Realism Depicted in the Glass

Realism Depicted in the Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams' play, the Glass Menagerie, adequately represents segments of family life through a realistic lens. Williams' characters are painfully believable and their situations are equally straightforward. Guilt and regret surround Tom. Amanda and Laura live in states of denial. Most of the emotions and circumstances depicted in this play are realistic in that they could have happened to any family. While we do see hope emerge in the play, we are left wondering if it is enough to carry these characters for the rest of their lives. The Glass Menagerie captures the struggles of one family and forces us to look at the frailty of humankind in the process.

Tom represents the guilt we find in the play. Tom hopes by reliving the play, he can relieve some of his guilt. Tom represents the despair the Wingfields face through his desire to be a poet and his inability to do so. Tom ends up following his father's example "attempting to find in motion what was lost in space" (Williams 392). Tom cannot find a way to alleviate the guilt he feels for never helping Laura find a good man and then abandoning her. Amanda accuses Tom of living in a dream world and while he knows she is correct, it does not make his life any easier. He feels responsible for his mother and sister but yet, there seems to be nothing he can do for them. He escapes from the "slow and implacable fires of human desperation" (345) on the fire escape and by going to the movies. His guilt cannot be assuaged because of his regret that things did not turn out differently.

Denial surfaces through Amanda and Laura's behavior. Laura lives in a fantasy; she escapes into a world of small figurines where she finds happiness. While she finds a level of contentment others do not, she uses that world as a way of denying that any other world exists. The figurines need her in a way that her brother and mother do not. Many would say her attention to the figurines reveals a certain lack of maturity in Laura. Regardless, they mean the world to her and they represent her denial of the real world. Amanda is another character living in denial. She never accepts the fact that Laura is handicapped, telling he such a notion is "nonsense" (353). She tells Laura she has a "little defect -- hardly noticeable" (353). Amanda also lives in the past, refusing to accept the dire reality that stares her in the face. She loves reminiscing about her younger days because they were full of hope and excitement. She has no clear grasp of life and believes in that highly unlikely things will happen to her family, such as Laura being swept away by a Prince Charming. She tells Laura to stay "fresh and pretty for gentlemen callers" (348) because they "come when they are least expected" (348). There is no excuse for this kind of behavior, especially a mother.

Hope emerges in the play through Laura and Tom. Laura demonstrates hope when her favorite unicorn is broken. She is clearly saddened by the act but somehow, she manages to see something positive in it. She realizes the horn made the unicorn freakish and now he will fit in with the others. She tells Jim, the unicorn "will feel more at home with the other horses" (387). As she understands this, she comes to know that she might not be as freakish as she seems. Her ability to handle the situation with grace illustrates she is tougher than everyone guessed and it gives her (and us) hope that she will emerge from this changed and seek a better life. Tom also displays hope. Near the end of the play, he returns with a rainbow-colored scarf and gives it to Laura. With the mention of the rainbow, Williams brings hope into the play. When Tom is wandering the streets at the end of the play, he sees a window display that strikes him as "bits of a shattered window" (392). At this moment, he thinks of Laura but does nothing to contact her. Hope does exist but it has a difficult time staying alive in the Wingfield's world.