Category: The Glass Menagerie

Escape from reality because of the impossibility to accept it seems to be the only right choice for the characters of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (1944). This play is often discussed as autobiographical because such characters as Tom and Laura reflect the features and qualities characteristic for Tennessee Williams and his sister Rose.

The play focuses on Tom’s recollections about the previous events with the help of which he tries to analyze his life with the family before abandoning his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. Furthermore, the psychological depth of the play is accentuated with references to Tom’s communication with the audience which can be discussed as the passive participator in the play.

In his play, Williams demonstrates the efforts of three characters to escape from reality because of its sufferings and their lost hopes. Although the characters of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie are different in their perception of the world and their actions, all of them prefer the world of illusions instead of reality in order to cope with the life difficulties, and the false nature of such a choice is reflected in Williams’s depiction of certain symbols and images which are used to emphasize the theme of abandonment and escape in the play.

Tom Wingfield, the protagonist of the play, is the most controversial character, and the audience can perceive the events depicted in the play only through the eyes of Tom because all the discussed situations are the products of Tom’s memory. While working to support the family, Tom feels that this reality cannot be his desired life.

He suffers from the pressure of the consequences and from his mother’s tension. He yearns for the world of poetry, but he is rather inconsistent in his actions. Tom cannot choose the right way, and he can be rather cruel in relation to his family in spite of the fact that he accentuates his love for mother and Laura. The inner contradiction results in Tom’s feeling of guilt after abandoning the home which was perceived as the jail for his hopes and dreams.

Providing Tom’s monologue and the elements of his communication with the audience, Williams pays attention to the fact that Tom’s feeling of guilt is caused by the act of his betraying Laura. Tom’s sister is the most interesting character of the play because she chooses to escape from the reality in her inner world due to the impossibility to do so in the real life.

Laura is depicted as a ‘fragile’ and naïve girl who cannot live in the cruel reality. Laura’s inferiority complex and concentration on her inner considerations are explained with references to her limp. Laura focuses on her collection of glass figurines because she sees herself in these delicate statuettes. Williams concentrates on associating Laura with the figure of a unicorn because of her uniqueness and innocence.

The only situation when Laura feels her uniqueness from the positive perspective and has a chance to change her life for better is when Tom’s friend Jim kisses her. However, the reality quickly breaks Laura’s fragile hopes because Jim is engaged. As a result, Laura cannot escape from her inner world of sufferings.

If Laura cannot imagine herself communicating actively with people and feeling comfortable in the society, Amanda Wingfield, her mother, cannot forget the times of her glorious youth the recollections about which do not always reflect the real events. Amanda tries to control all the aspects of her children’s lives in order to compensate her lost hopes.

The problem is in the fact that Tom and Laura only pretend to share their mother’s ideas. That is why, Amanda relies on her recollections as the escape from that reality which does not satisfy her because Tom is not prominent, and Laura is not successful in personal relationships.

In Williams’s play, the characters suffer from the fact that their intentions and hopes were not realized. As a result, Amanda, Tom, and Laura choose the ways to abandon the reality with references to the ways which are closest for them. The real life becomes the challenge for the play’s characters, and they cope with it according to their possibilities.

Williams emphasizes this problem through depicting symbolic figures of animals and the statuette of unicorn. The characters’ illusions are as fragile as these figures which can be easily broken by the representatives of the real society who can successfully adapt to the world. From this point, Jim is the opponent to the other play’s characters because he overcomes his unsuccessfulness in sport and lost hopes easier than Amanda, Tom, and Laura who have to live in the world of broken dreams.

Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie is the play about the escape from reality and the problem of lost hopes which are closely associated with the motifs of betrayal and selfishness. Moreover, the play cannot be discussed as the completely realistic because of references to the protagonist’s recollections as the device to represent the depth of the characters’ emotions.

The playwright Tennessee Williams has been described as a genius playwright for capturing the ideas of his society in his lifetime effectively through his works of arts. In this paper the focus will lead to a discussion of the significance of the glass figurines and their symbolic value to the whole play as representation of the most central symbol uniting and supporting the riding themes of impossible escape from reality and the difficulties of accepting reality as guided by the question.

The play Glass Menagerie is a memory play, which is given form by the narrator’s surrounding events and environment. From the play we learn that the narrator who is also an actor works in the shoe warehouse to support his windowed mother, Amanda and fatherless sister, Laura.

The depiction of life by William in the play is that of daily desire to have the best, an indication of unsatisfied life full of despair, disappointment and disillusion. Tom, the main protagonist is a disillusioned character who in the family takes up the role of the male figure hence we connect with his source of sorrow and pain (Sparknotes 293).

The Play

As indicated in the play, Tom is most interested in drinking, movies and literature, thus he irks her mother that they keep on quarrelling. On the other hand her mother is a character who lives by thriving on her old memories. We get it from her speech that she was brought up in a good family, where life was good and thus she continues to brag that she had quite a number of suitors which is a complete contrast to her daughter’s, Laura situation.

She is supposed to lead the family out of the current abyss but the playwright portrays her as a far illusion to hope and betterment rather than a reality. In this stance, we can see the results in that her family is almost at the verge of breaking up. Tom is no better than Laura though he is capable of running away just like his father as foreshadowed in the play.

Laura in her character traits is depicted as a personality who has no desires of her own thus driven by the will of others and their means plus mechanisms. She is not free to pursue what would be hers rightfully probably as a result of poor upbringing and shyness. In that connection she ends up hopeless as her supposed suitor, Jim O’Connor, confesses that he is engaged thus shattering the family’s hopes of marrying off Laura.

