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Tennessee williams essay on the glass menagerie
Tennessee williams essay on the glass menagerie
Literary criticism of The Glass Menagerie
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The play that will be analyzed in this essay is "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. "The glass menagerie is about a family living in St. Louis, Missouri, inside a apartment complex described a "Stacked like beehive"(752). Everyone wants to come out of this struggle situation they feel trapped in. All the characters escape to different worlds after things do not go as planned or just reminisce about ways life was better in the past. These disparate "Worlds" prevent the family from fully understanding each other because there is no communication between anyone in the family. The first character in "Glass Menagerie" who retreats to a different is Tom. He also is known as the breadwinner of the Wingfield family. Bills do not get paid, and food does not get put on the table if it was not for Tom. The world Tom retreats to is full of imagination and unrealism. Once he enters this world he begins to write a lot of poetry and goes to the movie theatre to escape his reality. "I go to the movie because" Later in "Glass Menagerie" Tom says to Jim "People go to the movie instead of moving!" meaning he is only acting like he is leaving his family instead of escaping from them for real. Tom has a somewhat selfish side to him because he believes the only way he can truly accomplish his personal goals is to leave Laura and Amanda like his …show more content…
"So chew your food and give your salivary glands a chance to function" (753). and "Laura Wingfield, you march right to that door!" (771). Are some of the ways Amanda can be very controlling towards Tom and Laura. Amanda Wingfield is very centered on herself. One of the ways she center around herself is by consistently reminiscing on her younger days. Often throughout the play she reminds Tom and Laura of the beautiful woman she was. A perfect example is when Amanda says "One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain - your mother received seventeen gentlemen
To start, Amanda Wingfield displays different characteristics from Troy. Amanda lives with her son and daughter who are in their 20’s and are supposed to be starting their lives. Amanda wants Laura to succeed in life and be a remarkable wife to one of her future gentleman callers. When Amanda discovers Laura has stopped going to her typewriting class, Amanda realizes her dreams of Laura succeeding are flickering away, “My hopes and ambitions for you”(Williams 14). Through this quote Williams incorporates heartache into Amanda’s voice depicting her ambition for Laura to succeed. She also feels, “So weak I could barely keep on my feet!”(Williams 14). These two quotes illustrate that Laura’s own being is extremely important to Amanda and to an extent, acts as if Laura’s failure is her own failure. This sense of care that Amanda shows is essential to help Laura make something of herself and appears to the reader as a deep aspiration of Amanda’s conscious. While Troy only cares for Cory because , “It is my job...cause it’s my duty”(Wilson 38). Another way Amanda wants Laura to be blissful is through her efforts in trying to get Laura a gentleman c...
...inessman. She blames her husband for her children’s bad qualities. When Tom stays out late or smokes Amanda says “you got it from you father”.
Amanda is also well characterized by the glass menagerie. The glass sits in a case, open for display and inspection for all. Amanda try’s to portray herself as a loving mother, doing everything she can for her children, and caring nothing for herself, when in fact, she is quite selfish and demanding. Amanda claims that she devotes her life to her children, and that she would do anything for them, but is very suspicious of Tom’s activities, and continually pressures Tom, trying to force him in finding a gentleman caller for Laura, believing that Laura is lonely and needs a companion, perhaps to get married. Like the glass, her schemes are very transparent, and people can see straight through them to the other side, where ...
Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.
Because of him working in the warehouse and having to put his dreams on hold, it seems to make him bitter and rude to his mother. His mother puts a lot of pressure on him with working and making the money to pay the bills. Also his mother is always getting mad when he goes out. In the play Tom snaps at his mother one night after she’s nags him about going out, some of the stuff he said wasn’t necessary, but we all say things we don’t mean when we are upset. His mother does work by trying to sell magazines, but during this time period the Great Depression was going on so it was hard on everyone with money.
The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.
