The Glass Menagerie Play by Tennessee Williams Essay

THE IDEA OF MEMORY PLAY

The substance of Glass Menagerie play gets shape and inspiration from the memories of Tom Wingfield. It deals with a emotion mix; from loneliness anger pride and sadness. The author, Tennessee Williams, portrays Tom's feelings using different ways. For Tom, the origins of the play in memory do not seem realistic as presented in the unprecedented freedom from convention. The numerous peculiarities that the play gets subjected to; like the frequent use of symbolism and music together with dim lighting produces fictional work of imagination. As a result, the products of imagination in the play attempts to persuade the audience of the practicality through convincing argument and drama.

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Although drawn from memory, the play still attempts to deal with reality. It is drawn from real experience and, therefore, does not require constrains by the principles of pragmatism to suggest the truth. Making Tom both narrator and character in the play, Williams portrays the trap that Tom gets himself from the description of the play. As a narrator, Tom's situation gets complicated as he gives truth in the pleasing mask of illusion. As a character, however, Tom portrays an unhappy person. He would instead leave everything behind and flee away to a faraway place as possible from his apartment. Amanda fears that Tom would take after his father and turn into an alcoholic as well. Therefore both the style and content of the play shapes it as an inspiration from memory.

THE IMAGERY OF FLIGHT OR ESCAPE

In the play, symbolism comes out as a strong part, one that Tom admits having a weakness for. The fire escape that serves as the passageway to the apartment serves a different meaning to each character in the play. For Tom, the fire escape symbolizes the escape route from human desperation in life. For him, human despair represents the fire in the fire escape symbolism. He wishes to flee away from the Wingfields' apartment and escape to somewhere far away and peaceful, regarding his frustrations at work. The Wingfields' apartment feels like a trap for Tom and Amanda, who wish to escape from it into a free future life. Despite the desire to escape the apartment, Tom feels obliged to take care of his sister and rethinks the need to escape into his fantasies.

For Amanda, the fire escape represents her chances to escape and free Laura by enrolling her in business school. She hoped to have Laura become a business person and run a family business that could bring the family fortune. After noticing that Laura dropped her classes and resorted to roaming the city, she embarked on finding her a suitable gentleman caller. She hopes that Laura would find a caller and get married. Laura's marriage meant an escape to Amanda as well; she saw it as a means that she would get supported. Despite wanting to build a secure future for Laura, Amanda fails to find her escape since Laura keeps choking her attempts by going against her efforts.

For Laura, the fire escape represented her finding someone that she could open up to and share her life. Following Amanda's request, Tom invites Jim over for dinner at the Wingfields' apartment. Jim happens to be Laura's long-time crush, a feeling that freaks her out into feigning sickness when Jim arrives. Later Amanda, out of despair to get Laura a gentleman caller, asks Jim to engage Laura in her room. After a while of an awkward moment for Laura, Jim's charm gets her to open up. They dance, and this leads to Laura sharing her feelings for him. Unfortunately, after the good time together, with Laura even giving Jim her glass unicorn as a souvenir, Jim turns out to be engaged already. Despite finding comfort in Jim, Laura's desires to find someone that would take away her shy personality crumbles when she realizes Jim was already engaged. The fire escape for Laura depicts her inability to escape from her situation.

MOTHER AND SON'S DILEMMA

In the play, emphasis on family conflict arises from the way Tom and Amanda relate to each other. Amanda seems to look out to Tom the way a mother could look out for her son. She fears that Tom could turn out like his father and walk out on them. Her concerns, though, feel like nagging to him. Tom comes out defensive against his mother in some ways, from resisting her calls on how he chewed his food. Tom feels like his mother keeps treating them like they were five-year-olds yet they were grown-ups. He despises the treatment and contemplates feeing away from the apartment in the quest for peace far away.

Amanda, on the other hand, wants the best for her children. She keeps telling them of her youthful life and how she had numerous gentlemen callers during her hey-days. She also gets concerned about tom starting to lose himself in alcoholism. She fears that he might turn out like his father and bail out on her and Laura, a thought that she dreads so much. In that essence, Amanda keeps fighting with Tom concerning the least of Tom's concerns like dinner etiquette. Other times the two are seen fighting over weightier worries for Tom like his work and life goals.

FAMILY LOVE AT ODDS

We see Tom getting into an argument with Amanda and ends up breaking some of Laura's prized glass figurines. Out of guilt, Tom agrees to discuss Laura's prospects with Amanda and decides to bring in a friend from the warehouse, Jim, to at least become one of Laura's gentlemen callers. Tom develops a soft spot for his sister and puts her interests at heart. The reasons, though coming from guilt from his actions makes him bring in Jim for dinner and allows Laura to share her feelings with her high school crush. However, the interaction does not turn out fruitful as Jim is already engaged. The news drowns Laura's hopes, and this makes Amanda get angry at Tom for not being keen to know if his friend was involved.

Work Cited

Williams, Tennessee, and Tony Kushner. The glass menagerie. New Directions Publishing, 2011.