The glass Menagerie | l:s mndri |

Author s life and back graund

Tennesse William was born in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1911. He had got an older sister, Rose and a younger brother, Dakin. His father used to drink to much alcohol. His sister Rose suffered from a mental illness. (like laura) They moved to St. Louis. He entered the university of Missouri as journalism major. While there, he wrote his first play. His father forced him to withdraw from school and go to work at the same shoe company where he himself worked. William worked at the shoe factory for three years. Around 1941, William began the work that would become The glass menagerie. After 1955, William began using drugs, had problems with alcohol and suffered a period of intense depression. He died from choking /tk/ in a drug-related incident in 1983.

SETTING IN PLACE AND TIME The play is set in St. Louis in 1937. It takes place at the Wingfields (alas de campo) apartment. The thirties:

Most of the decade was in an economic downfall called The great depression that had a traumatic effect worldwide. Many people were unemployed and many families didnt have much food. Other event was the Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940). The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops or other techniques to prevent wind erosion. | r vent wz dst bl dti tiz | wz prd v sv dst stmz kz medr ikldkl nd rkltrl dmd tu merkn nd knedn preri lndz frm wn aznd nan hndrd nd ti t wn aznd nan hndrd nd ti sks n sm eriz ntl wn aznd nan hndrd nd fti | fnmnn wz kzd ba sv drat kpld w dekedz v kstensv fm wat krp rten | fl fildz | kv krps r tekniks t prvent wnd rn |

Most of the farmers had to leave their homes and moved to others states.

-QUESTIONS
1. How does the fire escape function as a symbol to reveal something about each characters personality? 2. The landing on the fire escape represents just what its name suggests: a route of escape from the slow and implacable fires of human desperation that burn steadily in the Wingfield household. 3. Why does Tom go so often to the movies? He goes to the movies to forget his life, to forget the problems he has. 4. What are the similarities between Tom and his Father? Tom has been forced to adopt his absent fathers role of breadwinner, and he might eventually adopt his fathers role as deserter. His father had left her mother. 5. What is the significance of Lauras unicorn? The unicorn is like Laura, delicate and fragile. When Jim breaks the horn from Lauras glass unicorn and announces that he is engaged, the possibility that he will help her overcome her self-doubt and shyness is also destroyed. When Jim breaks of the unicorn he is breaking of her heart.

6. Why does Amanda nag at Tom so much? She wants the best for Tom and Laura, but her concept of the best has far more to do with her own values than with her childrens interests and dreams. Tom wants intellectual stimulation and a literary life, and Amanda refuses to admit that these may provide as valid a vision of happiness as financial stability. 7. Why does Laura give the unicorn to Jim? Laura gives Jim the broken unicorn as a souvenir. Without its horn, the unicorn is more appropriate for him than for her, and the broken figurine/ fri:n/ represents all that he has taken from her and destroyed in her. 8. Why does it take Tom so long to decide to leave home? Toms statement that I am more faithful than I intended to be! indicates that Tom is fully aware that deserting his family was a faithless and morally reprehensible act, and the guilt associated with it may have something to do with his inability to leave Laura fully behind. 9. Does Jim have the potential greatness attributed to him by Laura? No. As time passes, he has not changed his life too much. 10. Does Laura fully understand her position and especially the responsibility that Tom feels for her? Lauras love and concern for Tom are great enough to prompt her to wake up at five in the morning to see if he has come home. Tom uses his account of the magic show to share his most intimate experiences and thoughts with Laura. He subtly confesses to her about his drinking when he talks about the magician turning water to whiskey. 11. Why does Amanda blame Tom for the failure of the evening? Amanda accuses Tom of not having revealed that Jim was engaged. When Amanda discovers that Jim is engaged, she loses her hope that Laura will attain the popularity and social standing that Amanda herself has lost.
-DISCUSS

Who should be considered the main character of the play?

Laura should be considered the main character of the play. Which characters face life most realistically?

Jim contrasts sharply with the delicate Laura. Jim is, as Tom says in Scene One, a representative from the world of reality. His entrance marks the first time in the play that the audience comes into contact with the outside world from which the Wingfields, in their various ways, are all hiding. He offers Tom, and later

Laura, a steady stream of clichs about success, self-confidence, and progress. Whereas Lauras life is built around glass, Jim plans consists of knowing how to use words to influence people. Escaping from reality. Each character in The Glass Menagerie is trying to escape from reality in his or her own way: Laura retreats into her imagination and the static world of glass animals and old records, Amanda has the glorious days of her youth, and Jim has his dreams of an executive position. Only Tom has trouble finding a satisfactory route of escape. Movies are not a real way out, as he comes to realize.