Tom Wingfield is a determined young man. He has decided against everyone else in his family's wishes that he wants to leave the dismal life of a factory job, to pursue a chance in the Merchant Marines. He realizes that he would be running off like his father and this is probably the only thing that kept him from leaving this long. Amanda, Tom's mother, deep down knows the day is coming that Tom will leave. She says "But not till there's someone to take your place." She wants Laura, if not herself to be taken care of. At that moment in the play Tom is the breadwinner in the family and up to this point Tom is the underpriviledged child that wants to move on. He wants to pursue his dream, a more adventurous life. Tom was a likable character until we find out he didn't pay the electric bill with the intended money. When Jim is over and he says "I paid my dues this month, instead of the light bill". At this point, Tom becomes a more selfish character. There is less sympathy given in his direction. In fact, this is probably where we feel a little more sorry for Amanda.
Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son Tom's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.
As Winfield 's wife, Amanda is worthy of love and respect. Amanda is a southern lady, when she was young, she had an attractive appearance and graceful in manner, and her families were also quite rich. These favorable conditions made her the admiration of many men. Still, her final choice was a poor boy. She did not hesitate and bravely to choose her own love. Though her marriage was not as good as she had imagined the happiness of life, and the husband, Winfield meager income also drinking heavily, finally abandoned Amanda and two young children, but she still remembered and loved her husband. Her husband 's weakness did not make Amanda fall down; instead, she was brave enough to support the family, raising and educating of their two young children. Daughter Laura was a disability to close her fantasy world, and she was collection of a pile of glass small animals as partners. Amanda knew Laura sensitive, fragile, she was always in the care and encourages her daughter. Because of her shortcomings, Laura sometimes frustrated and Amanda immediately replied that "I 've told you never, never to use that word. Why, you 're not crippled, you just have a little defect". Amanda for the care of the children was more reflected a mother 's strong from the play that Amanda paid money to send Laura to typing school. She hoped daughter have a better future and married a good man to take care of the family, and encouraged her daughter, prompting her to go out of the glass menagerie to experience her real life, but Amanda placed more expectations for his son Tom because her husband left home, Tom is the only man and the mainstay of the family. She wanted Tom to realize that is a kind of family responsibility, also is a kind of essential social
Tom works at the warehouse but he truly despises it, because in scene three he said, "I'd rather somebody picked up a crowbar and battered my brains than go back in the morning. " (Williams 1036)" Also, it seems Tom does not care if he gets fired or not, judging by the amount of time that he spends writing poetry at work. Tom does not appreciate what he has or that his family is provided for. Tom also shows a hint of selfishness when he tells Amanda that there is nothing in that house that he can honestly call his own.
Tom clearly does not believe that staying at home with his mother and sister is worth the unhappiness he feels. A common issue that arises in The Glass Menagerie is Tom’s nightly trips to the movies. When asked about his frequent trips to the movies, Tom describes that “adventure is something I [he]” doesn’t “have much of at work.” (4.Tom) Living vicariously through the movies he sees, remains one of Tom’s only true sources of happiness.
Tom escaped from the fantasy world of Amanda and Laura by hanging out on the fire escape, even though he could never fully escape. Unfortunately for Tom, his life was cramped like the coffin and he was slowly suffocating emotionally and spiritually. Unhappy with the lifestyle he followed in the footsteps of his father, he searched for adventure, escaping the nagging of Amanda.
AMANDA WINGFIELD the mother. A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place. Her characterization must be carefully created, not copied from type. She is not paranoiac, but her life is paranoia. There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person. (Williams 781)
Parent and children relationships are the main point of a play in many literary works. Through their relationship the reader can understand the conflicts of the play, since the characters play different roles in each other’s lives. These people are usually connected in physical and emotional ways. They can be brother and sister, mother and daughter, or father and son. In “Death of A Salesman,” by Arthur Miller the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Biff and Happy, allow Miller to comment on the father-son relationship and conflicts that arise from them. In “ The Glass Menagerie,” by Tennessee Williams shows this in the interaction between Amanda and her children, Laura and Tim.
Their relationship is strained because Tom reminds Amanda of her husband. He just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his family. He aspires to travel and see the world. He does not want to just get by; he wants to live and experience life.