Religion is commonly seen as something that saves people from their troubles and sins. Tennessee Williams mocks religion in the play “The Glass Menagerie,” and challenges the whole idea of religion. Tennessee Williams criticizes religions ability to provide aid and comfort in times of desperate need or poverty. This is made blatantly clear by the evident references to religion. Amanda commonly makes jokes concerning religion, and she herself is often intertwined with religious references. Tom is repeatedly crippled and unaided by what seems to be religion, and in general all of the goals and dreams of the Wingfields are not realized through religion.
Amanda seems to be a devout Christian, however the reality to this false appearance is that she is used to mock religion. Amanda seems to be very concerned with being religious, she often reprimands Tom, saying that “Christian Adults don’t want it” (34) when he complains about the lack of adventure in his life. She seems to be a good, religious person who wishes to improve the grim situation her family is in. However, it is quickly obvious that she is not the religious person she seems to be, and is even used to mock religion. When she speaks of her gentlemen callers, she mentions that they visited her “one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain” (8). If she was truly the good Christian adult she imposes on Tom, she would be at church, or at least make a mention of going to church. Instead she entertains her gentlemen callers. After the fiasco at Rubicam’s Business college, Amanda starts to make calls. She describes her potential buyers as “Christian martyr(s)” though they have minor ailments such as a “sinus condition” (20). Normally Christian martyrs go through great suffering, and she...
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...so has autobiographical elements, which could hint at Tennessee Williams rejecting religion. His mother was very domineering, but she was also devout. Her prayers were not answered, as she had an abusive husband and her daughter was mentally ill. Witnessing this could be the reason for such a tirade on religion in the play. The one thing that is for certain is that Tennessee Williams believed in the power of the person, that people’s actions influence the world the most. This is evident because Tom walks out on his family, which is a decision he made on his own, without religion or external help. Similarly, though Amanda does not go to church in her young age, she has many gentlemen callers and her life is relatively better than currently. This could be Tennessee Williams saying that people’s actions are what influence their situation, not religion or anything else.
In the novel Cold Sassy Tree (1984), Olive Ann Burn's plot focuses heavily on religion and its role in society. Mary Willis Blakeslee, a Baptist, is tried for heresy by the deacons of the Baptist church for marrying Hoyt Tweedy, a Presbyterian. “The deacons voted to put it in the church records that ‘Mary Willis Blakeslee has swapped her religious birthright for a mess of matrimonial pottage’” (11). After her father Rucker Blakeslee confronted the deacons they agreed to remove the pottage element from the document (11). Although this confrontation with Grandpa intimidated the deacons it didn’t impede them from excommunicating Mary Willis from her “birth church.” As it ended up she decided to attend the church of her husband, Hoyt Tweedy. As Cold Sassy Tree illustrates, in Georgia in the early 1900’s religion played a major role in marriage decision along with membership to the church. This sort of attention that Mary Willis acquired was very hard for her to tolerate emotionally. It was important to her to appear respectable to the community. Regardless of this embarrassment caused by the Baptist...
This play begins and ends with religious expression as a forte. One of the first lines comes from Mr. Brown, who says “everybody ain’t saved and we can’t expect them to act like us.” This introduction is followed by Madea’s rant about her recently deceased sister by saying “I hope she’s on a slow fall to hell!” Although joking, Madea continues throughout the entire play with a mordant stance on religious idea.
There are many themes within Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People”. Religion is definitely one of the more prominent themes that the story holds. Like most of O’Connor’s works, it plays a big part in the actions or characteristics of the main characters. This is all on the surface however. The more important and less accentuated theme is the various facades the characters create for themselves. These facades prevent them from facing their true “grotesque” selves. These facades also hide their weaknesses that they have no wish to face ort just can’t understand. People must be comfortable with every aspect of themselves, because certain people, who in this story are represented by Manley Pointer’s character, can easily exploit their weaknesses. He’s “good country people” and “the salt of the earth” as Mrs. Hopewell refers to Manley Pointer who really is a demon that they must face. A demon to remind them of their weaknesses.
