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The Glass Menagerie

By tennessee williams.

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Sample of Discussion & Essay Questions

• What does Laura's collection of glass animals represent? How is this symbolism communicated in the play?

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W hy's T his F unny?

• The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams

• Literature Notes
• Essay Questions
• Play Summary
• About The Glass Menagerie
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Amanda Wingfield
• Tom Wingfield
• Laura Wingfield
• Jim O'Connor
• Tennessee Williams Biography
• Cite this Literature Note

Study Help Essay Questions

1. How does the fire escape function as a symbol to reveal something about each character's personality?

2. Why does Tom go so often to the movies?

3. What are the similarities between Tom and his father?

4. What is the significance of Laura's unicorn?

5. Why does Amanda nag at Tom so much?

6. Why does Laura give the unicorn to Jim?

7. Why does it take Tom so long to decide to leave home?

8. Does Jim have the potential greatness attributed to him by Laura?

9. Does Laura fully understand her position and especially the responsibility that Tom feels for her?

10. Why does Amanda blame Tom for the failure of the evening?

11. Choose either Laura, Tom, or Amanda, and argue how the person you chose should be considered the main character of the play.

12. Write a theme characterizing Williams' views toward illusion and reality.

13. Which characters face life most realistically? Defend your choice.

14. Write an essay depicting Amanda's strengths and weakness. Is she an admirable person or merely a silly, frustrated woman?

Previous Tennessee Williams Biography

The Glass Menagerie

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Glass Menagerie: Introduction

The glass menagerie: plot summary, the glass menagerie: detailed summary & analysis, the glass menagerie: themes, the glass menagerie: quotes, the glass menagerie: characters, the glass menagerie: symbols, the glass menagerie: theme wheel, brief biography of tennessee williams.

Historical Context of The Glass Menagerie

Other books related to the glass menagerie.

• Full Title: The Glass Menagerie
• When Written: Williams worked on various drafts during the 1930s and 1940s. Much of the play is based on his 1943 short story “Portrait of a Girl in Glass.”
• Where Written: Around the United States, though primarily Los Angeles, California.
• When Published: The play premiered in Chicago in 1944 and moved to Broadway in 1945. Random House published the play in 1945.
• Literary Period: Late Modernism
• Genre: Memory play
• Setting: St. Louis, Missouri in the 1930s
• Climax: The Gentleman Caller’s visit in scenes six and seven, particularly when the glass unicorn shatters.
• Point of View: Tom narrates the play and also is a character in it.

Extra Credit for The Glass Menagerie

The Laugh Menagerie. Christopher Durang’s one-act play For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls is a parody of The Glass Menagerie , featuring the pathologically shy Lawrence and his collection of glass cocktail stirrers. (“This one is called string bean because it’s long and thin,” he says. “I call this one thermometer because it looks like a thermometer.”)

Glass Blue Roses. At the turn of the twentieth century, the German glassmakers Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka created hundreds of biological models entirely of glass. Famed for their scientific precision and prized for their exquisite beauty, these extraordinarily finely detailed glass marine animals and glass flowers receive thousands of visitors every year at Harvard University’s Museum of Natural History.

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Novelguide rooms, novelguide: search by author, novelguide: search by title, book navigation.

• The Glass Menagerie: Novel Summary: Scenes 1-2
• The Glass Menagerie: Novel Summary: Scenes 3
• The Glass Menagerie: Novel Summary: Scenes 4
• The Glass Menagerie: Novel Summary: Scenes 5
• The Glass Menagerie: Novel Summary: Scenes 6
• The Glass Menagerie: Novel Summary: Scenes 7
• The Glass Menagerie: Character Profiles
• The Glass Menagerie: Metaphor Analysis
• The Glass Menagerie: Theme Analysis
• The Glass Menagerie: Biography: Tennessee Williams
• The Glass Menagerie: Top Ten Quotes