Laura as a major character is seen in possession of glass figurines that she values more than anything else. The collection of the glass figurines is a representation of the plays central most theme. These glass figurines are a clear depiction of Laura as the most affected personality in William’s play.

Laura is far removed from reality and real life thus she retreats to her shell, away from profession real jobs, real relationship with people and love relationships. Unlike her brother Tom and Amanda her mother, she cannot hold against the currents or the fires of daily life thus leaving her to the world of imaginations and illusions.

Although she is as a result of the Wingfield’s poor family upbringing she does not play her part like Tom because she is shy as Jim tells her, a point posited by the symbol of the blue roses (O’Connor 77).

The Symbolic representation and significance

It is symbolic that theses figurines have been put in the play by the playwright to illustrate removal from reality and reflection of wishes that the Wingfield’s desire but cannot have. In this sense therefore, William effectively, puts himself above as a genius playwright who captures the concerns of the society in a unique way during the middle of the twentieth century.

The significance of these glass figurines is symbolic of how Laura looks for alternative way of coming into terms with the jumbled things in the family. Just like her brother, life to her has been riddled with alcohol that has seen the departure of her father leaving them in a sorry state and dependent on Tom (Williams and Ehrenhaft 66).

In almost all works of art the necessity of symbols and imageries is a prerequisite to easier, hidden conveyance of the intended message. This arises from the fact that an artist is the voice of the society and draws from the daily happenings of the human experiences. In this effort to depict the society as it is, the medium, literature, must gear to point out to the issues in the society with the given and available structures that define the form and the content of the art.

On the other hand, some of the daily happenings of the society require the delicate yet fresh way of announcement thus the reader as the consumer of the art connects with what the artist intends in his or her message. In addition, the artist may want to ridicule, satirize, or disapprove anything in the human nature necessitating use of symbols and imageries for the authoritative command of the artist.

Thus, the glass menagerie as a symbol is a representation of the personalities of the characters in the play. The glass is defined as an illuminating source, transparent and at the same time capable of reflecting and refracting. To a large extent it can be applied to symbolize Laura as one who is different at different situations and yet she is delicate at any time just like the glass.

Laura’s world is imaginative and very brittle thus as the glass can be broken, her life is resembled with the glass. On the other hand Tom and Amanda can be identified through this symbol on the fact that what they portray to us is different from what is real to them. Tom actually wants to leave everything that is connected and has the Wingfield’s attachment (Krasne 178).

Amanda on the other hand, lives in a life that she was not used to noting that she is from a rich background. In this sense, she never accepts the reality that this is her poor family opposite of how she was brought up and the fact that she even cannot be able to bring bread to her family is a reflection of her sorry state in her life as a woman. This symbol captures the internal struggles and conflicts of the characters and their desire to be free from the heavy life experiences they are facing.

On the other hand, the glass unicorn is a symbol of Laura’s peculiarity and uniqueness. The unicorn a type of a horse that ceased to exist reminds the audience that Laura has just been brought up in the confines of their apartment and thus is rare to the outside world thus when she encounters Jim she cannot resist his charm and eventually ends up kissing him.

In this encounter, Jim kills the unicorn beak which is symbolic of what Laura has undergone. This represents Laura’s inability to remain in such a mythical state when the other parts of the world are changing and embracing new things.

When Jim breaks, the unicorn it depicts what he has done to Laura removing her from her encasing and setting her onto the world of reality. However, she decides to go back to her world after realizing that Jim is not the man of her life thus she gives him the unicorn as a souvenir of their encounter though she had confessed of liking him back in high school. Thus, things to her turn back to normal (Bloom 68).

Conclusion

In conclusion, therefore, a work of art becomes vivid and memorable from the creative use of symbols and images. Williams as a great playwright has used symbols and images to effectively represent and send his ideas and notions to the reader thus it is the work of the reader to decode the underlying meaning and appreciate or criticize it. In the Glass Menagerie, play, lack of symbolism or images would have rendered the work of art hard to understand and to communicate the intended message.

It is futile to try to explain the whole messages in words as it would lead to time wasting and extra long plain text that raises no artistic interests. It is imperative of the artist to convince the reader of what he or she is speaking therefore the structures available to literature design the form of presentation and thus symbols and imagery are part of these thus making William a complete convincing playwright.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations). New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2007. Print

Krasne, David. A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. Print

O’Connor, Jacqueline. Dramatizing Dementia: Madness in the Plays of Tennessee Williams. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997. Print

Sparknkotes. Sparknotes 101 literature. New York, Spark Educational Publishing, 2004. Print

Williams, Tennessee. & Ehrenhaft, George. Tennessee Williams’s The glass menagerie & A streetcar named Desire. Barron’s Educational Series, 1985 Print

In the play The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams has written the story of the Wingfield family that lived in St Louis during the 1940s. The family comprises of Tom Wingfield, Amanda and Laura who demonstrate gender roles that trigger suspicion of passiveness, manipulation and dependence. Williams has displayed Tom as being a submissive person who is not happy in life. The author has portrayed Amanda as a calculative and outspoken southern woman who just cannot get over her attitude as developed over the last several years. Laura has been depicted as a woman who has very weak emotions and is immensely dependent on others. The Wingfields are a middle class family and the three central characters exist and live a life that is interspersed with reality and an illusionary world in order that they get away from the problems faced by them on a daily basis.

