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Williams works to point out that the story will not follow the conventions of conventional theatre which is evident in the narrator addressing the audience directly.
3. Describe the contrast between Amanda's perception of the night Jim comes to visit, and Laura's perception of the same evening. What does this tell us about the relationship between Amanda and her children, and about Laura's future?
Amanda accuses Tom of playing something of a practical joke on her and Laura. Her dreams for her daughter were shattered after they had prepared both physically and mentally for the diner. The diner was expensive for the family and ended in disaster. While Amanda's reaction was one of anger, Laura's could be better described by desolation. The glass unicorn shattered which represents how Jim's presence "broke" both of them. While Jim tries to ensure Laura that he had no memories of her brace from school, Laura's memories of the events exhibit a significant level of self-consciousness....
It may have been the case that Jim was trying to build up Laura's confidence by sharing his memories and by telling her she was beautiful, however even if this was the intention it ended in disaster. Both Amanda and Laura were devastated by the evening; though in different ways.
4. Discuss the title of the play. It has both a literal and symbolic meaning. What are they?
Laura's collection of glass represents her own private world where she can hide and be safe. The events that unfold in the story have implications for Laura's emotional state and she frequently goes into her imaginary world. When Laura hears Amanda walk up the fire escape, she quickly hides the collection of glass. Therefore the glass collection represents a hidden escape from the trappings of reality and what it meant to live within the culture portrayed in the story. The glass unicorn is a clear symbol for Laura; Jim, who represents the "American Dream" ultimately breaks both of them.
86). Jim symbolically inspires Laura to accept her individuality and to see that beneath her outstanding traits she is no different from anyone else. His gentility and kindness, borne of Southern culture, help Laura come to terms with herself and her social awkwardness. Laura's personality transformation through Jim's kindness paralleled her symbolic transformation through the unicorn. Had the unicorn not been made of glass, its horn would not have so
Glass Menagerie: An Uncertain Reality This essay will examine the ways in which the three main characters in "The Glass Menagerie" soften with harshness of day-to-day living with an insulating blanket of self-deception. This play is one of Tennessee Williams's earliest and most biographical plays (Patterson, 27). "The Glass Menagerie" was written by Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams (1911-1983) in 1944, incorporating his short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" with the unproduced
In The Glass Menagerie, the self-induced isolation of Laura stands in parallel to the mostly perceived isolation of Tom. These siblings suffer from symbiotic emotional illnesses that, if we are to understand Williams' works taken together, are indicative of a home itself shrouded in an unhealthy blanket of stunted relationships and the chilling void of empathy. The Glass Menagerie would be the first of his plays to achieve widespread critical
Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams, His Mother and the Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams is among the most celebrated playwrights of the 20th century. His family portraits, set to the backdrop of a deteriorating Southern tradition, are a window into human foibles like vanity, insecurity, detachment and personal disappointment. All of these themes are in full display with Williams' breakthrough work, 1944's The Glass Menagerie. A peering insight into the unhappy lives of the
Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Humankind's destiny has always been driven by fate and circumstances and in dealing with these two, people have ways of changing the outcome while others simply accept what comes their way. Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie is a play that portrays the manners by which the characters handle their situations in life. What they have are not the best of circumstances especially since the play was
Towards the play's end, Tom tells his audience/readers: "Oh Laura...I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette...anything that can blow your candles out!" This passage from the play showed how, in his fear for his sister and attempt to shield her from the harshness of life, Tom wanted to "blow (Laura's) candles out," an act