The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams

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,

Williams’s play is a tragedy, and one of quietude. He once expressed that “Glass Menagerie is my first quiet play, and perhaps my last.” It is a play of profound sadness, and through relationships between characters, portrays the “cries of the heart.” There is no cry more powerful that the cry and inner desperation of the heart. Williams’s has very little social context, but rather focuses on the conflicts within a domestic family. Such a focus is powerful, and the playwright expresses this power and importance implicitly through the estranged relationship between Amanda and Tom Wingfield.

   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 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

It seemed as though Sam Gold was peeling an artichoke while writing the script and accidently peeled off the aesthetically pleasing parts of the play. Oops! Those who are familiar with Williams' work know how specific he was about the set. However, Sam Gold didn’t seem to notice that and wiped away about three fourths of Williams’ descriptions. Don’t get the wrong impression though, Gold’s interpretation was still a story about a damaged single parent family that was at the edge of its harmonious existence with a annoying needy mother, crippled daughter who can’t receive any “gentlemen callers” and a forever romantic son who is trying to break free of all this mess. Yet, it didn’t feel like Williams’ play it had “Gold” written all over it. With his innovative and experimental outlook, this play lacked Williams’ thought and feeling. Although this play did have one very nice and romantic touch which was when the rain started falling on stage while the music was playing. It was very refreshing, like a breath of fresh air on a calm sunny day when everything is serene and you forget about all your problems for a second, allowing yourself to enjoy the tranquil moment of rapidly growing happiness in your

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.

TThis essay will discuss the metaphors associated with the characters in The Glass Menagerie and how each of these metaphors represents a fragment of the American Dream. She is like a piece of her glass collection, too fragile to be brought into the real world without being devastated. Because of her sensibility, she has avoided dealing with people for so long that when she finally tries to socialise with Jim, she fails to see that she is being manipulated. Amanda is a faded Southern belle who is trying to relive her past by using her daughter to mirror her former self. She represents nostalgia for the Old South in the play. Tom is a struggling poet who dreams of real adventures but has to provide support for his family. Jim, despite

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.

In the 1945 play, The Glass Menagerie, American author Tennessee Williams depicts the endeavours that the protagonist and narrator, Tom Wingfield, his mother Amanda and sister Laura face when living within a patriarchal society. When analysed from a gendered and psychoanalytical consideration, the play explores the restrictions and innermost emotions of individuals, reflecting Williams' interpretation of living within the 1930s American civilisation. Adopting the play from a gendered lens demonstrates the limitations placed upon men and women, as a result of acquired traditional gender roles. Comparably, through a psychoanalytic reading, Williams demonstrates the desire of escaping reality and abandonment; what is seen as imprisonment, and the

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.

On the surface, Amanda Wingfield plays the role of a caring mother that would do anything in her children’s best interest. However, according to the play, “The Glass Menagerie”, you should never be fooled by the “Illusion of the truth.” She indeed values her children’s best interest. But in reality, she is a woman trying to relive her youth through her crippled and emotionally unstable daughter. Unlike the other characters, Amanda Wingfield is not clinging to a fantasy, but is fixated on another time and place in her life. A time where she herself was young and truly wanted by others. In light of her own experiences Amanda Wingfield could no longer stand by and see her daughter waste her youth. So, in order to fulfill both her social role as a mother and her fixation of youth, Amanda forced her daughter to follow the tradition of the gentlemen caller. This in modern time can be described as a man properly asking a girl out. Throughout the play, it is shown how desperately she wanted her

In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, is a great example of how common it is to have a broken family especially in today’s society. I know a lot of people would disagree with my opinion and say that the family wasn’t broken at all. I understand that there are several families out there that seem very complete even without a father figure. In the play we the readers get to see firsthand, on how Tom’s father essentially broke up this family without even knowing it. I can’t say that I know how tom, Amanda and Laura feel because I’ve never actually been in their situation.

In literature, stories traditionally revolve around a main protagonist, whom the fate of the other characters rests upon. The protagonist is often expected to struggle and bear important duties in order to achieve success. The main antagonist, on the other hand, is usually responsible for the struggles that the protagonist must overcome, and serves as a threat to the characters. The character of Tom in Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, serves as a flawed protagonist. He bears the heavy responsibility of supporting his family, but also struggles against the boredom and stress of his everyday life. Despite his positive traits, he clearly shows contempt for each of his family members, and longs for adventure away from them. Tom’s father, whom is only mentioned by the characters, can be considered an antagonist. His abandonment of his family led to the many difficulties that Tom, Laura, and Amanda face. As such, he burdens the family and ultimately has influence on Tom’s decision to leave them. Williams uses various literary devices to enhance the theme that one must act without pity in order to escape life’s struggles.

Although not actively present throughout the play, Mr. Wingfield’s lack of presence hinders the family substantially. The void created by his departure is magnified most by Amanda and coincidentally causes Amanda to live a life of bitterness and fear. “The future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don’t plan for it”(Williams 1628). This quote personifies Amanda perfectly due to the confrontational fashion in which she conducts herself. She’s constantly reminding both Tom and Laura how to live life, how to present themselves, and most importantly, how vital family unity

In the play by Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie,” Williams uses many symbols to help the audience better understand the Wingfield family. Many of the symbols used in the play portray some form of escape from reality. The first symbol revealed to the audience is the fire escape. This represents the connection between the imaginary world of the Wingfield’s and the world of reality. Each character seems to be able to find their escape in their own, personal way. For Tom, the fire escape is the way out of the world that Amanda is forcing on him and a doorway into a world of complete and utter freedom. For Laura, the fire escape is a way into her own world and a literal escape from reality. Amanda perceives the fire escape as a way for gentlemen callers to come in and meet her daughter. This will also help her to escape her own depressing life. In the opening speech Tom says, "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion" (). Everyone in the play seeks rescuing from their lives, attempting to escape into an imaginary world. In "The Glass Menagerie," Williams ' fire escape portrays each of the character 's need to use it as a literal exit from their own reality.