Glass Menagerie: Self-Loathing in Gender Roles
In the 1930s males were raised to be the provider for their families, and the head of the households. Females where raised to be housewife and caretaker for the house. In Tennessee Williams “The Glass Menagerie” gender plays a major role on how societies view females and males. Women in this time period obtained little power while men were the dominant ones. That made Amanda depend on her son Tom the sole provider for his family for their finically stability. Amanda’s high expectations of her son for the family security made it harder for Tom to live up to his dreams. In “The Glass Menagerie,” Tennessee Williams blatantly makes assumptions about the gender roles in the 1930s by making the narrator of the play tell readers how his family and society caused him to put his own dreams and aspirations aside to become the man of the household, like many other young men during this time period.
Society has always had the distinctions between men and women. Society view men as being the dominant one over the household, work force, and women being the caretaker. “Traditional conceptions of gender roles prevailed during the 1930s; accordingly, men were expected to be the breadwinners of their families” (Bryson). Men are known for being the provider and protector of the family. Meclvaine, a historian, believed that the real definition of a “real man” is the one who has authority, one who is in charge and who made all the decisions in the households. Whereas, women are known as being subordinate and have no input in the household’s decisions making except taking care of children, and domestic house work. “At the beginning of the century, the typical female laborer still toiled in th...
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...made it harder for him to follow his purposes. Also, Tom had his dreams and goals and he did not want to work at the warehouse for the rest of his life. Tom’s priorities were what society wants, and thought what was right for men to do in the 1930s. In this situation, the only way for Tom to achieve his dreams was to leave his family behind, so he can for once do what he wants to do without being ridiculed by society and his mother. Tom felt guilty for leaving his family, because he was the only one that they depended on. He had the opportunity to help his family, and now the guilt lives on with him, because he abandon his mother and sister the same why his father did. Tom, like any young men during his time had to drop everything to become the man of the household when their father is absent. Putting many of his dreams aside just to fulfill his mother dreams.
Dating back to the early 20th century, women’s roles in the United States were very limited. In regards to family life, women were expected to cook, clean, and take care of their homes. Men, on the other hand, were in charge of working and providing for the family. Together, these designated roles helped men and women build off of each other to ultimately keep their families in check. As the years progressed, society began to make a greater push to increase women’s rights. As women started receiving greater equality and freedom, their roles began to shift. More women had to opportunity to leave the house and join the workforce. The norm for a married couple slowly began to change as men were no longer expected to individually provide for their
The social perception of women has drastically changed since the 1950’s. The social role of women during the 1950’s was restrictive and repressed in many ways. Society during that time placed high importance on expectations of behavior in the way women conducted themselves in home life as well as in public. At home the wife was tasked with the role of being an obedient wife, caring mother, and homemaker. Women publicly were expected to form groups and bond over tea with a slice of cake. All the while government was pushing this idealize roll for women in a society “dominated” by men. However, during this time a percentage of women were finding their way into the work force of men. “Women were searching their places in a society led by men;
In contrast, men have been seen as more dominate than women because of their masculine abilities and other traits and most importantly their profound responsibility of being the provider and head of the household. Americans constantly uses theses two distinct stereotypes that in many cases present many biases regarding gender codes in America. Things have changed over time the women are no longer just house wives taking care of the house and children waiting for their husband to come home from his nine to five occupations. Andrea L. Miller explains in her article “The Separate Spheres Model of Gendered Inequality” that, “A common theme in the study of gender is the idea that men and women belong in distinct spheres of society, with men being particularly fit for the workplace and women being particularly fit for the domestic domain” (Miller 2). Miller gives two very specific examples on how gender is viewed in American
This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.
The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.
Tom is good natured and deals with what life throws at him, during the long trip towards work the family has realized the can count on Tom to help protect them. His past isn't going to define his future or change the way he feels about his family. As they arrive to California they get the devastating news that work is sparse and many people are dying of starvation, including Grampa who dies of a stroke. When the major change of losing a family member Tom realizes that life can be gone faster than you think and you see him changing into a more considerate person and a more sentimental person towards others. After they have buried Grampa, Tom comes across a “one eyed mechanic” who he helps fix his touring car. An act that he would probably never do in his past. Steinbeck shows Toms development into a more considerate person as the book
Based on history and socially constructed gender roles, women are inferior to males in their private lives. Gender roles include; women clean, cook, take care of the kids, do the house chores, while men work, pay for everything, and expect to be taken care of by their woman. Hughes, Krahn and Lowe (2011) argue that a woman 's domestic responsibilities, along with raising children, limit the woman 's availability for paid work, which leaves the woman financially dependent. They continue to explain consequences, including a "double day" of paid and unpaid work. (p. 179). Women who work a double day would work during the day and then as described by Hughes, Krahn and Lowe (2011) "some women return home to cook, clean, shop and look after their children" (p. 180). If you think to around the times of agriculture, the gender roles for that period would require males, harvesting crops, planting the seeds, basically doing the farm work. Women, on the other hand, looked after all of the domestic duties including; caring for children, tending livestock, making clothes, keeping the home clean, etc. (Krahn, Lowe and Hughes, 2011. pp. 170-171). Back then, that was the woman 's full-time job, be a parent, a wife and keep the home in order. However, even today women are still expected to take care of the home, but now they are also expected to work full time. McRae (2003) suggests that, to understand the choices various women make for
Generally when some one writes a play they try to elude some deeper meaning or insight in it. Meaning about one's self or about life as a whole. Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is no exception the insight Williams portrays is about himself. Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments (Kirszner and Mandell 1807). The play centers itself on three characters. These three characters are: Amanda Wingfield, the mother and a women of a great confusing nature; Laura Wingfield, one who is slightly crippled and lets that make her extremely self conscious; and Tom Wingfield, one who feels trapped and is looking for a way out (Kirszner and Mandell 1805-06). Williams' characters are all lost in a dreamy state of illusion or escape wishing for something that they don't have. As the play goes from start to finish, as the events take place and the play progresses each of the characters undergoes a process, a change, or better yet a transition. At the beginning of each characters role they are all in a state of mind which causes them to slightly confuse what is real with what is not, by failing to realize or refusing to see what is illusioned truth and what is whole truth. By the end of the play each character moves out of this state of dreamy not quite factual reality, and is better able to see and face facts as to the way things are, however not all the characters have completely emerged from illusion, but all have moved from the world of dreams to truth by a whole or lesser degree.