The Glass Menagerie: Essay Q&A

Essay Q&A

1. The Glass Menagerie "seems to derive its continued if wavering force from its partly repressed representation of the quasi-incestuous and doomed love" between Tom and Laura" (Harold Bloom). Discuss. As far as the text of the play is concerned, the only time Tom really expresses his feelings about Laura is at the end, when he confesses that even though he has escaped from the stifling effect of the family home, he cannot forget Laura. So many things remind him of her, and he is tormented by the memory: "Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!" This suggests a strong emotional connection between brother and sister, and probably a feeling of guilt on the part of Tom for having deserted her. And the word he uses, "faithful," seems an unusual one for a brother to use about a sister. The idea of being faithful is more usually applied to relationships between lovers or spouses rather than siblings. However, this passage is not in itself an indicator of an incestuous or even "quasi-incestuous" love. During the play Tom does not, in the text, show any unusual attachment to his sister. However, the script of a play is only the bare bones of what it becomes in performance. There may be opportunities for the actors playing Tom and Laura to suggest a relationship between the two that might come close to the "partly repressed" incestuous love that Bloom writes about. This opportunity was indeed taken in the celebrated 1973 television production, starring Katharine Hepburn as Amanda. At the beginning of scene 4, when Tom returned at five in the morning and entertained Laura with tales of what had happened at the theater, there was a flirtatious manner between them that suggested something more than conventional love between siblings. In short, the playwright does not seem to have presented the relationship between Tom and Laura as "quasi-incestuous" in any consistent, obvious manner. However, it is possible to suggest such a relationship in performance. 2. Discuss Williams's use during the play of a screen bearing images or titles. Williams wanted productions of the play to use at certain moments a screen on which were projected slides bearing images or titles. The purpose, according to Williams's production notes, was to stress the most important points in each scene. He realized that his play was rather episodic and he was concerned that the audience might lose track of the structure of the play, making it seem fragmentary. Williams wrote: "The legend or image upon the screen will strengthen the effect of what is merely allusion in the writing and allow the primary point to be made more simply and lightly than if the entire responsibility were on the spoken word." Directors and scholars have generally been unenthusiastic about this innovation of Williams. The screens (also described as legends) were omitted from the Broadway production of 1945, which Williams did not regret since Laurette Taylor's performance as Amanda was so powerful that he felt the production could be simplified. Directors since have usually followed this lead, although Williams retained the use of the legends in the Reading Edition of the play. Many of the legends seem unnecessary. When Amanda reminisces about her youth, the image, "Amanda as a girl on a porch, greeting callers," does not add much to the audience's understanding. Similarly, "A swarm of typewriters," the legend that is to appear as Amanda begins her story of her visit to Rubicam's business college, adds little to the story, since Amanda immediately goes on to explain that she went to see the typing instructor. More use can be seen for an image stating (or illustrating) "Crippled", when Laura utters the word, since Williams wrote that Laura's lameness can be merely suggested on the stage. And when Tom says he likes a lot of adventure, the image that appears, "Sailing vessel with Jolly Roger," suggests Tom's later departure for the sea. In general, however, the verdict of time has been that the legends are not necessary and add little if anything to the effect of the play. 3. Discuss Williams's use of non-realist techniques in The Glass Menagerie. Williams repeatedly stressed that he was not writing realistic drama. In his production notes to The Glass Menagerie he disparaged realism in drama, comparing it to a mere photographic likeness, whereas "truth, life, or reality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transformation, through changing into other forms than those which were merely present in appearance." At the very outset, Tom addresses the audience directly. This is a breach of realistic convention, in which the actors are obliged to pretend that the audience does not exist. Tom also hints at the nonrealistic nature of the play when he says that in contrast to a stage magician who provides illusion in the guise of truth, "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." Tom also brings out the nonrealistic dimension when he makes it clear that although he is narrating from the present, the characters and situations he is re-creating are from the past. There are other occasions when Williams deliberately disrupts any sense of realism in the play. In scene 1, for example, when Amanda and Laura are seated at the table, "eating is indicated by gestures without