In being a memory play, The Glass Menagerie focuses particularly on the memories that Tom carries about his family after he gets very far from them. The author has successfully created the dimensions of memory by aptly using specific and relevant symbols, characters and settings. It is true that Williams has made the most appropriate choices in constructing the play. With the portrayal of the different events in the play, it is convincingly portrayed that the only means to escape from life’s problems is to solve them instead of avoiding them. The author has taken an inside look into the circumstances of a normal family existing in the pre war depression years. The lives of the individual family members are made very meaningful and dramatic with the use of symbols by Williams. The two specific symbols in the play are escape and The Glass Menagerie. Escape becomes a means to provide diversion and hope from the external world while the Glass Menagerie directly refers to the uniqueness and delicate nature of Laura.

The play clearly depicts that all members of the Wingfield family choose to hide from the realities of life. Amanda makes attempts to live her past again by using Laura and is not willing to accept anything that is against her temperament. Laura is too scared of the realities of life and prefers to take protection under the guise of her limping leg and the glass menagerie. Tom is seen as escaping from reality by getting drunk, writing poems and watching films. Mr. Wingfield escapes from realities by getting away from the family and not being in touch with them. Hence, all members of the Wingfield family can be seen as having their own escape mechanisms that are used in escaping and hiding from the real world.

Gender roles play a major role in the play in stating the upcoming strategies of all characters. Laura has to get married because she is a woman and Tom has to attend business training because he is a man and has to provide a means of living for the family. Gender roles in the Glass Menagerie appear to take place due to convention, which is evident from the discussion that Amanda has in regard to what women and men should be doing. Gender roles are also seen as influencing values in how men and women are viewed in different ways. Amanda is very particular about Laura remaining fresh and pretty, while for men she believed that character is the most important thing.

Modern readers are so mesmerized by Tennessee Williams’s romantic and mysterious personality and his unique talent to point precisely at human faults in his writings that not many know that the writer’s original name was Thomas Williams and in his “former” life that preceded the literary career he even worked for a shoe factory. Nowadays, “The Glass Menagerie”, so widely admired, is rarely compared to Williams’s own life, but in fact he purposefully splits his personality into two hypostases (Cluck, p.84) in order to show that the writing is a mature person’s account of his earlier life. The present paper focuses on the relationship between the play and the events from the author’s own life and addresses the technique of “personality dualism”, aimed at more sincere depiction of re-evaluation of the earlier years from the height of ten-year experience.

Similarly to Tom the Character, Tennessee Williams worked for a warehouse for several years, which he always remembered as the most depressive period in his life (O’Connor, p.75). “An average student and social outcast in high school, Williams turned to the movies and writing for solace” (O’Connor, p.75). His sister Rose, the closest person in his life and the prototype of Laura in “The Glass Menagerie”, actually suffered from epilepsy and underwent a prefrontal lobotomy in the mid-1930s, which has a clearly negative outcome and left the girl institutionalized for the rest of her life. Laura, as one knows from the play, has pleurosis, a complicated medical condition, which consists in problems with breathing. Similarly to Rose, Laura is a shy, but excessively responsible girl: “Laura (rising). Mother, let me clear the table. Amanda. No, dear, go in front and study your typewriter chart” (Williams, p.6). Amanda, their mother, is similar by nature to Mrs.Williams given that both of them had quite a naïve nature and poorly fulfilled ambition, as both Tennessee’s mother and Mrs.Wingfield, in spite of their “noble” background and sociable nature, had “unworthy” husbands.

The major means of knitting the plot closely to the author’s life is creating difference between Tom the Character and Tom the Narrator, as the former embodies young Tennessee Williams, whereas the latter is designed to act as a textual representation of 33-year-old writer. Tom’s dual role in “The Glass Menagerie” —as a personality whose recollections the play documents and as a character that performs according to those memories —highlights the play’s tension between independently presented truth and memory’s alteration of truth. Tom the Narrator often addresses the reader directly, trying to give a more distanced clarification and evaluation of what has been happening in his life so that it can be evaluated “from above” (Crandall, 2001, p.153). On the other hand, he expresses real and usually childish emotions as he participates in the play’s action (Crandall, 2001, p. 154). This duality can distort the reader’s viewpoint concerning Tom’s personality, as it is difficult to make a decision if he is a character whose judgment should be trusted or one who allows his feelings to influence his opinion. It shows as well how the nature of remembrance is itself challenging: memory often includes dealing with a past in which one was much less honorable than one is at the present.

Tom the Narrator and Tom the Character have the same problems, but the Narrator dealt with them in his past, whereas the Character struggles with them as with a harsh reality and faces those problems at the moment. Tom the Narrator, or Tennesse Williams, is naturally somehow wiser and older, while Tom the Character still remains a rash young man dreaming about adventures and glory, or a young aspired poet without any life experience, but with ambitions and emotional outlook (O’Connor, p. 85).

The monologues delivered by Tom Wingfield determine the degree “to which the other characters of The Glass Menagerie are real as parts of Tom’s recollection” (O’Connor, p.85). Mrs. Wingfield, Laura, Amanda, and Jim O’Connor are Tennessee Williams’s own and Tom’s memories, as they do not exist in the world, contemporary to 33-year-old Tennessee Williams, who had already lost his sister as the closest soul and whose mother was enduring a severe breakdown (Cluck, p. 86); however, the play resuscitates both the girl’s and his mother’s original mind. (connected also with Tom’s subconscious).

