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Escape for Tom means the suppression and denial of these emotions in himself, and it means doing great harm to his mother and sister." (www.sparknotes.com/lit/menagerie/themes.html)
This play seems to revolve around the character of Laura, even though she is the one with the less lines and the one that appears to be the most weak. She is also the most powerfull symbol in the play. "The physically and emotionally crippled Laura is the only character in the play who never does anything to hurt anyone else. Despite the weight of her own problems, she displays a pure compassion (...) that stands in stark contrast to the selfishness and grudging sacrifices that characterize the Wingfield household. Laura also has the fewest lines in the play, which contributes to her aura of selflessness. Yet she is the axis around which the plot turns, and the most prominent symbols -- blue roses, the glass unicorn, the entire glass menagerie -- all in some sense represent her. Laura is as rare and peculiar as a blue rose or a unicorn, and she is as delicate as a glass figurine" (idem)
The plays presents its characters trapped in a world both real and the product of their own minds, a world from...
The entire family is in a way disconnected from reality, and the intrusion of reality in the form of Jim, produces a rupture in the continuity of their lives and changes their equilibrium. This play was somewhat biographical of Williams experiences and his own family, and Tom's leaving to fullfill his dreams echoes the author's fulfillment as a writer.
Sources:
1. Author not available, "The Glass Menagerie Book Notes," from Bookrags.com, Copyright 2000-2006 Bookrags, Inc., retrieved August 1st, 2006, http://www.bookrags.com/notes/gm/SUM.html
2. Eddie Borey, "ClassicNote on Glass Menagerie," May 31, 2000, copyright held by GradeSaver, 1999-2006, retrieved August 1st,2006 http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/menagerie/shortsumm.html
3. Author not available, "The Glass Menagerie," Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, July 21st, 2006. Retrieved: August 1st, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Menagerie
4. Jaffee, Valerie and Lichtenstein, Jesse, SparkNote on "The Glass Menagerie." Retrieved August 1st, 2006
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/menagerie
Sources:
1. Author not available, "The Glass Menagerie Book Notes," from Bookrags.com, Copyright 2000-2006 Bookrags, Inc., retrieved August 1st, 2006, http://www.bookrags.com/notes/gm/SUM.html
2. Eddie Borey, "ClassicNote on Glass Menagerie," May 31, 2000, copyright held by GradeSaver, 1999-2006, retrieved August 1st,2006 http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/menagerie/shortsumm.html
3. Author not available, "The Glass Menagerie," Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, July 21st, 2006. Retrieved: August 1st, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Menagerie
4. Jaffee, Valerie and Lichtenstein, Jesse, SparkNote on "The Glass Menagerie." Retrieved August 1st, 2006
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/menagerie
Tom states that the events are based on a "working memory" thus suggesting that aspects of the story are exaggerated. 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
Menagerie REVISED Prince, don't ask me in a week / or in a year what place they are; I can only give you this refrain: / Where are the snows of yesteryear? Francois Villon, c. 1461 "Where are the snows of yesteryear?" asks Tennessee Williams in the opening screen of The Glass Menagerie (401), quoting a poem by Francis Villon. Williams explains in the production notes to this famous play that he has left
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 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