food or utensils." Music plays a large part in the play, especially the "glass menagerie" music that is heard in connection with Laura. Tom deliberately brings attention to this breach of realism: "In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings." Williams also uses lighting in non-realistic ways. The stage is dim, but shafts of light illuminate selected areas or characters. Lighting often serves to keep Laura as the center of attention even when this is not apparent from the action in the scene. For example, as Williams himself points out in the production notes, in the quarrel between Tom and Amanda (scene 3), a scene that does not directly involve Laura, the light shines on her nonetheless. So too in the supper scene, when Laura lies on the sofa, taking no part in the conversation, the light is still focused on her. 4. What does The Glass Menagerie reveal about the lives of women during this time period? The world depicted in the play is one in which men can shape their lives as they choose, even if it means behaving irresponsibly, while women must accept a circumscribed and dependent position. For a woman such as Amanda, deserted by her husband sixteen years ago, the economic situation is precarious. Amanda depends on her son to pay the rent and the other bills for their apartment. When she wants to bring in some income, she is reduced to selling magazine subscriptions from her own home. Laura's position shows even more clearly the limited opportunities open to women during this time period. Although she does have the chance to attend a business college, what she learns there is shorthand and typing, which would be sufficient to get her a job as a secretary (to a male executive) but no more. When she drops out of college, her prospects are even worse. All she can hope for is to snare a man who will support her, and for that she must develop her feminine wiles. According to Amanda, all women should be a trap for men ("and men expect them to be," she says). But the reality is that men are not trapped by women, since they are able to escape any situation that is not of their liking, with little consequence. The prime example of this is the father, Amanda's husband, who left his job with the telephone company and deserted his family. Interestingly, Amanda, far from despising him, seems to retain much affection for him, since she displays his over-sized portrait prominently on the mantel and points it out to Jim with some pride. If she feels any anger toward her husband, she does not show it. She lives in a world where it seems accepted that men will behave in this way, and there is little women can do about it. Tom follows in his father's footsteps. He is prepared to be ruthless in planning his escape, paying his union dues with the money that should have paid the electricity bill. He has a freedom that Amanda and Laura can never have, simply because he is a man. The world depicted in the play, of strictly segregated roles for men and women, typifies pre-World War II America. After the war, as more women remained in the workforce, roles and expectations based on gender gradually began to change. By the 1960s, the world depicted in The Glass Menagerie was rapidly becoming out of date. 5. What role does religious symbolism play in The Glass Menagerie? Religious symbols and allusions hover in the background of the play and contribute to its meaning. Amanda regards herself as a Christian. When she sympathizes with the women she talks to about her subscription drive, she calls them "Christian martyrs," which may give a clue to how Amanda sees herself. Laura tells her that when she is disappointed she gets that "awful suffering look on [her] face, like the picture of Jesus' mother in the museum." All Christians, especially suffering ones, await the coming of the savior, and this is the role in which Amanda casts Jim O'Connor. Scene 5, in which Tom breaks the news that Jim is coming for dinner, begins with the legend "Annunciation," a term which refers to the message brought by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. The person to be redeemed is of course Laura. She is also described in religious terms. According to Williams's production notes, the light that shines on her during the play should have "a peculiar pristine clarity, such as light used in the early religious portraits of female saints and madonnas." But Jim O'Connor is unable to live up to the status that Amanda ascribes to him. When he and Laura are alone together he offers her not the wine and bread of the holy sacraments, but wine and chewing gum. And he preaches only a secular gospel of self-help rather than salvation through divine grace. Whereas Christ the savior is presented in Christian scriptures as the light of the world, in The Glass Menagerie, the lights are always going out. When it transpires that Jim is unavailable for Laura, the "holy candles in the altar of Laura's face have been snuffed out." The lights go out at the dinner table too, a foreshadowing of how the world will soon be plunged into the darkness of World War II. Tom's final speech ends with candles being blown out. The only light now in the world is that of lightning, not the divine light. The religious symbols and allusions therefore serve to give only false hope. They enhance the pessimism of the play.

