The Glass Menagerie was released in theatres on December 16, 1973. It is considered a drama for its genre because it is performed as a play and is based off of a play written by Tennessee Williams in 1945. The play was directed by Anthony Harvey, and featured many renowned actors and actresses of the time including Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, and Joanne Miles, just to name a few. Anthony Harvey’s production of The Glass Menagerie successfully utilized the effects of stage lighting to emphasize the emotional states of a scene, but failed to provide costumes that reflected both the theme and script provided standards of the play. Costumes and lighting are very key elements to the success of a play or any performing art. Lighting needs …show more content…
Throughout the play The Glass Menagerie’s script, different types, shades, and concentrations of light were utilized. One main light source that appears in the script though is the Rose colored lamp. The color rose is typically associated with romance or love. Thusly, the use of a rose colored lamp can shed a soft, romantic light that can help cover up the flaws with the world around it and beautify things in its environment a little: “The new floor lamp with its shade of rose-colored silk gives a soft, becoming light to her face, bringing out the fragile, unearthly prettiness which usually escapes attention” (Williams, Scene VII Lines 60-64). Here the rose colored lamp has been used as a way of covering up the imperfections of Laura making her look more beautiful. This in turn breeds a habitat for romance when her gentleman caller arrives. Another light source that has a profound effect on the play is the use of candle light. Candles, like the rose colored lamp, are associated with romance, but as they are flames, if one gets too close they can get burned. In the script and play Jim says, “Candlelight is my favorite kind of light” (Williams, Scene VII line 40) and shortly after Amanda says, “That shows you’re romantic.” (Williams, Scene VII line 41). Candlelight portraits Jim as a romantic man but later in the text Laura and Jim sit down, at least according to the script Jim sits on the floor and Laura …show more content…
Costumes provide color, reflect the personalities of characters, and provide insight into the state of mind of a character without dialogue. This is one advantage a play has over a script. In the script Amanda is mentioned by Tom to be wearing a “girlish frock of yellowed voile with a blue silk sash. She carries a bunch of Jonquils-the legend of her youth is nearly revived. Feverishly” (Williams, Scene VI Lines 75-77). This is very much a younger woman’s dress with a bright, flashy blue colored sash combined with a voile yellow colored dress that blends the two colors perfectly. If this dress was to be worn in the performance, the mother would have been seen differently than how she was viewed in the performance. Instead in the performance Amanda was wearing an extremely faded grapefruit colored dress. The dress was very light and flowy, to the point that the white undergarments could be seen through the dress. It also had a lot of features, such as a corset, long sleeves with tight wrists, and a tall tight collar, that made the dress seem like a more professional yet elegant dress rather than an open, eye pleasing dress that better represented the young stamina of Amanda. In the script Amanda says: “All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be” (Williams, Scene VI Lines 50-51). Here Amanda says a phrase that best represents her as a woman. She wants to be pretty and live like she did in her
This paper discusses the use of light in the play, "A Streetcar Named Desire", by Tennessee Williams. Blanche’s relation to light is quite obvious because she tries to. avoid bright light of any kind. Her reaction to light can be regarded as an attempt to hide her true nature as well as her vanishing beauty and youth. By hiding from the light, she tries to escape from the reality.
All are relevant to the film that I will be applying the study of lighting
Big hair, bright colors, and denim helped to establish the time period the play was set in. Each actress’ outfit gave the audience an idea of her character’s personality. For instance, Clairee wore pant suits and looked the part of a sophisticated, classy former mayor’s wife. On the other hand, Ouiser wore comfortable clothes; often sporting a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt over a t-shirt showing her practical and simple lifestyle. The use of jackets and scarves portrayed the change in season and helped establish the different time frames from scene to scene. The costumes reflected each character well and were fitting for the time in which the play was portrayed.
This theme is evident in the doubling of stockings with the girl’s natural black legs. The red stockings, which represent sexual, material desires, are contrasted with the natural, elegant beauty of the legs of the black girl. The stockings highlight only the legs, separating them from the girl as a whole and allowing for easier objectification, specifically by young white males. However, the girl knows this, as she has put the stockings on and is being told so by the narrator, who represents the black community. The narrator also clearly recognizes the girl’s beauty, and her beauty is further highlighted in the fact that she is clothed in silk, which relates to royalty and comfortability.