The two topics of religion and hypocrisy in the play go hand in hand. The overall play is intended to ultimately bring to light religious hypocrisy, but not to necessarily demoralize it. The play aims to make fun of religious hypocrisy, while hinting that it’s problem or flaw is the way it slanders and makes one question the grandeur of pure religion. Tartuffe’s character portrayal is made up solely by his outspoken and unapologetic displays of religious devotion. Through his actions and displays of religious devotion he gains Orgon’s trust and manipulates him into overlooking his family's wellbeing and overall safety. He used Orgon's want and need to feel close to God himself against him, which left Orgon blinded by ignorance and own self
In America, the existence of so many different cultures and religions can inadvertently cause one religion to impose its values upon another religion. In Grace Paley’s “The Loudest Voice”, however, the school system directly imposed Christianity onto Shirley Abramowitz and other non-Christian students in the school. Teachers in the school tried to enforce Christianity onto the non-Christian children whenever and whichever way possible. The major illustration of this attempt of “brainwashing” was the production of a Christmas play performed mostly by Jewish students. This was an obvious attempt by the school to try to force the other students to learn the value and history of the Christian religion.
One of the most obvious symbols in this play is Laura's glass menagerie. The glass menagerie is what keeps Laura occupied; it's the world she lives in. It is a representation of Laura's family, a representation of their isolation from the rest of the world. The Wingfields exist in a separate world, Tom lives in his dreams, Amanda lives in the past and Laura lives in her world of glass animals. When Jim enters the illusory world of the Wingfields, he is able to relive parts of his high school glory. However he can onl...
From diffident Laura’s delicate glass collection, to the Wingfields’ apartment’s simple fire escape, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is full of representations of his abstract ideas to tell the deeper story of the Wingfields’ dysfunctional family life and dynamics. Williams explains the delusions, using symbols to explain them, of each character in his play, like narrator Tom’s love of movies substituting for his desire for adventure or mother Amanda’s impossible dreams and unwillingness to accept her children’s unsuccessfulness. Daughter, and older sister, Laura is stuck in a world of glass animals and a serious inferiority complex due to her handicapped leg, until Jim O’Connor visits the household and adventitiously breaks her and
When Brown sets out on his journey, Faith confesses her fears to Brown as she attempts to convince Brown to stay home. She explains, “A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she’s afeard of herself” (133). The prospect of an evening of isolation causes Faith to be anxious; the loss of her husband’s companionship deprives her of a predictable world, but her discomfort is of no concern to Brown. Instead, reassuring his wife from the doctrine of his theology, Brown tells her to “say thy...
The family in Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, faces various dilemmas. One of the most prominent is the issue of anxiety. Throughout the play, the family focuses their attention mainly on Laura and her struggle with both her physical disability and social anxiety. However, closer analysis reveals that Laura is not the only character suffering, each family member displays signs of being affected by anxiety. Their interactions with one another trigger feelings of nervousness, unhappiness, and anger. The issue of anxiety extends beyond Laura, affecting the whole family, and ultimately leads to tragedy.
Generally when some one writes a play they try to elude some deeper meaning or insight in it. Meaning about one's self or about life as a whole. Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is no exception the insight Williams portrays is about himself. Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments (Kirszner and Mandell 1807). The play centers itself on three characters. These three characters are: Amanda Wingfield, the mother and a women of a great confusing nature; Laura Wingfield, one who is slightly crippled and lets that make her extremely self conscious; and Tom Wingfield, one who feels trapped and is looking for a way out (Kirszner and Mandell 1805-06). Williams' characters are all lost in a dreamy state of illusion or escape wishing for something that they don't have. As the play goes from start to finish, as the events take place and the play progresses each of the characters undergoes a process, a change, or better yet a transition. At the beginning of each characters role they are all in a state of mind which causes them to slightly confuse what is real with what is not, by failing to realize or refusing to see what is illusioned truth and what is whole truth. By the end of the play each character moves out of this state of dreamy not quite factual reality, and is better able to see and face facts as to the way things are, however not all the characters have completely emerged from illusion, but all have moved from the world of dreams to truth by a whole or lesser degree.
