Tom’s closing speech in The Glass Menagerie
Tom’s closing speech in The Glass Menagerie is very emotional and
ironic. However, this monologue is somewhat ambiguous and doesn’t
implicitly state whether Tom found the adventure he sought. It seems
as though he never returned to St. Louis, and spent the remainder of
his life wandering from place to place. This is inferred when he
says,” I didn’t go to the moon, I went much further-for time is the
longest distance between two places…”
Throughout the play, the fire escape has been a symbol of Tom’s
entrance and exit into both his reality and his dream world. He tells
us that his departure marked the last time he “descended the steps of
this fire-escape”, thus permanently embarking on his journey of
solitude into what was once only a part of his dream world. From the
statement, “(I) followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps..”
the reader can see that Tom acknowledges that he has chosen a path
which is very similar to that of his father’s. In recognising this
fact, Tom also admits that he abandoned his family just like Mr.
Wingfield did.
Tom’s journey does not seem to bring the escape and excitement that he
had always longed for. He says, “The cities swept about me like dead
leaves..” This description does not sound as though it comes from a
traveller who is ecstatic about visiting different parts of the world.
Cities are anything but dead; on the contrary, they are vibrant and
full of life, and persons who are artistically inclined tend to be
attracted to bustling cities. By categorising all the cities as dead
leaves, Tom classifies them as similar entities in which he notices no
individuality, uniqueness or excitement. He cannot relish in the
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...scape, and she will most likely carry this pain for the rest of her
life. It also symbolises Tom’s final farewell to her.
Essentially, this monologue reveals that Tom’s escape has not been as
complete or as perfect as he had hoped. While he has escaped the
physical limitations of the Wingfield apartment and the restrictions
of his job at the warehouse, memories from his past and feelings of
regret seem to create an intangible prison for Tom. He has been unable
to remove himself from the coffin and leave all the nails untouched,
as was his former desire. His statement of “I am more faithful than I
intended to be!” alludes to the fact that he is fully cognisant that
he has left his family to struggle with the consequences of his
departure. The Glass Menagerie ends with Tom’s life being exactly
opposite to the one he had foreseen when he planned his escape.
The “Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams shows a family facing economic and social hardships due to the father abandoning them. The father’s absence forces the rest of the family to fill roles that they wouldn’t be obliged to face if the father remained. The mother, Amanda, is a strong single mother who pushes her kids to be economically self-sustaining individuals. Amanda tries to impose her desires for her kids in a very direct and controlling manner which causes them to dislike her initiatives. The son, Tom, is the breadwinner for the family, however is dissatisfied with his situation due to his increased responsibilities. The daughter, Laura, is handicapped and dropped out of business school. Each member of the family is limited by their ability to grow out of their negative habits, however, it is likely that these habits or characteristics came from the family situation and the roles that each member was forced to fill.
Half an hour later, as dinner is finishing up, the lights go out. Tom feigns ignorance of the cause. Amanda, unfazed, continues to be as charming as she can be. She lights candles and asks Jim to check the fuse box. After Jim tells her that the fuse box looks fine, Amanda suggests that he go spend time with Laura in the living room.
Tennessee Williams employs the uses of plot, symbolism, and dialogue to portray his theme of impossible true escape, which asserts itself in his play, The Glass Menagerie. Each of his characters fills in the plot by providing emotional tension and a deep, inherent desire to escape. Symbolism entraps meaning into tangible objects that the reader can visualize and attach significance to. Conclusively, Williams develops his characters and plot tensions through rich dialogue. Through brilliant construction and execution of literary techniques, Williams brings to life colorful characters in his precise, poignant on-stage drama.
In the play “The glass menagerie” by author Tennessee Williams, he talks about real life situations. Even though the play was written in 1944, and the life style was different back then, these situations keep happening now in days. Parents provide a balanced family life style for their kids. Fathers are in charge of the safety, educations and provide shelter, while mothers provide the basics like cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. What about when one of them is missing, if is the father, who will take care of the home, the mother or the oldest child. If, this is the case, is it ok to be forced to be in a home and take care of the responsibilities that belong to someone else?