The lighting is used as colour symbolism through Priestley’s decision to imitate the emotions in the act, ‘the lighting should be pink and intimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should...
...ottom or side lighting to make the subject appear evil or dangerous, and in this case it portrays that very well. The audience feels powerless and feeble while she comes across ass powerful and authoritative. Lastly, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory during the scene in which Charlie is just gazing up at the stars from his room through the whole in his roof, front or back lighting is used. This is used to make Charlie seem innocent and happy, despite how poor he is and how tough times are. It also makes the viewer feel empathy for Charlie by how innocent he's portraying.
Whenever she became exposed to light, whether its candles or bulbs, it forces Blanche to confess towards the idea of hiding herself and creating this illusory image of herself with her own deception leading to lies towards Stella, Mitch and Stanley. For example, during the time Blanche has a Chinese lantern covering a light bulb and a conversation with Mitch near the end of the play where she says, “When I was sixteen, I made the discovery -- love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me” (132). To Blanche, light once represent to her as a symbol of love simply as turning a blinding light on, Love is what illuminates the world for her but then turns to darkness after her husband dies. From that moment on, Blanche intentionally lives out her false reality where she makes her desirable but it only lead to guys like Mitch, a man she has love for, distancing himself from her after he figures her out and even when Stanley tears the lantern off the bulb, exposing her to reality. Dressing the bulb signifies how she dresses up reality and though she is a liar but we all can understand and pity her for wanting to change reality though she does it from both deception and pitiable
The candle itself may symbolize the way the wife surrounds and preoccupies herself with her husband. Therefore, these symbols are essential to the reader’s understanding as they give the reader deeper insight to the unhappiness Brush is trying to
This metaphor showcases how the wife tries to conceal her unloving marriage from the world in hope that it will be resolved, yet she still suffers from the way the man treats her. The small candle on the cake is another metaphor used to portray the loneliness of the wife. This feeling is a common emotion felt by many victims of a detached relationship. The description “...one pink candle burning in the center”, gives the candle a feminine trait which reflects the wife. The cake, which the candle was used for was not well received by the husband and the celebration comes to a halt. Then, the cake is ignored and the candle burns in loneliness. Similar to the cake and the candle, the wife and her efforts have never been appreciated or respected by her husband. Much like the cake, the wife is ignored, and she lives her life in desolation and solitude. Lastly, the setting symbolises the wife’s lack of importance to her husband. The setting is described as “a little narrow restaurant” and with a few
The lighting was also very effectively used to show the coming and going of cars on the set. The reflection of lights on the front door of the house were used resemble those of an automobile. Even the final scene had just enough absence of light that the shadows of the characters could be seen sitting around the dinner table and praying by candlelight. At the very end of the performance the candles were extinguished consuming the set in blackness in turn signifying the end of the production.
The light was most often friendly for The Lady of Shalott, but it does not prove to be friendly to Isabella Tyson, the main character in Woolf's "The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection." After returning from the garden, "At once the looking-glass began to pour over her a light that seemed to fix her; that seemed like some acid to bite off the unessential and superficial and to leave only the truth"(2456).
Amanda was a woman who lives in a world of fantasy and reality. In the past memory and the future of the fantasy made Amanda very strong, but in the face of reality she was fragile. Just like Tom used to explain “I give you truth in the
Blanche’s lampshade is the filter for all the harsh realities of life that she would rather not deal with. In a scene with Stanley’s friend Mitch, Blanche tells Mitch to cover up a light bulb with a Chinese lampshade, “I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (1837). In this scene Blanche blatantly tells the other characters and the a...
The three family members are adults at the time of this play, struggling to be individuals, and yet, very enmeshed and codependent with one another. The overbearing and domineering mother, Amanda, spends much of her time reliving the past; her days as a southern belle. She desperately hopes her daughter, Laura, will marry. Laura suffers from an inferiority complex partially due to a minor disability that she perceives as a major one. She has difficulty coping with life outside of the apartment, her cherished glass animal collection, and her Victrola. Tom, Amanda's son, resents his role as provider for the family, yearns to be free from him mother's constant nagging, and longs to pursue his own dreams. A futile attempt is made to match Laura with Jim, an old high school acquaintance and one of Tom's work mates.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Masterpieces of the Drama. Ed. Alexander W. Allison, Arthus J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman. 5th ed. NY: Macmillan, 1986. 779- 814.