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The Glass Menagerie

By tennessee williams, the glass menagerie study guide.

The Glass Menagerie was written in 1944, based on reworked material from one of Williams' short stories, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," and his screenplay, The Gentleman Caller. In the weeks leading up to opening night (December 26, 1944 in Chicago), Williams had deep doubts about the production - the theater did not expect the play to last more than a few nights, and the producers prepared a closing notice in response to the weak advance sales. But two critics loved the show, and returned almost nightly to monitor the production. Meanwhile, they gave the play enthusiastic reviews and continued to praise it daily in their respective papers. By mid-January, tickets to the show were some of the hottest items in Chicago, nearly impossible to obtain. Later in 1945, the play opened in New York with similar success. On opening night in New York, the cast received an unbelievable twenty-five curtain calls.

Tennessee Williams did not express strong admiration for any early American playwrights; his greatest dramatic influence was the brilliant Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Chekhov, with his elegant juxtaposition of the humorous and the tragic, his lonely characters, and his dark sensibilities, was a powerful inspiration for Tennessee Williams' work. Additionally, the novelist D.H. Lawrence offered Williams a depiction of sexuality as a potent force of life; Lawrence is referenced in The Glass Menagerie as one of the writers favored by Tom. The American poet Hart Crane was another important influence on Williams; with Crane's dramatic life, open homosexuality, and determination to create poetry that did not mimic European sensibilities, Williams found a great source of inspiration. Williams also belongs to the tradition of great Southern writers who have invigorated literary language with the lyricism of Southern English.

Like Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams wanted to challenge some of the conventions of naturalistic theatre. Summer and Smoke (1948), Camino Real (1953), and The Glass Menagerie (1944), among others, provided some of the early testing ground for Williams' innovations. The Glass Menagerie uses music, screen projections, and lighting effects to create the haunting and dream-like atmosphere appropriate for a "memory play." Like Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman , Williams' play explores ways of using the stage to depict the interior life and memories of a character. Tom, as narrator, moves in and out of the action of the play. There are not realistic rules for the convention: we also see events that Tom did not directly witness. The screen projections seem heavy-handed, but at the time their use would have seemed to be a cutting-edge innovation. The projections use film-like effects and the power of photography (art forms that are much younger than drama) in a theatrical setting. In The Glass Menagerie, Williams' skillful use of the narrator and his creation of a dream-like, illusory atmosphere help to create a powerful representation of family, memory, and loss.

The Glass Menagerie is loosely autobiographical. The characters all have some basis in the real-life family of Tennessee Williams: Edwina is the hopeful and demanding Amanda, Rose is the frail and shy Laura (whose nickname, "Blue Roses," refers directly back to Williams' real-life sister), and distant and cold Cornelius is the faithless and absent father. Tom is Williams' surrogate. Williams actually worked in a shoe warehouse in St. Louis, and there actually was a disastrous evening with the only gentleman caller who ever came for Rose. Thomas was also Tennessee Williams' real name, and the name "Thomas" means twin - making Tom the surrogate not only for Williams but also possibly for the audience. He is our eye into the Wingfields' situation. His dilemma forms a central conflict of the play, as he faces an agonizing choice between responsibility for his family and living his own life.

The play is replete with lyrical symbolism. The glass menagerie, in its fragility and delicate beauty, is a symbol for Laura. She is oddly beautiful and, like her glass pieces, easy to destroy. The fire escape is most closely linked to Tom's character and to the theme of escape. Laura stumbles on the escape, while Tom uses it to get out of the apartment and into the outside world. He goes down the fire escape one last time at the end of the play, and he stands on the landing during his monologues. His position there metaphorically illustrates his position between his family and the outside world, between his responsibility and the need to live his own life.

The play is non-naturalistic, playing with stage conventions and making use of special effects like music and slide projections. By writing a "memory play," Tennessee Williams freed himself from the restraints of naturalistic theatre. The theme of memory is important: for Amanda, memory is a kind of escape. For Tom, the older Tom who narrates the events of the play, memory is the thing that cannot be escaped, for he is still haunted by memories of the sister he abandoned years ago.

The Glass Menagerie Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Glass Menagerie is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is Jim's nickname for Tom?

Jim nicknamed Tom, Shakespeare.

In Scene 6, how does Amanda embarrass Tom?

Tom is embarrassed by his mother because she acts like a teenager in Jim's presence. She talks incessantly (about herself) and presents herself as if she were a young, southern belle in search of a husband.

What would you judge the Wingfield's social status as being?

In context, the family's social status/ financial status has declined. Amanda is described as once having been a Southern belle. She has been abandoned by her husband and is now supported by her son.

Study Guide for The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie study guide contains a biography of Tennessee Williams, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Glass Menagerie
• The Glass Menagerie Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Glass Menagerie.

• Chekhov's Influence on the Work of Tennessee Williams
• Entrapment in The Glass Menagerie
• Odets and Williams's Women of the Depression
• Life's Fire Escape
• Symbolism of The Glass Menagerie

Lesson Plan for The Glass Menagerie

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Glass Menagerie
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Glass Menagerie Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Glass Menagerie

• Introduction
• Original Broadway cast
• Autobiographical elements

The Glass Menagerie | Questions and Answers

The Glass Menagerie Questions and Answers

• In The Glass Menagerie, why can’t Tom leave his sister behind? Does he get caught by the past and memory?

