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Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," is a portrayal of the fragile psyches of its characters -- an arrangement of tiny, delicate glass figurines whose essence of life can be shattered very easily. This arrangement takes place in a cramped apartment in St. Louis, inhabited by Amanda Wingfield, her son Tom, and daughter Laura, the husband having deserted the family several years ago. Another character, perhaps the most stable, is Jim O'Connor, a former schoolmate of Tom and Laura.
The play is really a representation of Tom's memory as he admits at the beginning of the play; everything flows from his memories. Amanda vacillates between moments of manic activity and languid recollections of her past southern heritage. She boasts of all the gentlemen callers she has had, and the cotillions she graced. She continually questions her daughter about any dates she might have; and, "how many callers she will be seeing." Laura is a shy girl; whose shyness borders on the pathological. She also has a leg deformity that causes her to use a leg-cast. Laura's shyness gets in the way of her activities;...
Her brother Tom works at a warehouse; Tom is a dreamer who wants to join the Merchant Marines and travel the world; he also goes to movies every night. He also spends working hours writing poetry even at the risk of losing his job. Tom's every act is one of escape from the depression at home.
Amanda is concerned that her children do not have any direction in life; her pushiness causes friction with Tom, and Tom occasionally lashes back. Laura response is reticence; her only interest is a collection of delicate glass animal figurines. Tom, once enraged at his mother, causes some of these to break by flinging his coat across the room. Finally, on his mother's insistence, Tom invites his colleague Jim O'Connor to his house in the hope of getting him to date Laura. Amanda much ado at this news; the house is prepared for Jim's arrival. When he finally arrives, Jim recognizes Laura as from high school. Jim, talented in science, sports, singing and debating, won several awards in high school. Laura had a crush on Jim, but…
tragic characters in Tennessee Williams' Glass Menageries perhaps the most tragic is Amanda, for she has both expectations and little if any chance of seeing them fulfilled. She is afflicted with all the elements that Arthur Miller attributes to the hero of modern dramas, especially with regard to being at odds with her social environment. Her son Tom, though miserable, has expectations -- a future in the merchant marines
She also knows her own personal reasons for doing this. For instance, at the end of the play she admits to Tom that she understands self-control and what dreams and escaping are all about, "Go then. Go to the moon -- you selfish dreamer!" Did she once say these words to her husband as well when he disappeared? Laura, because of her disability, also disappears into a fantasy world as
Glass Menagerie The world of 1930s America was certainly quite different from the one we have today. For this reason, it is important to study the relationship of Laura and Amanda with this disturbing industrialized society in mind. In those days, single parenthood was not as common as it is today and thus we can imagine the problems women went through when they were abandoned by their husbands. If Amanda
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 Methods of Escape in the Glass Menagerie The three members of the Wingfield family are trapped within the claustrophobic confines of their poverty, sadness, and regret. However, each one of them escapes from the realities of their daily existence by engaging in acts of fantasy. For Tom, the narrator of the play, this escape is found through books, movies, and alcohol. His mother, Amanda, distances herself from her current condition
Glass Menagerie Response to a Reading of "The Glass Menagerie" The story by Tennessee Williams (1973) is one that seems to confuse a lot of people. The story itself seemed pretty simple, but there could be many different interpretations made of the characters and events that took place. It seems that for the most part the characters could not accept reality and that they built figurative walls to protect themselves. Another point