Faith lives in small town where there is not much to ever do. She’s on spring break from her Christian college and she just wants to have some fun and do something different to escape boredom. In other words, Faith needs a change in her life to escape boredom. Kierkegaard writes in Either/Or, “Seeing that boredom is a root of all evil, as enlarged on above, what more natural than to try to overcome it? But here…in trying to avoid it one only works oneself further into it. ‘Change’ is what all who are bored cry out for” (232). The evil that is boredom is basically corrupting Faith’s mind into thinking that she needs a change to derive pleasure from. In the film, while talking to her friends about potentially going to Florida for spring break she says, “I just want to get out of here. There’s more than just spring break. This is our chance to see something different” (Korrine, Spring Breakers). Clearly, Faith just wants to make a change and get out of her town to go do something different, which is a characteristic of Kierkegaard’s Immediate Aesthete. The routine and stability of Faith’s life has bored her out, and she just wants to experience something different. The actuality of her going to Florida later in the film makes this quote directly relatable to the Immediate Aesthete. Once Faith is in Florida, though, she realizes
Central to the story is Sophia Middleton, who seems to have it all, she is a successful and well loved Christian, who dedicates her time and efforts to bringing young people to Christ, she speaks about it, teaches it, as well as leads bible studies. Additionally, she even believes she can change the world with love, one person at a time. As a matter of fact, she has had a powerful effect on many lives, although she also suffers from her own vices as she lives her life as a lie. Consequently, immersed in stupendous hypocrisy, Sophia leads a double life, one facade, her public image, presents a loving, faithful servant of God, and a shining example of a seemingly faithful Christian, however, on the other hand, she gives into worldly temptations by leading a life rife with sin, unmarried, she lives with her boyfriend Derek, parties, drinks and indulges in sex.
In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses the roles of the members of the Wingfield family to highlight the controlling theme of illusion versus reality. The family as a whole is enveloped in mirage; the lives of the characters do not exist outside of their apartment and they have basically isolated themselves from the rest of the world. Even their apartment is a direct reflection of the past as stories are often recalled from the mother's teenage years at Blue Mountain, and a portrait of the man that previously left the family still hangs on the wall as if his existence is proven by the presence of the image. The most unusual factor of their world is that it appears as timeless. Amanda lives only in the past while Tom lives only in the future and Laura lives in her collection of glass animals, her favorite being the unicorn, which does not exist. Ordinary development and transformation cannot take place in a timeless atmosphere such as the apartment. The whole family resists change and is unwilling to accept alteration. Not only is the entire family a representation of illusion versus reality, each of the characters uses fantasy as a means of escaping the severity of their own separate world of reality. Each has an individual fantasy world to which they retreat when the existing world is too much for them to handle. Each character has a different way of dealing with life when it seems to take control of them, and they all become so completely absorbed in these fantasies that they become stuck in the past.
Religion is constantly evolving because of how society, culture, and people change. However, this is usually a slow process because the adjustments that need to be made to accommodate the changing culture. Yet, the sudden change is what creates a dramatic and spellbinding atmosphere for the play The Christians. Structured like a Greek tragedy, the play builds up on events of small arguments with choral interludes in-between, which heightens the tension and conflict on faith and how it impacts its believers. The Christians, demonstrates how religion can bring people together and tear them apart.
... her only hope for a stable future. Amanda dreams of her daughter getting married to a rich gentleman. After the truth of Jim O’Connor’s fiancé is exposed, Amanda is almost as heartbroken as Laura because she realized how unachievable her dream really is. Amanda says to herself, "Don't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who's crippled and has no job" (391). She is so frustrated with failing time after time and she takes it out on Tom, who she already has much tension with. Tom is pushed over the edge and leaves them finally and unfortunately.