Tom recounts what his life had become after leaving home. Tom cannot escape his memories of Laura and his own guilt for leaving her. His love for her and his understanding of her fragile and vulnerable life were all that had kept him at home for as long as he had managed to stay. He was emotionally trapped at home, and he remained emotionally trapped after leaving. There is no escape for Tom; he cannot escape his own character, no matter where he runs or what he does

• Are characters in William’s plays based on his family members?

Part of Laura’s character profile has its roots in the personality of Rose, Tennessee Williams’ sister, and Amanda is a reflection of his mother Edwina. Brooding Tom is probably a reflection of Williams himself, who readily stated that he took to writing as a refuge from his own problems.

• Why is Laura the tragic hero in “The Glass Menagerie”?

Of the characters in “The Glass Menagerie”, Laura’s situation is the most tragic. Tom is able to escape his circumstances by joining the Merchant Marines. Jim leaves the apartment and, apparently marries Betty and goes on with his life. Amanda is older and can still retain her memories of “Blue Mountain.” Laura, however, has never had a good life to be able to remember. She has always been terribly shy and obsessed with the idea that everyone notices the fact that she is crippled.

• Which of the symbols in The Glass Menagerie represent reality and which represent illusion?

The one symbol that seems to represent reality is the picture of the father who is grinning during the entire play. He has been the only person to really escape his circumstances by running away from his family.

The other major symbols, the glass collection and the unicorn represent a fantasy world that Laura has created for herself. The fire escape, the only way out of the apartment, is – also a symbol of illusion.

• How does Tennesse Williams use the distinction technique in his play “The Glass Menagerie”?

Ans. Tennessee Williams uses the technique known as “breaking the fourth wall,” when a fictional character talks directly to the audience and thereby breaks through the invisible screen that separates audience from characters, by having Tom speak directly to the audience.

• In The Glass Menagerie, does Laura show any sign of having a super ego?

Ans. Laura does not exhibit any signs of having a conscience or moral compass because of the nature of her character as she is developed in the play. Laura’s personality is so fragile–actually fractured–she does not interact with the world or with others in any authentic way. She moves through her very small world as the shadow of the person she might have been but did not become.

• Why is Amanda obsessed with finding a suitor for Laura?

Amanda is convinced that unless Laura marries, she nu have no one to support her after Amanda dies.

• In The Glass Menagerie, does Amanda sell newspaper subscriptions to earn more money, or does she take out a personal ad for Laura to find a suitor?

Amanda tries to sell magazine subscriptions over the telephone to earn income. This information is included in the play through staging. Amanda’s part of the conversation is her sales pitch to get her customer to renew her subscription to another magazine, Companion . Amanda does not place an ad to find Laura a suitor. Instead, she pressures Tom continually to find someone for his sister.

• What does the moon represent in “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams?

The moon for Amanda represents reminiscence and nostalgia about her youth; she also sees in it the possibility of romance and love for her daughter Laura. For Laura, it represents the inaccessible aspect of romance instead of nostalgia.

• How did each of the characters escape from reality?

Amanda often fantasizes about her past. This is her way to escape. Tom is always trying to avoid his situations, too. He often dreams of abandoning his family. Laura isn’t able to do much. Her nervousness doesn’t allow her to function normally in either school or with other men. Her escape is her glass collection.

• In The Glass Menagerie, does Williams present a realistic portrait of family life or is it an exaggeration?

The play was never intended to be realistic. In fact, at the very beginning of the play Tom, in his role of narrator, says, “The play is memory….it is not realistic.” He also remarks, “I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.”

• Can you discuss three main symbols from “The Glass Menagerie” in relation to at least two characters from the play?

In Sc.1 Tom the narrator remarks that the character, gentleman caller is also a symbol: “he is the long delayed but always expected something that we live for.”

In Sc.7 when the lights go out Amanda gives Jim a “lovely old candelabrum” which had “melted a little out of shape.”

Laura’s collection of glass animals and especially the glass unicorn comprise the most important symbol in the play.

• Who is the protagonist of Glass Menagerie? Why?

Tom is the protagonist of the play. In the beginning of the play, it is Tom who steps onstage to narrate the story as if it occurred in his past.