...ent efforts, or men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). Here, The Valley of Ashes is regarded as complete destitution and hopelessness. The people known as the lower class do not wish to live in the valley of ashes. This is why people, like Myrtle try to do anything to get away from it but instead it becomes unachievable for them. When Myrtle tried to escape from the ashes by trying to be with a rich man like Tom, she dies. This embellishes how The American dream is unattainable. When Tom goes and sees George, you can see how the higher classes look down on the lower classes because of their different social positions. The higher-class people such as, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan represent the unstructured bodies of ashes within the valley. They are inconsiderate and conceited people arising from the dead ashes, changing the American Dream.
Liberal humanist and astounding lawyer, Atticus Finch, composed a breathtaking summation speech to address the varying facts and opinions of Tom Robinson’s controversial court case. Atticus’ intentions for comprising such a speech is to persuade the jury and spectators to find Robinson “not guilty.” However, Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, included Atticus’ speech to subliminally alter the reader’s perception on prejudice and racism during the 1930’s. Atticus adopts a dignified tone when delivering his summation speech to convey the misconduct of Southerners to the jury and the people of Maycomb through the usage of relatability and the advocation for natural rights.
really a place for someone like him and his mind rebelled. Lastly you can see
The lacking of a positive male role model can be very troublesome for any family; especially during the mid-thirties. Prior to the Second World War, women did not have significant roles in the workforce and depended on their husbands or fathers to provide for them financially. There were limited government assistance programs during the era of The Great Depression, and it was up to the families to provide for themselves. The absence of Mr. Wingfield placed enormous strains on the physical as well as mental wellbeing of his family. The effects the abandonment of their father had on the Wingfield family from Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie are undeniable.
Families are supposed to be there for each other and what have you. The families of today are more or less normal, but in the book The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams the Wingfield family is very dysfunctional. What makes this family dysfunctional are the members of it, such as Amanda, Tom, and Laura. Amanda was a very talkative mother.
The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams in 1944, tells a tale of a young man imprisoned by his family. Following in the footsteps of his father, Tom Wingfield is deeply unhappy and eventually leaves his mother and sister behind so he may pursue his own ambitions. Throughout the play, the reader or audience is shown several reasons why Tom, a brother to Laura and son to Amanda, is unhappy and wishes to leave his family. However, the last scene describes Tom’s breaking point in which he leaves for the last time. Amanda tells Tom to “go to the moon,” because he is a “selfish dreamer.” (7. Amanda and Tom) The reasonings for Tom’s departure are due to his mother’s constant nagging, hatred for
In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the glass menagerie is a clear and powerful metaphor for each of the four characters, Tom, Laura, Amanda, and the Gentleman Caller. It represents their lives, personality, emotions, and other important characteristics.
In Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, each member of the Wingfield family has their own fantasy world in which they indulge themselves. Tom escaped temporarily from the fantasy world of Amanda and Laura by hanging out on the fire escape. Suffocating both emotionally and spiritually, Tom eventually sought a more permanent form of escape.
The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, is a complex work that encompasses many thematic ideas. The play details the life of a dysfunctional family living in St. Louis during the 1930s. The family has many problems and have created their own version of reality to cope with and avoid the truth of their situation. Illusion reigns supreme and prevents the family from moving forward. In The Glass Menagerie, Williams explores how one can create their own warped version of reality based on memories of the past, visions of the future, or a distorted perception of the present and how that can prevent one from moving forward in their life.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was a memory play written in 1941. The small cast of characters included Amanda, a southern belle who still lives in the past of her younger days. Tom, the dedicated son who took over his father’s role as the man of the house once his father left. Laura the timid, shy daughter who with a mild physical defect lived a self-induced secluded life and the one gentleman caller Jim, who later in the play we find out that he was not really a caller for Laura at all.
The role of abandonment in The Glass Menagerie can best be described as the plot element that underlies the overall tone of despondence in the play because it emphasizes the continuous cycle of destruction and hardship that the Wingfield family experiences; indeed, abandonment in the play is a reiterative element that strips the excesses from the three main characters in the play and leaves them in their barest forms, united by a sorrowful reality and clutching each other through the ever-present need to sink into a self-constructed oblivion. The first, and perhaps the most notable and most frequently discussed, example of abandonment in the play would be that of Amanda Wingfield’s husband’s abandonment of his family; he left them at an unspecified time in the past because “he fell in love with long distances,” and evidently forsook any obligations and emotional affiliations that he may have had with his wife and offspring (Williams 5). Having been abandoned by a man who was both husband and father affected Amanda, Tom, and Laura in that it established many of their familial dynamics...