Free Essays on The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams’ â€Å"memory play† originates after World War II in a dark, dreary alley in St. Louis. The play consists of only four main characters or actors; a mother, brother, sister, and the gentleman caller round out the people. The names given by Williams are; Amanda Wingfield to the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother who narrates the play, and Jim the gentleman caller. The story progresses along the lines of Amanda searching for a mate for her daughter, because she had seventeen callers in her day. The father figure has abandoned the family years before leaving Tom as the man of the household. At the outset of things, Tom is plotting and scheming, while his mother wants him to hear once again about Blue Mountain and of all the callers she had back in her day. She is rather degrading/racist to the dark skin folk and very close-minded when recalling these times. The three can’t agree on whatever they’re talking about and the scene end’s with Amanda feeling as though she is going to be an old maid. In the next scene, Laura catches her mother missing the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting the night before. Amanda also catches Laura when she asks about why her typing teacher had not even seen her showing up at school. Laura gives a very puny speech, she goes on telling her mother of how she wandered the streets the night before, going inside various places to warm up. Then, the two of them begin chitchatting about how Laura used to really like one boy who called her Blue Roses. She explains the name to her mom, but Amanda wants to hear nothing of this or her crippled-ness and emphasizes that she has charm and vivacity. Amanda chooses to ask Tom to be the one to find a caller for his sister after he and his mother have another frank discussion and he storms off once again to the â€Å"movies†. He does so in a rage and on his way out to the movies ends up b... Free Essays on The Glass Menagerie Free Essays on The Glass Menagerie â€Å"The Glass Menagerie† There are some people who live life within another life. They live in a world run by their imagination. In Tennessee Williams the â€Å"Glass Menagerie† the members of the Wingfield family are all trapped in menial existences. Enveloped in their delusions or leading impoverished lives of symbolic displacements, they are almost a family of outcasts. Laura Wingfield is the main focus, who is living in a world of glass ornaments. Amanda Wingfield, Laura’s mother, suffocating in her own affections, places her desires indirectly towards Laura. Additionally, there is Tom Wingfield, Laura’s brother, who is immersed within a world of movies. Laura resembles a wounded animal, mirroring her own fears of failure. The â€Å"Glass Menagerie† is deceptively simple on its surface-no more, it seems, than a single incident in the life of a small family. Laura's self destruction seems inevitable from the opening of the story. Low self-esteem, depression, and lack of any con fidence what so ever marks Laura's descent into the emptiness of her own soul. It seems Laura really only wants to be left alone to collect her trinkets of glass. In his play, "The Glass Menagerie†, Tennessee Williams uses the imagery of a glass unicorn to help convey the emotional anguish of the character, Laura. The unicorn symbolizes Laura's feelings of being "freakish" (1487), which has made her a hermit. Laura's obsession with her glass collection is displayed throughout the story. It is obvious that her mother, Amanda, has berated Laura many times about her preoccupation with the glass, because while she is â€Å"washing and polishing her collection† (1452), Laura panics at the prospect of her mother finding her at it again. Once we have seen Amanda's tirade about Laura dropping out of business school, Laura's state seems licit. The glass now seems to be Laura's hopes and dreams of another life. She hasn't the courage to live a normal sociable l... Free Essays on The Glass Menagerie The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams’ â€Å"memory play† originates after World War II in a dark, dreary alley in St. Louis. The play consists of only four main characters or actors; a mother, brother, sister, and the gentleman caller round out the people. The names given by Williams are; Amanda Wingfield to the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother who narrates the play, and Jim the gentleman caller. The story progresses along the lines of Amanda searching for a mate for her daughter, because she had seventeen callers in her day. The father figure has abandoned the family years before leaving Tom as the man of the household. At the outset of things, Tom is plotting and scheming, while his mother wants him to hear once again about Blue Mountain and of all the callers she had back in her day. She is rather degrading/racist to the dark skin folk and very close-minded when recalling these times. The three can’t agree on whatever they’re talking about and the scene end’s with Amanda feeling as though she is going to be an old maid. In the next scene, Laura catches her mother missing the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting the night before. Amanda also catches Laura when she asks about why her typing teacher had not even seen her showing up at school. Laura gives a very puny speech, she goes on telling her mother of how she wandered the streets the night before, going inside various places to warm up. Then, the two of them begin chitchatting about how Laura used to really like one boy who called her Blue Roses. She explains the name to her mom, but Amanda wants to hear nothing of this or her crippled-ness and emphasizes that she has charm and vivacity. Amanda chooses to ask Tom to be the one to find a caller for his sister after he and his mother have another frank discussion and he storms off once again to the â€Å"movies†. He does so in a rage and on his way out to the movies ends up b... Free Essays on The Glass Menagerie To create a better understanding of a character’s personality, we must delve deep into a character’s thoughts, his traits, and his many other distinguishing characteristics. Our character, Laura Wingfield, from Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, suffers from a crippled leg that causes her to limp whenever she walks. Over time, her crippleness has caused her to become incredibly shy to strangers and almost everyone around her. Her shyness ricochets back at her by making her lose all self confidence in herself and thus makes her afraid to face or even talk to people. It causes her to turn into an outcast among regular people and even causes her to drop out of social institutions like high school and business college. Her crippled leg over time has become a looming invisible adversary. She has been living in a dream world created by her mother whereas her leg is not crippled, but only a minor defect. Over time, she has lost all self confidence in herself and resorts to the confines of her glass menagerie and old phono records. She uses it as an escape, not from her confined home life, but rather as an escape from the life outside. She prefers not to have interaction with people and would rather spend all day caring for her glass animals. There, she can get away from the pressures her mother constantly places on her and be in perfect nirvana. Her shyness and tendency to keep to herself even made her drop out of high school. Even in business college, she threw up on the first day of class and never returned. Her shyness has alienated her to a point where even the most slightest conversation can frighten her. Laura is also afraid of confrontations. When she dropped out of business college, she walked around town or through the parks for months in cold and freezing weather just to avoid having to confront her mother with the news. When her mother finally found out about it, she tried to avoid having to talk b... Free Essays on The Glass Menagerie Symbolism in Glass Tennessee Williams â€Å"The Glass Menagerie† tells the story of an unusual family coping with unfortunate circumstances. The title of the play comes from a hobby of the youngest member of the family, Laura. Her glass menagerie is a collection of glass ornaments. Laura’s glass menagerie symbolizes everyone in the story. In the beginning of the play Tom explains to the audience that he is the narrator. This is also when the father is mentioned for the first time. His father left their family, but is always a presence in their house because of his â€Å"larger-than-life size photograph that hangs over the mantel† (1781). The glass menagerie symbolizes him because it is also unreal. His presence is always felt, but it is not a real presence, just as the figures in Laura’s glass are very important to her, but they are also not real. Amanda, the mother, is very strange. She has had a hard life. Her husband left her with two children and the pressure of raising them on her own really seems to have altered her view of reality. She talks endlessly on how many men wanted to date her when she was young, telling her children, â€Å"sometimes there weren’t enough chairs to accommodate them all† (1782). She lives in the past. Her mind is also very fragile, as fragile as glass. If she becomes upset she goes back into her past to think about better days. She does not choose to believe the truth when it does not suit what she wants to believe. She is as fragile as ornament in her daughter’s glass menagerie. Tom, as mentioned earlier, is the narrator. He is also fragile, but in a different way than his mother. His patience is easily worn. He has to work long hours supporting his family. He knows that he must work or they will not survive, but living with that burden has made him bitter, and he is staring to yearn for bigger and better things. The only comfort he feels is when he leaves the apartment an...