In ” Dramatizing Dementia: Madness In the Plays of Tennessee Williams ” Jacqueline O’Connor notes that that Tom is the only character in this play; the others can have no consciousness as they are not real (O’Connor, p.87): “Indeed, Amanda, Laura, and the Gentleman Caller do not appear in the play at all as separate characters,” writes the scholar, adding that “we see not the characters but Tom’s [author’s] memory of them — Amanda and the rest are merely aspects of Tom’s consciousness” (O’Connor, 2002, p.86). therefore, the play resembles rather autobiography than fiction. However, O’Connor speaks predominantly about Tom the Narrator, while Tom the Character deals with real people at the present time and evaluates their actions emotionally. Importantly, the Narrator, probably an adult, judges more critically and is aware of his faults and mistakes in the past.

In his first soliloquy, Tom puts forward a logic, which applies to the characters as parts of his memory. It is a “magic” logic (O’Connor, p.86), “It is the poet, Tom Wingfield, who directs the action of both the characters in the drama and the audience viewing the play. In the first part of his narration, Tom concentrates the attention of the audience on the “fiddle in the wings” “ (Crandall, p. 164). In his last soliloquy, he reaffirms his position as narrator speaking directly to the audience, and as the play’s coordinator by asking Laura to “blow your candles out” (Crandall, p. 172).

Tom the Narrator is a magician, who presents his second personality, the Character. In the fifth part of his narration, Tom the Narrator specifies that time has taken him out of the drama, “for time is the longest distance between two places” (Crandall, p. 172). In the final soliloquy Tom tells how he lives and re-lives the narrative in his memories, although he is detached from the characters in the original situation. Similarly to his father, “a telephone man who fell in love with long distances,” (Crandall, p. 172), Tom has fallen in love with the long distance, the name of which is time. Tom the Character is a sensitive, creative man who is forced by conditions into a difficult situation. He is obliged to live and re-live the circumstances of the play, in which he wanted and found what he believed to be independence. Even though he escapes the problems, he does not find real independence; his consciousness encumbers him in this situation until he finds its real meaning.

As one can conclude, combining and juxtaposing two parts of the same personality, the only distance between which is time, Williams makes his play almost biographical, given that the other characters have lost their meaning in the Narrator’s life and exist only as the copies of true people, saved in his memory. Living ‘now and here’, Tom the Character behaves like naïve adolescent who thinks that it is easy to escape the life and routine world he grew in. Tom the character loves, hates, demonstrates his emotional attitude towards his environment, while Tom the Narrator seeks to judge and evaluate the same events objectively by using his knowledge and experience.

Works cited

Cluck, N. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. American Literature, Vol. 51, No. 1.(1979), pp.84-93.

Crandall, G.W. A Critical Response to Tennessee Williams. Penguin, 2001: 155-199.

O’Connor, J. Dramatizing Dementia: Madness In the Plays of Tennessee Williams. London, Heinemann Educational, 2002.

Williams, T. The Glass Menagerie. Heinemann, 1996.

Introduction

The glass menagerie is a play where Tennessee William, the author, creates a story where Amanda, who is the mother of Tom and Laura, confronts Tom who makes what can be called a grave mistake by attempting to match his sister and his engaged best friend.

All these events are seen happening in the vicinity of family comforts and they act as a precursor of things which are about to fall apart, and in Yeats’ analysis, it is possible that the centre may not hold for long. This is evidenced by the family’s ultimate failure to communicate or understand each other thus making the audience to identify with the happenings.

As we read the play and the events unfold, every character seems to seek sympathy and the family breaks up before our own eyes and we are surprised more when the characters are not able to bear it more, and they flee leaving the audience to be guided by stage directions and monologues.

In this paper, we are going to evaluate how the play illustrates the break up of family structures with special focus of Tom’s endless struggles, Amanda’s maternal struggles and Laura’s unfulfilled expectations.

Tom’s endless struggles

Tom Wingfield is a brother to Laura and the only man in the family after their father abandoned them. Although Tom has a feeling of obligation towards his family, he is burdened in a way. Tom depicts a dual character in the play as he plays as a son and as a father in a family whose head of house abandoned.

Debusscher, in this respect states that, the mention of “a double life,” could be the mask that Tom Wingfield wears to meet the world, in particular the “world of his mother and that of the factory, his diurnal personality; and finally a threat” (65). Unlike the other characters, Tom is acting in two places where; in one hand he addresses the audience directly and on the other hand takes part in the play’s action.

Acting these two roles is representative of the kind of dilemma Tom has in life as he struggles to take the part of father and son simultaneously. In one of their conversations, Amanda faces him with anger when he tries to leave to the movies;

AMANDA: Don’t think about us, a mother deserted, and unmarried sister who’s crippled and has no job! Don’t let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure! Just go, go, go—to the movies!

TOM: All right, I will! The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I’ll go, and I won’t go to the movies!

AMANDA: Go, then! Go to the moon—you selfish dreamer! (Williams 236)

This shows right away that there is a distance between these two related characters and that communication is poor in the family. There is also a revelation that his mother has been calling him a selfish person for some time. Through out the play, Tom has had contrasting interest with her mother and they seem not to agree in many issues as we would expect family members to do.

Tom is not only removed from the family issues but also human relation in general. In one of his remarks, we are left with no doubt that his family, being a fundamental unit of the society, has failed to equip him with good relation outside and he is making little effort to change the situation. This is found in his lines where he says, “The warehouse is where I work, not where I know things about people!” (Williams 235).