As centuries pass by, generations also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men were the breadwinner. During this century, those perspectives have changed, argued Stephanie Coontz, the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believes women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality.
In Williams, Tennessee’s play The Glass Menagerie, Amanda’s image of the southern lady is a very impressive. Facing the cruel reality, she depends on ever memories of the past as a powerful spiritual to look forward to the future, although her glory and beautiful time had become the past, she was the victim of the social change and the Great Depression, but she was a faithful of wife and a great mother’s image cannot be denied.
The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams in 1944, tells a tale of a young man imprisoned by his family. Following in the footsteps of his father, Tom Wingfield is deeply unhappy and eventually leaves his mother and sister behind so he may pursue his own ambitions. Throughout the play, the reader or audience is shown several reasons why Tom, a brother to Laura and son to Amanda, is unhappy and wishes to leave his family. However, the last scene describes Tom’s breaking point in which he leaves for the last time. Amanda tells Tom to “go to the moon,” because he is a “selfish dreamer.” (7. Amanda and Tom) The reasonings for Tom’s departure are due to his mother’s constant nagging, hatred for
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a touching play about the lost dreams of a southern family and their struggle to escape reality. The play is a memory play and therefore very poetic in mood, setting, and dialogue. Tom Wingfield serves as the narrator as well as a character in the play. Tom lives with his Southern belle mother, Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura. The action of the play revolves around Amanda's search to find Laura a "gentleman caller. The Glass Menagerie's plot closely mirrors actual events in the author's life. Because Williams related so well to the characters and situations, he was able to beautifully portray the play's theme through his creative use of symbolism.
Amanda Wingfield in the play, The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, was portrayed as a distraught southern belle trying to control the lives of her children. In The Glass Menagerie Amanda is the matriarch of her small family who appears at first to be a woman who cared about her children’s futures- that is before she becomes so overbearing that she started to hinder her children’s future. Amanda was a single mother who could never grasp reality. The Glass Menagerie was a memory play that told of a family trapped in destructive patterns. After being abandoned by her husband sixteen years prior, Amanda became trapped between two completely different worlds; worlds of illusion and reality. It seemed like when the world became too harsh or hard for Amanda, she would just simply close her eyes and pretend like nothing was wrong. When the real world became to overbearing for Amanda, she would recall the days of her youth and how great they were. This was simply just a way for Amanda to stay optimistic and stay out of reality. Amanda made the relationship between her and her children very difficult because she never tried to understand her children’s different personalities. Amanda was stuck on trying to mold her children’s lives the way she wanted them, rather than letting her children choose and lead their own lives. Amanda’s way of helping the children did not let her connect with them the way that each of them needed. Due to her one minded opinion, she didn’t see that Laura was a shy girl with low self esteem and needed a mother to show her how to act around the public and that Tom just simply needed to switch jobs and have someone to talk to. Tom eventually left the house because he realized his weak relati...
Throughout history, the roles of men and women in the home suggested that the husband would provide for his family, usually in a professional field, and be the head of his household, while the submissive wife remained at home. This wife’s only jobs included childcare, housekeeping, and placing dinner on the table in front of her family. The roles women and men played in earlier generations exemplify the way society limited men and women by placing them into gender specific molds; biology has never claimed that men were the sole survivors of American families, and that women were the only ones capable of making a pot roast. This depiction of the typical family has evolved. For example, in her observation of American families, author Judy Root Aulette noted that more families practice Egalitarian ideologies and are in favor of gender equality. “Women are more likely to participate in the workforce, while men are more likely to share in housework and childcare (apa…).” Today’s American families have broken the Ward and June Cleaver mold, and continue to become stronger and more sufficient. Single parent families currently become increasingly popular in America, with single men and women taking on the roles of both mother and father. This bend in the gender rules would have, previously, been unheard of, but in the evolution of gender in the family, it’s now socially acceptable, and very common.
n Tennessee William’s drama play, The Glass Menagerie, the character Amanda is mostly concerned with her children's well being. After her husband abandoned her and their two children, Tom and Laura, Amanda had to raise both of them single-handedly until they were grown ups. Williams’ drama “involving only four characters, is built around Amanda and her effect upon raising her children” (Tholl, 1337). Amanda cared for her children's health, appearance, and future while also being concerned with what they do in their free time. Being the mother that she is, Amanda wishes nothing but “success and happiness for her precious children” (Williams 1996). Although her mothering techniques can be extreme and or suffocating to some degree, she is not oblivious to all of the dysfunctional nature of her family.