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Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie. Plays deal with universal human longing for an ideal order of being, denied by the harsh realities of life and time His interest lay more in character, mood and condition than plot
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Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie • Plays deal with universal human longing for an ideal order of being, denied by the harsh realities of life and time • His interest lay more in character, mood and condition than plot • Essential condition of a Williams character: sensitive creature who has no home in an alien world • “memory plays”
The Glass Menagerie • “Memory Play” structure: Seven memory scenes framed by present day monologues of Tom Wingfield, divided into two parts: • (1) Preparation for Gentleman Caller • (2) The Gentleman Caller • Williams’s interests lay more in character, mood and condition rather than plot
Tennessee Williams’s philosophy • The point of reference for the characters’ lives is always the past, rarely the present and hardly ever the future. • Life, according to Williams, is a series of losses, beginning with high expectations and momentary fulfilment, but ultimately ending either in confrontation with its limitations, denial, or everlasting regret • But the dreams are always filled with images of separation, loss, loneliness, humiliation and pain.
Main characters • Amanda Wingfield— • Mother of Tom and Laura • Often digressed back to memories of her former days on the Southern plantation farm and her night with 17 gentlemen callers • Her pervasive memories of her Southern girlhood transport the play’s events to evoke an ideal world of romance
Main characters • Laura Wingfield— • Amanda’s daughter • Crippled and shy • Under mother’s constant pressure to find a husband
Main characters • Tom Wingfield— • Amanda’s son • Under mother’s constant pressure to find Laura a gentleman caller and to keep the job at the shoe factory to support the family
Main characters • Jim O’Conner • Friend of Tom’s from the factory who Tom invites to dinner and Amanda treats as Laura’s first gentleman caller
Minor character • Mr. Wingfield • Amanda’s husband who deserted the family about 16 years ago • Only seen in the play as a large photograph hung on the wall, but he is often referred to • The pattern of initial excited anticipation and ultimate loss is summarized particularly well in the father’s scornful postcard: “Hello—Goodbye.”
Symbols • Victrola— • Laura’s escape and private world
Symbols • Jonquils— • A reminder of Amanda’s glorious past
Symbols • Magic show— • Tom’s much-desired escape • Candelabrum-- • Tom’s relationship (or lack thereof) with his family
Symbols • Scarf— • Tom’s attempt to share his magic and desire for escape with Laura
Symbols • Fire escape— • The escape from Amanda’s world • Tom seeks to leave it, but Amanda stumbles whenever she does
Symbols • Glass Menagerie— • Laura’ private world, and the breaking of it • Laura’s fragile nature and her otherworldly beauty • Gentleman caller— • The real world as opposed to Amanda’s imagined one
Symbols • Unicorn— • Laura’s singularity, her return to reality, and her return to her retreat back into her world
Philosophy • Appearance vs. reality— • Amanda has picture of the world and of gentlemen callers which isn’t a reality in the ghettos of St. Louis • Laura has her own imaginary reality
Philosophy • Escape— • Tom tries to escape and eventually does • Laura is not trying as hard to escape as Tom does, although it would do her some good to escape her world. She comes close with Jim, but is devastated and regresses back into her world, probably deeper than she was before.