This attitude against other people makes the audience to sympathize with him as he is caught up in his own world of dreams as also illustrated by the lines, “You don’t know things anywhere! You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions!” (Williams 235).

In the normal circumstances, we expect family members to love one another and work towards a common goal. This is not the case with Tom and his family because his attitude towards Amanda and his sister Laura is puzzling.

Although he cares for his family, he has always remained indifferent and cruel on them. This is depicted clearly by his final speech in the play, which demonstrates his strong feeling for his sister but that feeling is contrasted by the way he treats her throughout the play. This kind of reaction towards, his family leaves a void in the family structures, which are supposed to be tightly bound by love and mutual understanding.

The relentless unconscious search for this unionization through careless means is the quest for the play. However the effort has ended up breaking the family structures, as in many families in our contemporary times. In this play the writer uses the character of Tom and the events to suspend the audience between reality and illusion.

Amanda’s maternal struggles

Amanda has two children, Tom and Laura and she lives for them and loves them madly. However, her constant reference to her romantic stories about her girlhood, and her lack of courage to face reality, stifles her daughter and forces her son out of the family. In her motherly struggles, she is preoccupied with trying to assist Laura in finding a suitor because Laura is only stuck in her little glass animals.

We see her in scenes four and five requesting Tom to bring a nice boy named Jim for dinner in their house, hoping that Jim will be suitor for Laura. This is what Bruhm, a literally analyst called “a libidinal economy,” where Amanda exchanges her daughter with sexual favors of starving young men (529-30).

However, after a long evening, Jim, to the chagrin of Laura, uncovers that he has a fiancé whom they are engaged and are about to marry. All this over expectation can be related to the fact that she did not enjoy fully her husband’s love and she yarns to see the glory she accidentally lost being fulfilled in her daughter.

In scene one, we see Amanda being preoccupied with Laura’s future and Laura’s inability to take off by herself and for that case he always force Tom to be her watch as in this conversation,

AMANDA: I mean that as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent— why, then you’ll be free to go wherever you please, on land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows you! But until that time you’ve got to look out for your sister. I don’t say we because I’m old and don’t matter! I say for your sister because she’s young and dependent. (Williams 175)

This conversation shows the kind of mother Amanda is and the way she handled Tom as a child too. As we saw before, Amanda is not lucky in life and her quest to unite her family based on illusion turns tragic on her and the family heads to the doldrums. She always nags her son and has refused to appreciate her daughter and accept her as a grown up.

Although she makes all sacrifices for her loved ones, tragedy is not out to play sympathetic. She sometimes does humiliating drudgery of telemarket subscription sales with an aim of enhancing Laura’s marriage prospects. Her efforts reaps poor communication, misunderstanding and ultimately we see Tom leaving her and her daughter.

Her flaws are actually the ones that maintain the play tragic events, comic outlook and theatrical flair, and like Tom she retreats from real life to fantasy by not allowing her children to grow up. Regardless of her maternal struggles, the family can be seen falling and the audience can do nothing about it.

Although Amanda tries as much as she can to hold it, every effort turns out to be a debacle and what we are left to do is stand aside and watch as the fragments of the broken family speed past our own heads.

Laura’s unfulfilled expectations

Laura is the only character in the play with the most sensitive mental condition and has a slight disability. It is her mother who holds most of the expectations for her. In her way of doing things, she does no hurt anybody in the play and she cries for her brother’s unhappiness in scene four. It is her expectations, as also the expectations of the audience, that their family should be united and happy.

This act of expectations is contrasted by the selfishness and the hurting sacrifices that the other two family members have. It is therefore an unconscious desire for her to see a selfless family but this is not fulfilled in the play. This selflessness can also be seen where Laura talks less and does a lot of listening in the play.

Laura is however, the pivot on which the play is propelled and most symbols are used to represent her. She can be said to represent the rareness of a blue rose or a unicorn and her delicacy can be compared to that of a glass figurie. It is this delicateness that her mother reiterates and she always does everything in her reach to find her a suitor.

She has great expectations; like in scene five we see Jim whom she has had feelings for from the time they were schooling but he turns out to be an engaged man. It is also from this failed expectation that the family breaks as it tries to bring her back to the ideal world and there is no understanding. Her fragility makes her mother to keep nagging Tom, and Tom abhors her as she represents his source of problems.

Works Cited

Bruhm, Steven. “Blackmailed by Sex: Tennessee Williams and the Economics of Desire.” Modern Drama, 34(1991): 529-30.

Debusscher, Gilbert. “Creative Rewriting: European and American Influences on the Dramas of Tennessee Williams.” The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams. Ed. Matthew C. Roudané. Cambridge : Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.

Williams, Tennessee. The Theater of Tennessee Williams. New York: New Directions, 1971. Print.

Introduction

In the current essay, two plays of different genres that have been seen are presented and discussed in detail. The main aim is to provide a reasoned personal opinion on the most favorable play and the least desirable play among the five plays that have been seen in class. The following two pieces are the present paper’s subject: The Glass Menagerie and The Taming of the Shrew. Concerning the outline of the paper, it consists of two major parts: the first one is devoted to “The Glass Menagerie,” and the second one to “The Taming of the Shrew.” Firstly, a summary of the plot of each play is presented. Secondly, the reasoned personal view is stated along with the analysis.