-SYMBOLS The glass menagerie

As the title of the play informs us, the glass menagerie, or collection of animals, is the plays central symbol. These animal figurines represent a number of facets of her personality. Like them, Laura is delicate, fanciful, and somehow old-fashioned. Glass is transparent, but, when light is shined upon it correctly, it refracts an entire rainbow of colors. The menagerie also represents the imaginative world to which Laura devotes herself. | z tatl v ple nfmz z | ls mndri | klekn v nmlz | z plez sentrl smbl | iz nml frinz riprzent nmbr v fsts v h psnlti | lak m | lr z delkt | fnsfl | nd smha l fnd | ls z trnsprnt | bt | wen lat s nd pn t krektli | t rfrkts n nta renb v klrz | mndri ls riprzents i mdntv wld t wt lr dvts hself |

The magic show Tom sees the coffin of the magic show as a symbol of his own life situation. He has been contemplating an escape from his private coffin since the beginning of the play, and at the end, he finally goes through with it, walking out on his family after he is fired from his job. The magician gets out of the coffin without disturbing one nail, but Toms departure is certain to have a major impact on the lives of Amanda and Laura. At the beginning of Scene One, Tom admits that he is the opposite of a stage magician. | tm siz kfn v mdk z smbl v z n laf sten | hi hz bin kntmplet n skep frm z pravt kfn sns bn v ple | nd t i end | hi fanli z ru w t | wk at n z fmli ft hi z fad frm z db | mdn ets at v kfn wat d stb wn nel | bt tmz dpt z stn t hv medr mpkt n lavz v mnd nd lr | t bn v sin wn | tm dmts t hi z <the> pzt v sted mdn | <> |

 The unicorn The glass unicorn in Lauras collection, her favorite figure, represents her peculiarity. As Jim points out, unicorns are extinct in modern times and are different from other horses, just as Laura is different from other people. Laura is unusual, lonely, and ill adapted in the world in which she lives.

| ls junkn n lz klekn | h fevrt f | riprzents h pkjulrti | z dm pnts at | junknz <extinct> n mdn tamz nd dfrnt frm hsz | dst z lr z dfrnt frm pipl | lr z njul | lnli | nd l dptd n wld n wt i lvz |

The fire escape The landing on the fire escape represents just what its name suggests: a route of escape from the slow and implacable fires of human desperation and frustration that burn steadily in the Wingfield household. Laura slips on the fire escape in Scene Four, highlighting her inability to escape from her situation. Tom, on the other hand, frequently steps out onto the landing to smoke, anticipating his eventual getaway. In Amandas youth, she would have stepped onto a veranda or a porch for fresh air. But she and her children now live in a tenement in an urban center, and outdoor space is hard to come by. The fire escape also represents exactly what the name implies: the promise of escape from the overheated atmosphere of the apartment. | lnd n far skep riprzents dst wt ts nem sdests | rut v skep frm <slow> nd mplkbl faz v hjumn despren nd <frustration> t bn stedli n wfild hashld | lr slps n far skep n sin f | halat hr nblti tu skep frm h sten | tm | n i hnd | frikwntli steps at nt lnd t smk | ntspet z ventl etwe | n mndz ju | i wd hv stept ntu vrnd r pt f fre e | bt i nd h tldrn na lv n tenmnt n n bn sent | nd atd spes z hd t km ba | far skep ls riprzents zktli wt nem mplaz | prms v skep frm i vhitd tmsfr v i ptmnt | |

 blue roses The use of Blue Roses as a nickname and symbol for Laura in her happiest moments (which quickly turn painful) is an explicit tribute to Rose Williams. Blue rose represents Laura; she is different from other people. | jus v <blue> <roses> z nknem nd smbl f lr n h hpst mmnts wt kwkli tn penfl z n ksplst trbjut t rz wljmz | blu rz riprzents lr | i z dfrnt frm pipl | Colours Like a piece of transparent glass, which is colorless until light shines upon it, Laura can take on whatever color they wish. The rainbow-colored scarf that Tom brings home and gives to Laura reminds the audience of the rainbow of colors refracted by her glass animals. Music Music is used often in The Glass Menagerie, both to emphasize themes and to enhance the drama. Sometimes the music comes from outside the play, not from within itand though the audience can hear it the characters cannot. For example, a musical piece entitled The Glass Menagerie, written specifically for the play by the composer Paul Bowles, plays when Lauras character or her glass collection comes to the forefront of the action. Other times, the music comes from the inside of the play, it is a part of the action, and the characters can hear it. Examples of this are the music that comes from the Paradise Dance Hall and the music Laura plays on her record player. Lighting As Scene Seven begins, Lauras face is made beautiful by the new floor lamp and its lampshade of rosecolored silk. The delicate light represents Laura. Lauras act of blowing out the candles at the plays end signifies the snuffing of her hopes, but it may also mark Toms long-awaited release from her grip. He exhorts Laura to blow out her candles and then bids her what sounds like a final goodbye. The play itself is Toms way out, a cathartic attempt to purge his memory and free him through the act of creation. The lights rise or dim according to the mood on stage, not the time of day.