The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Introduction

When writing about the works of Tennessee Williams, there is, perhaps, no better work to start with than The Glass Menagerie. The play, William's first major critical and popular success, presents evidence of themes and concerns that recur throughout the author's complete body of work and demonstrates early traces of his signature style and a preoccupation with the character types that would inhabit his later works (Babcock, 17). In the minute details and major action of the play, there is an autobiographical footprint present that is characteristic of William's work. The play also serves as a prime sample of the output that resulted from an intense process of revision and an evolution of forms that William's work is well known for (Debusscher, 58).

Tennessee Williams wrote The Glass Menagerie, his first successfully produced full-length play, as a dramatic rendering of his family, particularly as a portrait of his emotionally disturbed sister, Rose. His sister's 1942 lobotomy served as an artistic catalyst for William's composition. He described writing the play in a 1944 letter as “an act of compulsion, not love. Just some weird necessity to get my sister on paper” (Bell a, 46). This paper presents an analysis of themes presented in the novel that surrounds the concepts of family, memory, and responsibility. Therefore, main objective of this paper is to present an analysis of how does each of these concepts has been presented in the plot of 'The Glass Menagerie'.

Discussion on the Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie consists of only four characters: Tom Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, Amanda Wingfield, and Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller. The set consists of a living room, dining room, and an exterior portion of the Wingfields' apartment building; the props are almost nonexistent (characters who are eating have no actual food or silverware); and the timeline accounts for a very brief period of time (Debusscher, 57).

Equipped with the knowledge of the outstanding success of The Glass Menagerie, it might be shocking to encounter a scholar's reference to the meagerness of the plot (Debusscher, 58). More shocking is the assertion that Tennessee Williams was fully aware of this lack of dramatic action in The Glass Menagerie.  First performed in Chicago in 1944, this play was William's first major success, and the drama's Broadway run in 1945 coincided with the end of World War II (Moschovakis, 15).

William states: “A free and imaginative use of light can be of enormous value in giving a mobile plastic quality to plays of a more or less static nature.” Furthermore, Williams actually emphasized this static quality, speaking in favor of a new “sculptural drama” or “plastic theatre” to replace the dramatic realism that was dominant at the time (Bloom, 36). It was William's belief that realism was no longer adequate to convey the complexities of modern existence. The totality of experience could be better represented through symbolic implications, psychological action, and a lack of other distractions (Burt, 59).

In response to explaining the concept behind the production of The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams states: ...