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie is a memory drama written in 1944 by Tennessee Williams. The play is the memory of past events in the life of Tom Wingfield, specifically why he left home. All scenes occur in his head, and he warns the audience of its possible bias. The events Tom tells about take place in St. Louis in the 1930s. He works in a shoe warehouse to help his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura. Their father left the family a long time ago and did not support them. Tom feels trapped, as he is obliged to support his family and cannot leave home.

Amanda is concerned with finding a man for her daughter. Laura is fragile physically and emotionally, which makes it challenging to communicate with men. Amanda asks Tom to introduce Laura to a man, and he invites his colleague Jim to their family dinner. Laura and Jim get to know each other, but then it turns out that Jim is engaged with another woman. Amanda unleashes her anger on Tom (even though he was not aware of Jim’s engagement). The story ends with Tom telling that he left his home forever shortly after the evening.

In my personal opinion, “The Glass Menagerie” is the best and the most profound play among the other four that I have seen. It involves various vital themes that are relevant in today’s world. First of all, the play makes us think about memory and its subjectivity. Tom is trapped by his mind that interprets the past events overemotionally, sentimentally, and appears far from reality. Moreover, it seems that the protagonist cannot live in the present and let his past go. He returns to his memory, repeatedly trying to find something that does not allow him to find his peace. Thus, the playwriter aims to demonstrate the two vital points: the subjectivity of the memory (other characters might have seen the events in a different light) and the importance of living in the present moment, leaving the past behind.

Secondly, the play shows an essential topic of escape: from reality and into reality. The main characters all wish to escape in specific ways. Amanda does not live her present life but instead exists in her past by projecting her dreams on her daughter, Laura. Tom wants to escape physically from his family house. He always gets away from something: he goes every night to movies to avoid his problems or drinks alcohol. Tom is not ready to change his reality, and he prefers to run away. Both scenarios (Tom’s and his mother’s) are ways to avoid problems instead of finding solutions. The play is a reminder that escape is not the right thing to do because it makes people powerless and unhappy. To sum up, I chose the play as the most favorable, as it is up-to-date, and it demonstrates issues that people of different ages and generations face.

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy written between 1590 and 1592 by William Shakespeare. The play begins in Padua, Italy, where several gentlemen came together to claim Bianca’s hand, who is the youngest daughter of the rich man, named Baptista Minola. However, the man is against Bianca getting married before his older daughter, Katherine. Bianca is a sweet young girl that attracts men, while Katherine is described as ill-tempered and harsh. At the same time, a young scholar, Lucentio, arrives in Padua along with his servant Tranio and immediately falls in love with Bianca. However, two other men claimed the hand of Bianca – Gremio, and Hortensio. They decide to search for a husband for Katherine that they can ask for the hand of Bianca. Meanwhile, Lucentio and Tranio change identities to allow Lucentio to be closer to Bianca, pretending to be her tutor. Hortensio’s friend, Petruchio, is a self-confident man who expresses an interest in Katherine (especially when he finds out the size of her dowry) and decides to ask for her hand.

After realizing that Bianca is in love with Lucentio, Hortensio and Gremio decide to stop their courtship, Hortensio gets married to a rich widow. Bianca and Lucentio happily get married, revealing everyone the identity swindle. At the play’s end, there is a celebration of Lucentio and Bianca’s wedding. Men continuously mock Petruchio for his marriage with a shrew. However, Katherine proves to be the most obedient among other wives being the only one who comes at her husband’s bidding.

The play was chosen as the least favorite because the themes and questions that are brought are outdated and irrelevant. There is no doubt that the story itself is beautiful and exciting. However, it does not offer any topics or philosophical issues relevant to today’s world. Most importantly, the play addresses the theme of gender and misogyny. The robust nature of Katherine is shown as a negative characteristic. Men have no interest in her, as she does not match traditional women’s behavior. The end of the play shows that there is no way to avoid the established rules where women do not have their voices. Shakespeare portrays the situation of the 16th century; however, in today’s developed world, misogyny is not considered a healthy state of affairs. Thus, the conclusion and its outcomes do not resonate with the modern world and its actual problems, and it can be considered only as a historical play.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the current essay aimed to present and analyze the two plays of different genres and themes. The play by Tennessee Williams “The Glass Menagerie” was chosen as the most favorable. It raises philosophical issues that are up-to-date and relevant in today’s world for most people. “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare is the least favorable to my way of thinking. The play does not address questions that could be relevant and unresolved, as the developed world does not consider sexism and misogyny as normal situations.

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.

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

1. 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.
2. 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.

The Theme of Illusion in The Glass Menagerie

When discussing one of the most famous plays like The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams, I would like to consider the fundamentals of the work. So, first of all, I would like to define the key themes.

Generally, one is to keep in mind that famous work discloses ten major themes, namely, illusion vs. reality, memory, freedom, quest, instinct vs. civilized behaviors, famous American Dream, a person’s survival in the machine age, fragility vs. strength, and a person’s need to be far away from his or her surrounding. The Glass Menagerie illusion vs. reality theme I would like to highlight in detail in this paper.

While speaking about the first theme, illusion vs. reality, I have to point out that the play explores a family that lives in the shadow of reality. The playwright Williams Tennessee alludes from his early life to write an explicit play focusing on the social lives of specific individuals. Amanda is a mother of two adult children Tom and Laura.

