The Glass Menagerie Analysis

One of the big motivations shown through the characters in The Glass Menagerie is the yearning of escape from the real world. One example shown through Laura’s character is she finds a way to escape reality through her glass menagerie and the old records she plays that once belonged to their father. The mother, Amanda, tries to escape her current life as a deserted wife who must constantly scramble for money by retelling stories of when she was young. Her favorite story to retell regards one day when she received the attentions of seventeen gentleman callers. For her, those gentleman callers represent what her life was and what it could have been if she had not married her husband, “the telephone man who fell in love with long

The theme of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie is conflict. The play contains both internal and external conflict. The absence of Tom's father forces external turmoil and conflict between Tom the protagonist, and his mother the antagonist. The internal conflict is seen within Tom through his constant references to leaving home and his selfishness. The play is about a young aspiring poet named Tom, who works at a shoe warehouse. Tom is unhappy with is life at home mainly because of his overbearing, over protective mother named Amanda. Tom also has a sister within the play named Laura who chooses to isolate herself from the rest of society. During the play Tom's relationship with his mother is filled with very harsh and abrasive

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play narrated by the main character and son, Tom Wingfield. It takes place in their apartment in St Louis, 1937. The father left them years ago leaving Tom to support the family. He works in a shoe warehouse, a job in which he hates and wants to leave, but can't because he has a duty to support the family. His mother, Amanda is loving and caring but nags too much, annoying Tom. She expresses the desire for her daughter, Laura, who is crippling shy, to have "gentlemen callers". Amanda finds out that Laura dropped out of college because of her shyness and she demanded Tom to choose a gentleman caller for her. He chooses Jim O'Connor, a boy who she liked in high school, but was too shy to talk to him before. Tom invites him for dinner and Jim talks to her and gets her to open up a little. He leads her on by kissing her then after tells her he is engaged. He then leaves and Laura gets sad. Amanda yells at Tom, blaming him for it. Tom reveals to the audience that he abandons his family later that night and has been haunted by Laura ever since.

Amanda was abandoned by her husband and now must raise her two children alone, Tom and Laura. Amanda is informed and considers Tom’s unrealistic, daydreaming about becoming a recognized, successful poet rather than staying at his present job he spites. Amanda is not only overwhelmingly confused, but also terribly troubled about the future. Worse still, the fact that Laura is crippled causes her to worry even more. Amanda tries to arrange everything for Laura because she will live paralyzed forever. Aware of the reality, she enrolls her in a secretarial course in the hope that she would become, if not successful in marriage, at least independent. Disappointed by Laura 's inability to cope with the studies in the business school, Amanda cannot but desperately find her a reliable husband who

Dominated by his fussy mother, Tom feels stifled within the Wingfield Household, as shown when he continuously goes to the movies. A troubled young man, he desperately finds ways to leave, as shown in his expletive against Amanda, “The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I’ll go” (Williams 96). Tom values freedom, yet feels guilty in hurting his family (Brinkman 1). Readers can conclude in the fact of having Tom as the narrating voice of The Glass Menagerie, events within the tale can be exaggerated in biased ways due to his point of view (Garner I). Despite being the narrator, I do not believe the story belongs to Tom, seeing as he remains a two-dimensional character.

Thomas Lanier Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. He went to high school in St. Louis, and graduated from the University of Iowa. While in college, he saw the performance of “Ibsen’s Ghost,” and decided to become a playwright himself. The Wingfield’s in “The Glass House Menagerie, had a close resemblance to his family. His mother came from a line of Tennessee pioneers; his sister Rose suffered from shyness; Like Tom, William worked a job he didn’t like. He wrote poetry, felt comfort in movie going, and left home to wander with odd jobs. On Broadway in 1945, “The Glass Menagerie” had great success. It won a Drama Critics Circle award. In 1947 he received a Pulitzer Prize for “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Williams received another Pulitzer Prize for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” in 1955. Williams wrote two novels, poetry, essays, short stories, and Memoirs (1975).

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’

The production is about a man named Tom who reminisces on the past when he lived with his mother Amanda and his extremely shy sister Laura. He feels guilty about leaving them just like his father left them. The present Tom reveals scenes of the past in the play. The family is financially unstable and Amanda is constantly trying to find a man for Laura because she believes she will not go far in life due to her extreme shyness. Amanda begs for Tom in the past to find Laura a man. Tom mentions a man named Jim that he works with and decides to invite him. Jim shows up with Tom to eat and unknowingly meet Tom’s sister, which turns out he was her long high school crush. Then Jim breaks the news that he is engaged and about to get married to another woman. The news leaves an impact on the family. Tom leaves and the play ends of him worrying about what would have become of

He gets annoyed by the fact that she keeps telling him how to eat his food. Her annoyance kills his appetite and he no longer enjoys his dinner. Tom starts looking for ways to escape his mother and sister. He believes that if he leaves them he will be happier. He wishes to spend more time writing poetry and traveling.

Amanda is depending on Tom to care for the family and to do things differently. Tom’s father abandons his family, therefore Tom becomes the man of the house. Amanda wants Tom to do things he does not want to do like denying

In reading the play, the reader can see by Tom’s hurtful comments to his mother that his fear of living without intention makes him ambitious and aggressive to seek his own life.

The Glass Menagerie: Stoplight Paragraph By: Benn Rohs Claim: While Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie makes it clear that Laura is emotionally fragile, he uses other characters throughout the book to develop her as a vulnerable yet curious individual. Data/Warrant: First, In The Glass Menagerie, weakness is linked to fragility, which comes to mean both beauty and break-ability. While Laura’s shyness and fragility keep her in her own little world of equally fragile glass animals, they also infuse her with a mysterious individuality, something Jim picks up on with the nickname "Blue Roses" and finds incredibly attractive.

In The Glass Menagerie, Tom feels confinement from being stuck in an unpleasing or uninspiring job. Even being cramped into a small apartment with his family and being unable to see the outside world or having adventures of his own. Amanda is similarly confined to the thoughts of her past, and Laura traps herself in a world of glass animals and phonographs.

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 had a double role in the play as both the narrator and a main character that lived through a recollection of what life was like living with his mother and sister before he abandoned them to seek adventure. Tom’s behavior in the play could lead to question if his memory is truly accurate. SparkNotes comments, “…But at the same time, he demonstrates real and sometimes juvenile emotions as he takes part in the play’s action. This duality can frustrate our understanding of Tom, as it is hard to decide whether he is a character whose assessments should be trusted or one who allows his emotions to affect his judgment” (SparkNotes.com). Through his behavior a person is reminded that memory can be flawed by emotions or time elapsing, this would need to be taken into account when analysis of such a character is done. Tom is full of contradictions as he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of an escape; however he also felt bound by duty to his sister and mother. Another contradiction was that while he professed to care about his sister as seen in his ending comments in the play, “…I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!...” (Williams), Tom never went back to reconnect with his sister. This could be because of the great shame he felt for abandoning his sister or because of another reason. He stated that he had been in several cities over the years but never speaks of going back to St. Louis, making it unclear if he