Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” and Critique

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Works Cited

Introduction

The play, The Glass Menagerie depicts life struggle of the main characters and their desire to enter high society and become prosperous. The uniqueness of the pay is that it depicts real life situations and prototypes of characters typical for the 1940s. There are strains of both tenderness and toughness in The Glass Menagerie. The article related to the play discusses the concept of modern hero and its interpretations by critics. The importance of the article is that it allows to understand the main events and story development concentrating of the hero and its actions.

Main body

I agree with the author of the article that the concept of a modem hero is difficult to define and explain because of changing cultural traditions and values. Moral values and virtues are the main characteristics of the modern hero like Tom and Amanda. To Tom, her son, Amanda assigns the task of producing a Gentleman Caller. Tom is an aspiring poet forced to work in a shoe factory, but because of the pressures of his job and his mother’s persistence he has ideas of following in his father’s footsteps. His father, the play informs us, was a telephone man who “fell in love with long distance and skipped the light fantastic out of town.” Before Tom goes, he produces a Gentleman Caller who has a scene with Laura–where she is built up to hope for love only to be suddenly let down. It is one of the most poignant scenes of the modern stage, But there is another kind of music in The Glass Menagerie, as there is in most successful drama, and that is the underground rhythm of the scenes. Action in drama does not proceed at an even pace or at the same peak of excitement. Scenes move slowly, then swiftly; an argument becomes heated, then levels off. Also, there is the way one scene blends into the next.

I would like to add to the article that a modern hero is not a hero in mythological sense. He/she is a person influenced by social and economic changes and fighting with harsh reality of life. Amanda does not see herself as ridiculous. Readers take the same ironical view of Amanda as Tom does in his memory. These much maligned screen legends are not, as some critics seem to suppose, ponderously serious captions for each scene. The play has a humorous deflating function allowing an audience to see the pathetically romantic pretentiousness of Amanda as Tom remembers her. “Où sont les neiges d’antan?” (Williams 695) is a cliché is intentionally “over-the-top.” Williams underlines Amanda’s slightly ridiculous behavior in her later speech reminded readers of the histrionic significance of the play.

In the play, some aspects are as fragile as the tiny glass animals which Laura, the crippled young woman of the play, loves and protects, while other elements have the strength of Amanda Wingfield, the mother who claims to be bewildered by life but who manages nevertheless to badger her children night and day and to survive whatever life throws in her path. As most people know, the play is a tale of a former Southern belle, now living in reduced circumstances, who tries to maintain the illusion of what life was like in the Old South. Her obsession is to find a Gentleman Caller for her daughter, the assumption being that a husband will solve all their problems. She pursues her goal in clear defiance of the reality of their situation and her daughter’s condition. Not only is Laura a cripple, she is shy to the point that she becomes physically ill when forced to meet strangers.

The article is very helpful as it unveils internal structure of the play and its cultural meaning. The modern hero is determined as an individual searching for personal identity and his place in modern world. Before his actual arrival however there is one more image of him that ironically cuts this walking example of the American Dream down to size. The Gentleman Caller scene in The Glass Menagerie provides a perfect example. In a room illuminated by candlelight, the young visitor begins to build up Laura’s confidence; slowly she lets go her inhibitions. Bit by bit the two come together, culminating in a hesitant dance, followed by a declaration by the young man of how pretty Laura is. Abruptly he breaks away; he has gone too far. Fumblingly he tells her that he is engaged to another woman. Her hopes are destroyed. The same careful modulations, the same nuances are present throughout the play. It is these modulations, these nuances–the music, if you will–that is missing so often from this production. Instead of the caressing softness and flow of Southern speech, Torn has a hard, jagged delivery, pouncing on certain words arbitrarily.

In sum, the play reflects and depicts the Southern values and morals of people typical for the 1940s. The article is very effective as it allows readers to understand the historical significance of the play and interpret its themes and motifs. The concept of the modern hero directs the play and seems totally tone deaf other sings or to those subterranean sounds beneath the surface.

Works Cited

Williams, T. the Glass menagerie. In McMahan, E., Day, S., Funk, R.W. Literature and the Writing Process (8th Edition). Prentice Hall; 8th edition, 2007, pp. 693.
Writing about Character. In McMahan, E., Day, S., Funk, R.W. Literature and the Writing Process (8th Edition). Prentice Hall; 8th edition, 2007, p. 691.

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Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” and Critique

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