The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie-Tennessee Williams

 

Context:

For Williams, this is semi-autobiographical.

• He had an older sister called Rose who was the inspiration for Laura. She suffered from a mental illness in later life.
• Williams' father forced him to work in a shoe factory for 3 years. This accumulated to a minor nervous breakdown.
• Williams was a homosexual.

 

Brief Synopsis:

Set in St Louis in 1937, the Glass Menagerie is a memory play, from the perspective of Tom Wingfield, an aspiring poet who works a mundane job in a shoe factory in order to support his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura. Mr Wingfield, Tom and Laura's father, left the family years ago when he 'fell in love with long distances'. The play follows the three, Tom's lust for escape, Laura's shy and crippled  obsession with her glass menagerie and memories, and Amanda's lust for the past as she tries to live vicariously through her children.

Characters:

Amanda Wingfield-

Tom and Laura's mother. A proud women who clings to memories of gentlemen callers, and tries to regain her youth by telling stories of her path and trying to live vicariously through Laura.

Laura Wingfield-

Amanda's daughter and Tom's older sister. She has a bad leg, on which she must wear a brace, and she has a limp. She is twenty three and painfully shy, yet she is desperate not to disappoint her mother despite being a very different person.

Tom Wingfield-

Amanda's son and Laura's younger brother. An aspiring poet, he loathes his monotonous life and tries to escape through movies, literature and alcohol.

Jim O'Connor-

An old acquaintance of Tom and Laura. Was a popular athlete in school but now works with Tom in the shoe factory. Amanda expects him to be a gentleman caller for Laura.

Mr. Wingfield-

Tom and Laura's father and Amanda's husband. He never appears in the play, yet his picture is in the centre of all the action. He was a handsome man who worked for a telephone factory.

 

Themes:

• The difficulty of accepting reality. Every member of the family struggles to face reality, causing them to retreat into a world of illusion, finding comfort that they were unable to find in reality. Laura's illusion consists of many glass animals, which emulate Laura in fragility and dangerous delicacy. Tom seeks escape through films, literature and alcohol. Amanda cannot accept that she is anything other than the pampered belle who she was brought up as. In some ways, Amanda's retreat into illusion seems more pathetic than her children's, as she distorts reality at the expense of her children. Yet it is not just the Wingfields who are susceptible to illusion. Illusion is present in the outside world also, with the young people at the Paradise Dance Hall waltz under the illusion of the glass ball. Even Jim, who is used as a device to shatter the family's illusion,  is banking his future on public speaking and the television and radio industries, all of which are means for the creation of illusions and the persuasion of others that these illusions are true.
• The inability to escape. In scene four, Tom tells Laura of a magician who managed to escape from a nailed up coffin. This foreshadows Tom's wishes, as the coffin represents his home and work life, being cramped, suffocating and morbid. The fire escape is also used as a device to demonstrate the inability of escape. Tom is trapped by his responsibility and love for his family, he is able bodied and able to on the surface escape, yet he will have to live with the guilt of not looking after his family, who he must support.
• The unrelenting power of memory. The Glass menagerie is a memory play. Tom himself confesses 'it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental and it is not realistic'. The narrator is allowed to cloak their true story in melodrama. In this case, the story is told as it has a big grip on the narrator's memory.

Motifs and symbols:

• Abandonment. The picture of Mr Wingfield is at the centre of all the action suggesting his abandonment of his family is at the root of all of their problems. Tom's abandonment of his family at the end mirrors this, yet this act was a necessity for his happiness. Abandonment, despite being very damaging, can be a necessity. Tom and his father represent the modern word, whereas Laura and Amanda are stuck in the past and are doomed to be abandoned.
• Music. Sometimes the music comes from outside the play, the audience can hear it the characters cannot. For example, “The Glass Menagerie,” plays when Laura’s character or her glass collection comes to the forefront of the action. This piece makes its first appearance when Laura notes that Amanda is afraid that her daughter will end up an old maid. Other times, the music is a part of the action, and the characters can hear it. The music that comes from the Paradise Dance Hall and the music Laura plays on her record player both provide commentary on what is going on in the play. For example, the Paradise Dance Hall plays a piece entitled “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” while Tom is talking about the approach of World War II.
• The glass unicorn. Laura's favourite figure in her collection, the glass unicorn emulates her. Unicorns are different to other horses, and are therefore separated from them. Similarly, Laura is branded as different and separated from the rest of people her age. When Laura dances with Jim and they kiss, the unicorn's horn breaks off, making it just like another horse. This represents Laura starting to do 'normal' things for somebody her age. Yet the breaking of the unicorn could imply that Laura is hindered by normalcy as she loses her individuality. In the end, Laura gives Jim the unicorn, perhaps to represent that the horse is more fitting to him now it has not got differences from the norm.  
• The fire escape. Attached to the Wingfield home is a fire escape. This fire escape represents an escape from the fires of frustration and dysfunction in the household. Laura slips on the fire escape, highlighting her inability to escape the situation. Whereas Tom constantly steps out onto the fire escape, foreshadowing his eventual escape.