14. What are some ways in which Amanda tries to relive her past in “The Glass Menagerie”?

• Amanda is always telling the story about how she entertained 17 gentleman callers one afternoon when she was a girl in Blue Mountain.
• During Jim’s visit, Amanda puts on a dress that she wore to the cotillion in Blue Mountain when she was a girl.
• Amanda tells Jim that she “had so many servants” when she was a girl.
• Amanda expects Laura to find “gentlemen callers” when it is clear she is emotionally incapable of doing that.
• Just before Jim’s visit, Amanda tells Laura all about the summer she moved to Blue Mountain, gathered jonquils, and met her husband.

15. Generally, plays do not have narrators. How does the fact that Tom is the narrator affect the style and content of “The Glass Menagerie”?

Tom is not only the narrator, but also the protagonist of the play. The play is told from his memory. As Tom points out at the beginning of the play, Tom gives us truth “in the form of illusion.” Thus, when seen on stage, parts of the play seem rather “dreamy” and, of course, we see all the action from Tom’s perspective.

• Discuss the symbol of the glass menagerie. What does it represent? Does it represent the same things throughout the play?

The glass menagerie symbolizes Laura. Like the glass animals Laura is fragile, a dreamer who doesn’t face reality, and she, like the little animals, is old fashioned. The lection symbolizes the same thing throughout the play, but the different animals in the collection take on different meanings.

• What role did Amanda, Tom, and Laura play in the “The Glass Menagerie”?

Tom reveals his dual role in the opening scene of the play:

“I am the narrator of the play, and also a character in it.”

Amanda, is Tom’s and Laura’s mother. throughout the play she is stressed out at having to make both ends meet. Her only aim in life is “success and happiness for my precious children” (sc.5)

Laura is the physically challenged girl in the family.

• Who is the main character of “The Glass Menagerie”. Tom, Laura or Amanda? Why?

Tom Wingfield is the protagonist or main character in the play, he is also the narrator.

• Which aspects of “The Glass Menagerie” are realistic and the most unrealistic?

The most realistic aspect is the dreary tenement building where the Wingfields live. The fire escape leads down to the street where a multitude of other buildings replicate the same atmosphere until going out of sight. The most unrealistic aspect is the Paradise Dance Hall across the street, where music and laughter and even rainbow reflections from the chandelier cast eerie lights, sounds and shadows upon the Wingfield apartment.

• In “The Glass Menagerie”, Tom calls Laura “peculiar” but Amanda bristles at this word. What is peculiar about Laura?

Laura is peculiar in several ways. First, she was born with a slight birth defect which made one leg longer than another. This makes her walk with a limp. Laura is very self-conscious about her leg. That, couples with the fact that her father abandoned the family and her extreme shyness makes her seem odd to other people.

• Why is the play called “The Glass Menagerie”?

The play was originally entitled “The Glass Menagerie.” That is because it is a symbol of Laura’s frailty. Like the glass figurines that she loves so well, Laura is very fragile and has a great deal of trouble existing in the modern world.

• What is the detailed meaning of “Blue Mountain” in “The Glass Menagerie”?

Blue Mountain is the place where Amanda grew up It is also the place where she met and married her husband who fell in love with long distance.” The word “blue” also mirrors “blue roses”, the term Jim used to call Laura. Just as “blue” roses did not exist at the time the play was written, the author may be suggesting that “Blue Mountain” did not really exist as Amanda remembers it. This would also reinforce the idea that, just a Tom’s memories of the play may not be altogether accurate, Amanda’s memories may also be somewhat illusionary.

• In The Glass menagerie”, how does the kind of language Tom uses as a narrator differ from what he uses as a character?

When Tom addresses the audience, his speech is much more erudite and lofty than when he simply talks to Amanda, Laura, and Jim in the play. Whereas the speech throughout the play is natural, spontaneous dialogue, Tom’s language to the audience is more like a speech’ or public address. The form Tom chooses is a deliberate one; he takes a certain poetic license when narrating the story.

• In The Glass Menagerie,” what do the candles symbolize?

There are several ways of looking at the candles. First, they establish a more muted tone – you might even call it romantic. That less harsh light perhaps allows Laura to be more open with Jim; it gives her courage. That might lead to an interpretation that the candles symbolize hope.

• In “The Glass Menagerie,” what is the significance of Laura’s glass animals, especially the symbolic unicorn?