After her husband abandoned her, Amanda struggles to take care of the family. Unfortunately, besides suffering from mental instability, Laura is also crippled. Therefore, Tom has a job at the shoe warehouse to provide for the family. Consequently, the three members of the family become engrossed in illusions, an aspect, which separates them from the real world.

As the essay on illusion vs. reality in the story shows, the so-called illusions help the main characters escape an unpleasant reality. I suppose it is a loss of psychological space that makes the characters to realize that it is impossible to escape the realities of the real world. Dipa Janardanan believes that the author is able “to get to the marrow of universal truth – the human condition of an individual’s inability to escape a psychological loss of space no matter how much physical distance is attained” (24).

I have to admit that the playwright uses innovative production techniques to draw the reader’s’ attention to the contrast between illusion and reality. Moreover, the author showed us that the so-called survival mechanisms family decided to rely on were transformed into destructive power.

The Glass Menagerie Themes

One of the major themes of the play is considered to be the characters’ inability to meet reality, and the meaning of illusion for them. Taking into account the attitude of all characters towards the realities of life, one can conclude that the main characters require objectivity. No one is ready to accept reality because it is really painful. While considering such complex psychological situations, it becomes evident that the psychological loss of space seems to be one of the key problems the author highlights in his play.

Tennessee Williams and Theme of The Glass Menagerie

I would like to say a few words about the author of the play. Generally, there is a need to point out that the author’s father was adventurous and an alcoholic. His mother was a submissive but hysterical woman. Tennessee spent the first ten years of his life living with his grandparents.

His health deteriorated an aspect that did not only make him shy but also contributed to his social weakness (shy). Due to constant relocation and social/financial instability, Williams and his sister became close, however, after some time, Rose suffered from a mental breakdown, a development that equally traumatized Williams.

Similarly, Tennessee acquired poor social skills, and most of his peers referred to him as ‘Miss Nancy’ (Londre 20). Education-wise, he did not finish his first degree after failing his exams in the third year. However, after acquiring literacy skills from his grandfather’s library, the author embarked on writing plays. Most of his plays were a reflection of his early life.

He focused on themes such as sexual violence, social misfit, family, and financial constraints, among others. Tennessee wrote the play glass menagerie when the Second World War was about to end. Consequently, most spouses (men) had abandoned their families and ventured into the war, therefore, creating a social gap.

The Theme of Illusion vs Reality in The Glass Menagerie

Amanda Wingfield, who is one of the main characters of the play doesn’t live, but exists. Socially, Amanda’s husband abandoned her, leaving her with the financial and emotional burden to take care of the family. Amanda longs for financial and social success, but this element makes her adopt an illusionary life. Secondly, Amanda declines to accept the exit of her husband from the family; thus, acquiring a domineering and hysterical attitude, especially towards the children.

For instance, Amanda says, “Gone, gone, gone. All vestige of gracious living! Gone completely! I wasn’t prepared for what the future brought me” (Williams 694-696). This shows that Amanda has declined to let her past go and accept reality. So, this is an example of illusion. Unfortunately, Amanda can’t face the realities of life.

When analyzing the play, it becomes evident that in real life “Williamses were never as hard up as the fictional Wingfields and so, without denying the effect of the general socio-economic environment as an intensifying element, I tend to see Amanda’s insecurity as characteristic of the alcoholic’s family” (Debusscher 59).

While speaking about the second character – Laura, I have to point out that the girl lives in an illusionary world. According to Williams, Laura has “Little articles of [glass], they’re ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest small animals in the world.

Mother calls them a glass menagerie!” (547). Therefore, Laura distances herself from the real world. According to Joven, Laura is “like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile” (57). Consequently, as the summary shows, Laura is using both her physical and mental disability to detach herself from realism.

The third character is Tom. He struggles to balance his family’s responsibility as the breadwinner, thus, trying to escape from reality. According to Williams, Tom says, “There is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two-by-four situation!” (680).

Although Tom is narrating a movie to Laura, his mind is struggling to devise ways in which he can run away from home and offload the responsibility burden that always awaits him. Furthermore, he visits bars and theatres to stay away from home. However, Tom’s actions are unreal because he is the only male figure in the family.

However, abandoning his family means running away from the real aspects of life thus, he is living in a fantasy. The movie is only an illusionary step that, in reality, it is hard to accomplish. For instance, he says, “I am more faithful than I intended to be!” (Williams 682). As The glass Menagerie conclusion evidences, this statement shows that Tom finds it unreal to abandon his sister and mother, therefore, his dream of pursuing adventure away from home is only illusionary.

Similarly, according to critics, Tom’s “nature is not remorseless and to escape from the trust he has to act without pity” (Broom 20). However, he finally deserts his family when he loses his job. Therefore, Tom lives with an illusion that if he stays alone, then he may have a comfortable life.

Conclusion: Reality vs. Illusion Theme

In brief, Williams’ play focuses on the lives of three family members, who lack social skills. Thus, they become caught between realism and fantasy.

Although Amanda’s husband left her with family responsibilities, she is reluctant to accept her situation. She lives in the American dream, whereby everybody should have a comfortable life. In addition, she reflects on her early life, whereby her family was wealthy.

Surprisingly, she confers her son with financial responsibility a step, which motivates him to dream of how to abandon his family. Finally, due to her physical disability, Laura detaches herself from other people and become engrossed with her glass menagerie. Therefore, all three characters have to come out of their cocoons to face the real world. Thus, in the conflict of illusion vs. reality in The Glass Menagerie, reality wins.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Tennessee Williams’s (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations): The Glass Menagerie. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2007. Print.

