The Glass Menagerie

¶ … Glass Menagerie

What was the American Dream in the 1940's? What message does Williams convey about the American Dream, and what are the possibilities that each member of the Wingfield family will realize the dream?

The American Dream in the 1940s was that anyone, provided that he or she worked hard enough, could achieve success. For men, that meant getting a good, preferably, white-collar job. For women, it meant marrying well, or, as in the case of Amanda, seeing her daughter Laura marry well and her son Tom advance in his position at the warehouse where he worked. However, the reality is that Amanda is a fading Southern belle who has lost her charm, while Laura is painfully shy and is physically crippled. Tom feels completely unsuited for working in corporate life and wants to escape his family responsibilities and become a writer.

However, while Tom may not feel completely comfortable in respectable society and wishes to escape into the movies and his art, he clearly has more possibilities to free himself from his current circumstances than his mother or sister: unlike them, he is young, male, and able-bodied. Although Laura is encouraged by her mother to study to get a secretarial job, Laura is emotionally incapable of dealing with the outside world for any length of time, and her spirit is easily crushed.

Q2. Discuss Williams' choice to tell this story from the memory of one character, rather than have the action take place "live" on stage. How does this affect the staging of the play, and what does it tell us about Tom's attempt to escape?

Tom's attempt to escape seems successful, which makes the sad end of the play somewhat more bearable. The audience knows that Tom does leave the confines of the miserable apartment and attempts to realize his dream about becoming a writer. The self-conscious nature of the play as a literary piece suggests that he has realized his dream. However, he also clearly feels guilty that he left his mother and sister behind without any means of support.

The play has a dreamy, nostalgic quality that soften some of its harsher aspects, such as Amanda's controlling and cruel moments with her children and the rejection of Laura by the Gentleman Caller. The play's presentation gives dignity to Laura's obsession with her glass animals, which could seem strange and childish, but which fit in with the mood of the play.

Q3. 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 sees Jim's visit as Laura's last possible chance of finding a husband. Laura is mortified by Amanda's attempt to make her seem sexual and attractive because she is so shy. She had a crush on Jim when she was in high school but is convinced that no man can love her because of her physical disability. Laura, unlike Amanda, is not focused on the future and what she will do to make a living. When Jim tells her that he is engaged to be married, Laura's brief hopes for love and normalcy are shattered and she seems to withdraw from the world. Amanda is also shocked, but the event enables her to see Laura clearly -- after Jim leaves Amanda says that Laura is crippled for the first time in the play. But she is unable to understand her own role in Laura's tragedy and instead blames Tom for the evening and the fact that he did not know that Jim was engaged.

Amanda clearly lives in her own world and has her own vision of reality. She is not particularly concerned with her children's true natures and their emotional needs. She is very driven in a materialistic way and thinks that if her children can get ahead through marriage and good jobs, they will be well. But Amanda's attempts to impose her vision of reality upon Laura only make her daughter more miserable and cause her daughter to become more shy and self-conscious, ultimately making Laura unable to survive outside of the world of the apartment.