There is a special affinity between Laura and the unicorn. The unicorn does not exist in the modern world, just as Aura seems unable to exist in modern society. She has a limp and feels deformed; the unicorn has only one horn, which makes him different from the rest of the animals.

• What is the narrator’s role in “The Glass Menagerie”? What would be gained or lost without him?

There simply would be no play without Tom, the narrator, because, not only he is the narrator but also a character in the play. As narrator, Tom can look both backward and forward and discuss the ramifications of events as they take place. As a character in the play, the audience can sympathize with his plight and see the family dynamics in action. As the supposed writer of the play, we have to realize that the play is told from Tom’s memory so, in some cases, that memory may be, hazy or unreliable.

• What is meant by lights going out in the middle of dinner in The Glass Menagerie”?

The lights going out in the middle of dinner have both a literal meaning, Tom did not pay the electric bill, and a figurative meaning, it is a foreshadowing of what will happen to Amanda and Laura at the end of the play, they will be left both literally and figuratively in the dark when Tom abandons them.

• “He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I. give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion” What does the quote mean?

This line is from the beginning of the play and “he” Tom refers to a magician. A magician gives the audience an illusion that has the appearance of truth but Tom is going to give the truth disguised as an illusion. This means the action of the play is not going to be a completely realistic. Finally, Tom reminds the audience that this is a story told in flashback , the actual event having occurred five to ten years before. The truth Tom intends to tell is the truth about his family: his mother, Amanda; his sister, Laura; himself plus the truth about Jim, the gentleman caller.

• What does Amanda nag Tom to provide in “The Glass Menagerie”?

Amanda nags her son Tom about the proper way to chew his food, she reprimands him for going to the movies too much. She returns a book he is reading to the Library because she thought it was inappropriate. She accuses him of being selfish.

• Tom’s engagement in three modes of salvation: going to the movies, going to the moon, going much further? What does each mean?

Tom’s job in the warehouse is boring, at home his overbearing mother is constantly nagging him and telling him what to do. So as a way to escape his life, he goes to the movies every night. The reference about Tom going to the moon  has to do with a comment Amanda makes to him in anger at the end of the play when she confronts him about Jim being engaged and Tom not knowing this important fact. After he was fired from his job at the warehouse he joined the Merchant man and went from city to city.

• What is the significance of adventure and memory in “The Glass Menagerie”?

Memory and adventure are also connected in the sense that each of the characters relies on his or her own memory to have “adventures” or to relive experiences from the past.

• What are the religious references in scene 7 of “The Glass Menagerie”?

AMANDA. Where was Moses when the lights went out? Ha-ha. Do you know the answer to that one, Mr. O’Connor?

JIM. No, Ma’am, what’s the answer?

AMANDA. In the dark!” (Williams, pg. 67)

• In “Glass Menagerie,” what does Tom mean: “Oh Laura, I try to leave you behind me but I’m more faithful than I intended to be!”?

Tom feels confined and trapped by his family situation. He hates his job, and he longs for escape. When he is finally able to break free and physically leave his home and work, he discovers that it is not so easy to break the emotional ties, especially to his sister, Laura.

• Which character in “The Glass Menagerie” could be considered a tragic hero?

Tom is a tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie. He is trapped in a situation that he cannot get out of his position in the family as breadwinner. He can’t get out of this situation without dramatically damaging his relationship with both his mother and his sister. He is particularly flawed when it comes to his sister.

• In “The Glass Menagerie,” what does Laura’s limp symbolize and what do the candles that Laura blows out represent?

Laura’s limp symbolizes her lack of self-esteem and her insecurities about being independent and her feeling of inferiority since she is considered physically “disabled.” The candles that Laura blows out could represent the end of the life that she once knew, since Tom left town after the fiasco with his friend Jim and the dinner Amanda made for him.

• Where is Amanda’s husband in “The Glass Menagerie”?

Amanda’s husband, whose World War I portrait hangs on the wall and is illuminated from time to time, was a “telephone man who fell in love with long distances, according to Tom in a bitter pun. Her husband abandoned his family sixteen years ago. Since then his only contact with the family has been a postcard from Matzalan, Mexico, saying, “Hello! Goodbye!” He never appears in the play, and his exact whereabouts are unknown.

• In The Glass Menagerie, what is the role of Laura?

