The Glass Menagerie Essay

In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, and A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, each protagonist faces the difficulty of society’s rule. Tom, being the “man of the house”, provides for his family and is depended upon. Were as Nora is co-dependant of her puppet master of husband Torvald. Despite their differences, Tom and Nora parallel the flaws in their common daily lives.

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,

     America is known around the world as the land of opportunity, a place where you can follow your dreams. No matter how selfish or farfetched ones dream may be, their goal will always be available. Whether it be the pursuit of the woman of your dreams, like that of Jay Gatsby, or the hunt for something pure and real, like Holden Caulfield. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, and The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, exhibit the various types of American lifestyles and the aspiration that surface among each character. The dreams between the characters in the two literary works differ in selfishness, and availability.

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.

The glass menagerie symbolizes Amanda Wingfield's overwhelming need to cling to her past and her fulfilled fear of being alone.  Amanda resents the poverty-stricken neighborhood in which she lives so

An escape typically liberates a person from their suffering. However, in the Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, escape is an ironical dream. Instead of being free, the characters are tied down to emotional and physical chains that hamper their desires. This impediment is depicted through details in which each character’s journey consists of trials and tribulation and the attempts to escape from the them.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), born Thomas Lanier Williams and is considered by be one of the leading playwright of his age and post-World War II America. He took many of the elements of his plays from his own life. He was born in Columbus, MS, to a violent, aggressive traveling salesman and a high-minded, puritanical, preacher 's daughter. He had an older sister named Rose, who he adored, but suffered from mental problems that eventually caused her to be institutionalized. Rose was the model for several of Williams characters,His family moved to St. Louis at some point in his childhood. Williams attended a succession of universities before he finally received his degree in playwriting. Between stints in college, he worked for three years in a shoe factory.

If I could change the outcome of the story, I would have allowed Laura and Jim O’Connor to get married. I would have made this change because then Amanda’s problem would have been solved, and Laura would have had financial support in the future. Another reason I would have made this change is because Jim O’Connor would have been the ideal man for Laura because he connected with her. He saw past her awkward fondness of a glass animal set. He also got Laura to take pride in herself.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the play “The Glass Menagerie” by

fears that she has lost or is losing him as far as the big things, the

Have you ever watched a play and been amazed to how real the play appears? Refer to this as realism. Realism tries to create an illusion that makes a certain situation look like that action is actually happening. Realism can also refer to certain social issues. Something that provides to realism is the spectacle. The spectacle is what the audience sees and hears during the play. In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, there are several different examples of spectacle. These example gives the audience an entertaining value and sets the tone for the plot. During the play, the spectacles that contribute to the realism would be the screen and the music.

Each character in the Glass Menagerie is living in their own fantasy world, which reflects that during the period of World War II and the Great Depression, the U.S. working people in lower middle class worked hard in different ways in face of cruel reality. Whether live in the past, hide themselves from others, walk out bravely, or even completely escape from the result, they all struggled between the real and were unable to escape the tragic fate. The beautiful fantasy is as beautiful and fragile as the glass menagerie.

The situation/scene that I found awfully disturbing takes place in “The Vanishing Glass.” Not only is Harry Potter an orphan he is also treated horribly by his Aunt Petunia,Uncle Vernon, and his spoiled cousin Dudley. I was disturbed when Aunt Petunia woke Harry up so he can watch over the bacon. I noticed the words used to described how she talked to Harry. Words such as shrill, screeched, demanded, and snapped. Exclamation points were used nearly after everything she said to Harry, which are often use to show strong feelings and put emphasis on something. What stood out to me what when he was getting out of bed in order to watch over the bacon and it is revealed that he sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs. He doesn't have his own room

The Glass Menagerie is a play set in the 1930s, and the 1930s was an era where society expected women to live a domestic life. According to a journal titled “‘Women Who Have No Men to Work for Them’: Gender and Homelessness in the Great Depression, 1930-1934” by Elaine S. Abelson, “Women, unlike men, have never been fully detached from family, domestic life, and a quasi-dependent role” (106). This quote demonstrates that women have long been family-oriented, homebound, and reliant individuals. It is significant because it clearly depicts societal expectations for women in the 1930’s. During this time period, women felt oppressed because society wanted them to stay home, care for the children, cook, clean, and maintain the household; they were subservient to men. In general, a woman was not encouraged to work outside of her home because men were the traditional breadwinners. As a result, it was rare and unacceptable for women to be apart of the workforce. The workforce often discriminated against them because of their gender. This quote reveals important insight into the play by portraying the role that Amanda and Laura have in their family. Being that Amanda and Laura are women, their duty is to live a domestic life in which they accomplish daily household tasks while Tom provides the income. Amanda and Laura are not given the equivalent opportunities as Tom, so they must heavily rely on him.

Written in 1944, Tennessee Williams wrote a play during World War II when people were barely making ends meet. Centering on the Wingfield family, the story consisted of five characters: Amanda Wingfield (the mother), Laura Wingfield (the daughter), Tom Wingfield (son, narrator, Laura’s older brother), Jim Connor (Tom and Laura’s old acquaintance from high school) and Mr. Wingfield (father to Tom and Laura, and Amanda’s husband)- who abandoned the family long before the start of the play. The title, “The Glass Menagerie”, represented a collection of glass animals on display in the Wingfields’ home. At one point or another, these animals then represented each character when they couldn’t accept reality. The theme of this play were about the