The Glass Menagerie (:

WONDERFUL PLAY [:
The Glass Menagerie is the best play I have read, well compared to prior Shakespeare plays. Tennessee is a brilliant writer not only his style but the way in which he develops characters with such detail. I disliked how Tom made a little problem into a huge argument with his mother. Also, how Amanda was just the catalyst to those arguments; she tried to make everything perfect but nothing came out right. The best part of the play is when Jim and Laura begin to talk and sit on the floor with illuminating candles. Laura already had a crush on Jim in high school and they were reunited once again. (so adorable) Jim opens her eyes to make her realize that she is worth something and that her crippled leg is not even noticeable. This is where Laura’s imaginary world breaks down and she begins to emerge into the real world. Even though Jim was engaged, Laura realizes that she is a normal person which is portrayed when the glass unicorn breaks and becomes a normal horse. I loved that metaphor. (:
--------------------------------I'm going to see this play!!-------------------------------------------------

In Tennesse Willaim’s family drama play, The Glass Menagerie (1945) William narrates the play directly as a memory to portray the ideas of confinement, responsibilities, weakness, deception, dreams, marriage, love, alcohol, and abandonment. The play is introduced with a monologue by Tom explaining to the audience that the play is a memory being retold and gives a brief summary of how his father left him, his mother (Amanda), and his sister (Laura). The conflicts begin once Amanda finds out that Laura was not actually going to business school. Laura thinks she is worthless because she is crippled, but her mother is in denial and goes hysterical saying that she only has “a little defect”. Laura spends most of her time polishing and “obsessing” over her glass menagerie and uses it to retreat from the real world. Tennessee William compares Laura to the glass menagerie to symbolize that she is fragile yet, beautiful. William uses emotional appeal when he argues with his mother because he hates his job and wants to leave but has a duty to support his family. Amanda overbearing character serves as a metaphor in the play for lost dreams and regret. When Tom and Amanda makeup she ask him to get a gentleman caller for his sister. Tom brought Jim to his house which was Laura’s high school crush. Jim and Laura bond and speak; one can see that Laura is shy and nervous with the usage of telegraphic sentences. They have a passionate moment and kiss but Jim is engaged to someone else. Tension is brought when Amanda yells at Tom for bringing an engaged gentleman caller. Tom reveals a tone of remorse when he states that ever since he abandoned his family he has been haunted by his sister, Laura. The purpose of this play is to demonstrate the realism that families are not perfect and speak out against oppression. This play was intended for the audience during the Great Depression however, it is also for those who can connect with the social disabilities of the characters.

Vocabulary
Ineluctably (adv.): not to be avoided or escaped
Emissary (n): a person sent on a special mission
Paragon (n): a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality
Perturbation (n): Anxiety; metal uneasiness
Unobtrusive (adj.): not conspicuous or attracting attention

Tone: Regretful (Tom’s remorse for leaving), Reflective, Melancholic (Laura’s Situation)

Rhetorical Strategies:

Rhetorical Questions: “So what are we going to do the rest of our lives? Stay home and watch the parades go by? Amuse ourselves with the glass menagerie, darling?” (Scene 2)

Similes: “Mother, when you're disappointed, you get that awful suffering look on your face, like the picture of Jesus' mother in the museum!” (Scene 2) and “Muttering to yourself like a maniac!” (Scene 3)

Emotional Appeal: “Look! I'd rather somebody picked up a crowbar and battered out my brains--than go back mornings! I go! Every time you come in yelling that God damn "Rise and Shine!" "Rise and Shine" I say to myself, "How lucky dead people are!" But I get up. I go! For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever! And you say self-self's all I ever think of. Why, listen, if self is what I thought of, Mother, I'd be where he is--GONE!” (Scene 3)

Suspense: “With an outraged groan he tears the coat off again, splitting the shoulder of it, and hurls it across the room. It strikes against the shelf of LAURA's glass collection; there is a tinkle of shattering glass. LAURA cries out as if wounded”. (Scene 3)

Rhyme: “Sticks and stones can break our bones.” (Scene 4)

Compare and Contrast: “Superior things! Things of the mind and the spirit! Only animals have to satisfy instincts! Surely your aims are somewhat higher than theirs! Than monkeys – pigs.” (scene 4)

Listing/Similes:”… the type of journal that features the serialized sublimations of ladies of letters who think in terms of delicate cup-like breasts, slim, tapering waists, rich, creamy thighs, eyes like wood-smoke in autumn, fingers that soothe and caress like strains of music, bodies as powerful as Etruscan sculpture.” (Scene 3)

Discussion Questions:
1. What is Tom trying to escape from? Does Tom really escape at the end?
2. Tom and his father both leave from their family. But in what ways are these situations different? Is Tom really like his father?
3. How does the fact that Tom is the narrator affect the style of The Glass Menagerie?

Memorable Quote:
This was a huge exaggeration from Tom towards his mother, Amanda.
“I'm going to opium dens! Yes, opium dens, dens of vice and criminals' hang-outs, Mother. I've joined the Hogan gang, I'm a hired assassin, I carry a tommy-gun in a violin case! I run a string of cat-houses in the Valley! They call me Killer, Killer Wingfield, I'm leading a double-life, a simple, honest warehouse worker by day, by night, a dynamic czar of the underworld, Mother. I go to gambling casinos, I spin away fortunes on the roulette table! I wear a patch over one eye and a false mustache, sometimes I put on green whiskers. On those occasions they call me--El Diablo! Oh, I could tell you things to make you sleepless! My enemies plan to dynamite this place. They're going to blow us all sky-high some night! I'll be glad, very happy, and so will you! You'll go up, up on a broomstick, over Blue Mountain with seventeen gentlemen callers! You ugly--babbling old--witch.” (scene 3)-Tennessee Williams

-(I sort of lost my book so I did not put page numbers :( )