Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie

First of all, I liked the way that The Glass Menagerie was

not specifically dated. What I mean by this, is even though

the play was written in the forties, today we (people in

general), can still relate to some of the issues in it. Like take

for example the disability issue. Laura was so self conscious

of her disability, but in reality, people did not really even

notice. This is how society in general treats people with

disabilities today - the same as everyone else. I also liked

the development of Laura's character over the course of the

plot. At first she was timid and afraid of the world. But as

the play progressed, and her character grew, she started to

grow out of her timidness and started to be more trustful of

people. By the end of the play, she had completely opened

up to Jim and even showed him her glass menagerie, her

most prized possession. I think that the stage directions in

this play were both useful and annoying. I say that they were

useful because they helped me to understand the plot and

the characters motives and actions easier and better. But

they were annoying because there were so many of them,

and at times Tennessee Williams was overly descriptive in

his stage directions. This play made me think about how

people with disabilities are treated. I had always thought that

in the thirties and forties, being disabled was not accepted.

But after reading this play, I am starting to think that I might

be wrong after all, because Laura seemed not to be treated

any differently as a result of her disability. What surprised

me about this play, was the fact that Jim was not married to

Emily Meisenbach, his high school sweet heart. The way that

he was presented by Laura's memory, I thought that for sure

he would be married to Emily. But on the other hand, he is

engaged to Betty, so he must really be as wonderful as

Laura remembers. What angered me about this play, is the

fact that Jim did im fact turn out to be engaged. I guess that I

was hoping that Laura would in fact end up getting together

with Jim, and living "happily ever after". But that is not how

real life is, and I like the way that Williams shows us that not

everything works out to be alright in the real world. I don't

like the way that Amanda kept accusing Tom of being

selfish. I think that Tom is being very generous and noble by

supporting Amanda and Laura.