Shy and delicate, Tom’s sister Laura wears a brace on her leg. Separated from the world of reality by her disposition, her mother’s demands, her and handicap, she becomes ill even at the thought of social interaction. Instead, she lives in the world of her imagination, which is represented by her glass menagerie of little animals. She is important to the play in that she provides a conflict for her brother, who must work a job he loathes in order to care for her, and she is also important for depicting the effects of living a life of dreams.

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The Glass Menagerie

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The Glass Menagerie Essay

Written by Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie is a masterpiece and it passes as a memory play for it exposits Tom Wingfield’s thoughts. A wishful poet, brother to Laura, and son to Amanda and ever absent Mr. Wingfield; Tom works hard in a shoe store to provide for his mother and sister. Amanda on the other side is a complicated mother who regales her children in this moment and scolds them in the next.

Amanda plays important role in Laura’s reticence and pathological shyness. While she cannot be blamed for making her shy in the first place, she is to blame for making Laura’s continued shyness.

Instead of supporting Laura emotionally, she goes out to look for quick fixes and material gains. First, she enrols her in a business school for her to earn some good fortune. After realizing Laura’s weakness has kept her out of school, she does not care to investigate the problem and settle it amicably; on the contrary, she resorts into finding her a fiancé.

These are uninformed decisions and she is to blame for Laura’s continued shyness. If only Amanda were supportive, Laura would probably gain self-confidence and have high self-esteem. Amanda’s reminiscences on her youth in the South are not reliable. They are too overstated to be true. How can someone get seventeen callers in one afternoon? This is unrealistic; therefore, judged from this platform, Amanda’s reminiscences are treacherous.

Throughout this play, there are different forms of music, movies, and legends. These elements create emotional impact in the play. The audience can connect with the main characters. For instance, the music and lightning used make the audience connect with Laura’s shortcomings, Amanda’s indifference, and Tom’s struggles.

This play suggests a repressed desire boiling under the surface. Tom holds this burning passion; he wants to get out there and explore the world. This burning desire explains why Tom visits a witchdoctor and finds a way of getting out of a coffin without the hustle of pulling any nail.

He coffin here represents Wingfield’s home. The object of Tom’s longing is to explore the world out there and this is why he plans to accompany Merchant Seamen to get out and explore the world. He says, “I am tired…movies tranquilize people, making them content to watch other people’s adventures without having any of their own…plan to join the Merchant Seamen” (Tennessee 62). This trip would finally quench Tom’s desire to explore the world.

Absence of Mr. Wingfield affects his children and wife greatly. Tom has to work for the family whilst Laura knows only a nagging mother. Perhaps she would gain self-confidence and self-esteem if she had her father around her. Amanda is ever worried because of her fatherless family.

She is too concerned about her family’s financial security that she would not let Tom leave without getting Laura a suitor who would provide for her. To counter her fears, Amanda enrols Laura in a business school hoping that she would be stable; provide for her self and probably for the family. This stems from the fact that she fears without a father; her family would be insecure. If only Mr. Wingfield were around, she would be financially secure.

Jim O’Connor is a “nice, ordinary, young man” (Tennessee 5). These adjectives come out clearly in the context of the play. Due to his ‘ordinary’ nature, he manages to win Laura’s confidence, dances with her, and finally kisses her. His ‘niceness’ drives away Laura’s fears and low self-esteem and she opens up to him. As the play closes, Tom tells Laura, “Blow out your candles, Laura–and so good-bye” (Tennessee 97). Audience may respond to this statement by concurring to it.

Laura has to blow out her candles and reach for the lighting that lights the world nowadays. Tom is the protagonist in this story. Tom is the most crucial to the play’s dramatic action because everything revolves around him. Without him, the Wingfields would not be, Jim would be unknown, and the central theme of illusions would not be realized.

Works Cited

Tennessee, Williams. “The Glass Menagerie.” Oxford; Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1968.

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IvyPanda. (2020, July 7). The Glass Menagerie. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-glass-menagerie/

"The Glass Menagerie." IvyPanda , 7 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/the-glass-menagerie/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'The Glass Menagerie'. 7 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. "The Glass Menagerie." July 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-glass-menagerie/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Glass Menagerie." July 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-glass-menagerie/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Glass Menagerie." July 7, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-glass-menagerie/.

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Concept of Memories in The Glass Menagerie and Never Let Me Go: Critical Analysis

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