The Themes of the Glass Menagerie

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The Themes of the Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie is the story of the Wingfield family, Amanda, the mother, Tom, son, and Laura, daughter. The Wingfield’s story is one in which contains many underlying themes that each character experiences throughout the play. This essay will explore in depth looks at the themes, difficulty accepting reality, the impossibility of a true escape, and the unrelenting power of memory, as well as each characters issues with abandonment left behind by Mr. Wingfield.
One of the major themes in the Glass Menagerie is the difficulty accepting reality. This is demonstrated each member of the Wingfield family. In the case of Amanda, she often seems to be stuck in the past and constantly recalls events of her youth. Terry Teachout describes Amanda in the Irrelevant Masterpiece as one who, “longs to retreat into her own dreams of her genteel southern youth” (59). Amanda often compares Laura to herself when she was younger, telling her stories of the night she attracted seventeen gentlemen callers as though she expects Laura to be capable of the same . Amanda has a very strong influence on Laura and comes across very overbearing. Eric P. Levy states that, “she turns her daughter into a mirror in which her own flattering self-image is reflected, but to do so she must first turn herself or, more precisely, her judgment, into a mirror reflecting Laura’s limitations” (530). This refers to Amanda’s inability to accept that Laura is not like her and is handicapped, due to one leg being shorter than the other, which in turn made her very self-conscious and shy. Levy goes on to further say, “Amanda slights Laura’s appearance even as she praises it.” (530). Amanda then goes on to tell Laura ...

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...ove, hope and ultimately hurt.” Her constant comparison of her experiences with gentlemen callers and Laura’s failure to attract one is indication of her inability to let go and move on. In the play, Amanda recalls the story of the seventeen gentlemen callers and how there were, “some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta.” Glorifying it as if it was her proudest moment in life. Writer Eric P. Levy states the following about Amanda’s role in this theme, “But the confining power of that past that derives from his mother’s nostalgic attachment to her own more distant past and the desperate need to exploit motherhood as a means to revive “the legend of her youth” (Levy 529). Memories plague Tom and Amanda from being about to truly be happy. Acting almost like an anchor that is holding them back from being able to live life the way they imagine.

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