Debusscher, Gilbert. Tennessee Williams’s Dramatic Charade: Secrets and Lies in The Glass Menagerie, 2000. Web.

Janardanan, Dipa. Images of Loss in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Marsha Norman’s night, Mother, and Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, 2007. Web.

Joven, Nilda. “Illusion Verses Reality in The Glass Menagerie.” Diliman Review 1.1(1966): 52-60. Print.

Londre, Hardison. Tennessee Williams. New York: Frederick ungar publishers, 1979. Print Williams, Tennessee. The glass menagerie. New York: Random house, 1950. Print.

The Glass Menagerie is a play by Tennessee Williams that explores the conflicts and desires of a dysfunctional family living in St. Louis during the 1930s. The major conflict of the play is Tom’s struggle to escape his stifling home life and his responsibility to his family. The dramatic question revolves around whether or not Tom will abandon his mother and sister, and the unifying theme of the play is the power of memory and the illusions that people create to escape their unsatisfactory lives (Anxious 00:01:00). The dominant tone of the play is serious, with occasional moments of humor to alleviate the tension.

Directing

The production I watched was a filmed version of the 2013 Broadway revival directed by John Tiffany. The production concept was minimalist, with a single set consisting of a fire escape and a few pieces of furniture. The unifying metaphor was the idea of memory, which was reinforced through projected images and a non-linear narrative structure (Anxious 00:01:10). The production elements were compatible and coordinated, with the lighting and sound design contributing to the overall mood and atmosphere of the play.

The play’s themes were reinforced particularly well by the production’s use of memory. The non-linear narrative style enabled the spectator to concurrently observe the characters’ past and present personalities, emphasizing the difference between their idealized childhood selves and their contemporary circumstances. The projected visuals further enhanced the play’s surreal nature, which evoked the characters’ nostalgia and the difficulty of reliving the past (Anxious 00:23:10). Overall, the play’s topics were effectively communicated, and the staging gave the audience a gripping, immersive experience.

Acting

One of the actors who stood out was Cherry Jones, who played Amanda Wingfield. Jones was perfectly cast in the role, embodying Amanda’s neuroticism and desperation while still managing to evoke empathy from the audience. She was particularly effective in the second act, during her confrontation with Tom (Anxious 1:45:17). The other standout was Zachary Quinto, who played Tom. Quinto brought a sense of restlessness and simmering anger to the character, and his final monologue was a highlight of the production. The roles were appropriately cast, and all of the actors were strong. However, Celia Keenan-Bolger’s performance as Laura was somewhat underwhelming (Anxious 01:51:23). The audience were audible enough and were understandable. There were no special skills used in this movie on a specific actor.

Scenic Design

The scenery was simple but effective, evoking the shabbiness of the Wingfield apartment and the suffocating atmosphere of the family’s situation. The play was staged in a proscenium theatre, which is a traditional theatre (Anxious 00:01:25).. The scenery in The Glass Menagerie is crucial to the play’s atmosphere and themes. The play takes place in a small apartment, and the set design typically includes only a few pieces of furniture, such as a table and chairs, a sofa, and a small glass collection. If the scenery were eliminated from the production, much of the play’s atmosphere and themes would be lost.

Costume Design and Makeup

The costumes and makeup were unobtrusive but effective, helping to establish the period and the characters’ social status. There were no specific costumes that were needed for the play. Overall, the production was well-executed and engaging, with solid performances and an evocative design. The experience of watching a filmed version of a stage production was somewhat different from watching a live performance. Still, the quality of the production and the strength of the performances made it a worthwhile experience (Anxious 00:01:25). “The Glass Menagerie” remains a powerful play that speaks to the human experience with insight and compassion.

Lighting Design and Sound

The lighting and sound design of a play can significantly impact the overall production, and this was no exception in the 2013 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie. There were no special lighting required for the play except the ones used in production of the film. The lighting and sound were used effectively to contribute to the production concept and the total production (Anxious 00:01:25). The use of shadow and silhouette was particularly effective in emphasizing the contrast between the characters’ youthful dreams and their current reality (Anxious 00:13:25). Overall, the lighting design was skillfully executed and added to the overall quality of the production. The sound design was also effective, with music and sound effects used to set the mood and create a sense of atmosphere.

Personal Thought

“The Glass Menagerie” is a classic play adapted into several films, including the 1973 version referenced in the citation. The film follows the story of a family living in poverty in St. Louis during the Great Depression and their struggles in dealing with their past and present circumstances. The film is known for its strong performances, particularly by the lead actors, and its faithful adaptation of the play’s themes and motifs. It also captures the melancholic and dreamlike atmosphere of the play, which is an essential aspect of Williams’ writing. Overall, “The Glass Menagerie” movie is a poignant and moving adaptation of Williams’ play, and it remains a significant contribution to American theater and film.

Overall, the critique of the 2013 Broadway revival of “The Glass Menagerie” is positive, highlighting the strong performances, effective use of production elements, and the play’s enduring relevance. The minimalist staging and use of memory effectively reinforce the play’s themes, and the lighting and sound design contribute to the dreamlike and surreal atmosphere. While some minor criticisms are noted, such as a slightly underwhelming performance by one actor, the production is overall well-executed and engaging. The reviewer also acknowledges the significance of the play in American theater and film, and the continuing relevance of its exploration of the human experience.

Work Cited

Anxious Jellybean. (2021). The Glass Menagerie (1973) [Video]. Web.