets a glance into the life of his family in the pre-war depression era; his mother, a Southern belle desperately clinging to the past; his sister, a woman too fragile to function in society; and himself, a struggling, young poet working at a warehouse to pay the bills. Williams has managed to create a momentous play using a combination of different elements, including symbolism. Three noteworthy examples of symbolism are the fire escape, a sense of hope and an escape both to the outside world and from it; the glass menagerie itself,

There are many events in Tennessee Williams’s early life that is similar to the details in The Glass Menagerie. Williams had a bad relationship with his father, who was clinically alcoholic (Debusscher 1). Williams’s dysfunctional family plays a role towards his homosexuality (Debusscher 4). A research group discovered that children who have alcoholic parents have a problem with their sexual identity (Debusscher 4). Alcoholism not only affects the victim but the whole family as well (Debusscher 2). He uses fantasy to survive chaos and pain to escape the truth (Debusscher 3). In The Glass Menagerie Williams draws attention to Mr. Wingfield’s alcoholism when Amanda fears that Tom might become a drinker (Debusscher 3). Mr. Wingfield has abandoned the family many years ago (Holditch 2). Though Tennessee Williams's background affects his plays, the time period in America also plays a part in his writings.

The play “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams takes place within the memories of Tom Wingfield. He explains that long before this, he lived with his sister Laura and mother Amanda in a mid-depression styled apartment. Tom wants to be a great writer, and feels he is anchored with his unrewarding job and his family who demands a lot from him. His father was long gone and all that was left was his nagging mother and his obscenely delicate sister. The fragility and oddity held within his sister is similar to her precious collection of glass animals called the menagerie.

Born Thomas Lanier Williams III, Tennessee Williams produced multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning play writes throughout his career. However, his breakout play was The Glass Menagerie. After perfecting his play for many years, The Glass Menagerie was first introduced to Broadway on March 31, 1945. As a young writer, Williams lived vicariously through his plays. Throughout this play in particular, there are several allegories that pertain to Williams 's life directly. Although Williams had a relatively happy childhood, his life changed when he was relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. “The carefree nature of his boyhood was stripped in his new urban home, and as a result Williams turned inward and started to write” (bio). Writing plays was a way for Williams to express his frustration within his family. The Glass Menagerie is a representation of a majority of things. Primarily however, it is a play in which Williams tells his autobiography through Tom.

Tennessee Williams was a renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning playwriter for his numerous plays throughout his career. One of such plays is The Glass Menagerie. After perfecting his play for many years, The Glass Menagerie was first introduced to Broadway on March 31, 1945. As a young writer, Williams lived vicariously through his plays. Throughout this play in particular, there are several allegories that pertain to Williams ' life. Although Williams had a relatively happy childhood, his life changed when he was relocated to St. Louise, Missouri. “The carefree nature of his boyhood was stripped in his new urban home, and as a result Williams turned inward and started to write” (bio). Writing plays was a way for Williams to express his frustration within his family. The Glass Menagerie is a representation of a majority of things. Primarily however, it represents nothing lasting forever and the fragility within Williams’ own family.