Tennessee Williams employs the uses of plot, symbolism, and dialogue to portray his theme of impossible true escape, which asserts itself in his play, The Glass Menagerie. Each of his characters fills in the plot by providing emotional tension and a deep, inherent desire to escape. Symbolism entraps meaning into tangible objects that the reader can visualize and attach significance to. Conclusively, Williams develops his characters and plot tensions through rich dialogue. Through brilliant construction and execution of literary techniques, Williams brings to life colorful characters in his precise, poignant on-stage drama.
The pointedness of the play is created through a distinct plot path. The observer is lead through the story, seeing first how greatly Amanda Wingfield influences her children. Secondly, the play-goer notes how Tom Wingfield desperately struggles and writhes emotionally in his role of provider- he wants more than just to be at home, taking care of his all-too-reminiscent mother and emotionally stunted sister. Tom wants to get out from under his mother’s wing; his distinct ambitions prevent him from being comfortable with his station in life. Lastly, Laura struggles inside herself; doing battle against her shyness, Laura begins to unfurl a bit with Jim, but collapses once again after Jim announces his engagement and leaves her, again. Each character struggles and thrashes against their places in life, but none of them achieve true freedom. This plot attests to the fact that true change and freedom can only come through the saving power of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, and by letting go of the past.
Notably, Williams also utilizes symbolism to emphasize and allow the viewer to visualize externally the charact...
... middle of paper ...
...e through Laura. To cement the concept, Laura and Jim’s discourse later on in the play reveal her deepest insecurities and how he perceives her, as well as his reasons for leaving her. Consequentially, dialogue serves as the final nail in the coffin and gives the viewer an intimate glimpse inside each character’s struggles and insecurities.
Tennessee Williams brilliantly weaves together plot, symbolism, and dialogue to create a tapestry of imprisonment. It shows that humanity cannot achieve true escape from within itself. True freedom comes only through the saving and redemptive power of the Lord Jesus Christ and God Almighty, as well as through letting go of the past. Christ is the Only One who can truly liberate us from our prison of sinful entrapment and deliver us into His Kingdom of Freedom. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” (John 8:36).
Each character, in some capacity, is learning something new about themselves. Whether it be new views, new feelings, newfound confidence, or a new realization of past events, each character involved in the play realizes something view-altering by the end of the play. Bonny is realizing that she is growing up and discovering how to deal with boys, and to lie to her parents; Elsie realizes that she doesn’t need her father for everything, and eventually overcomes her fear of driving on her own; Grace is discovering that she must let her children think for themselves at times, and that she must let Charlie choose what he wants to do; and Charlie, of course, is discovering that there are more ways to think than the status quo that society presents. Each character obviously goes through very different struggles throughout the play, but in the end, they all result in realizing something about themselves they didn’t at the beginning of the
The characters inhabit their private realities in order to detach themselves from a world that confuses and alienates them. Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim prefer to immerse themselves in their narrow view of time rather than embrace the flow of time. Laura remains isolated as she has failed to find love. Amanda judges Laura as she imposes her own narrow expectations on her. Tom believes that he can escape reality and become inseparable from the imaginary worlds of movies. Jim's idealistic view of Laura suggests that he is out of touch with reality. The play demonstrates that the characters desire to escape reality due to their inability to live in the present and embrace the flow of
it up and gives it to Jim then Jim accidentally drops it. As it hits
Individuals struggle to understand their own reactions to the loss and suffering they have experienced. Roy’s demand that has his wife Coral ‘take stock, come back to reality’ exemplifies his initial lack of understanding of her grief at the death of their son. His longing for her to ‘be like you were’ is tragically undermined as Coral’s consuming emotional devastation leads her to indiscriminately seek out and cling to the other characters as she gradually yearns to make sense of her loss. At the beginning of the play, Gow includes a lengthy search for a set of keys between Gwen and her husband, symbolising their ignorance and their need to gain a sense of control and security over their lives. Tom plays both the comic sprite Puck and the tragic Lear, and the theme of healing through insight and death is perturbing, given his own approaching death. His father Harry discovers the ability to accept Tom’s inevitable demise, stating that ‘in a funny kind of way we’re happy. Even when we’re very, very sad.’ The responders are not presented with a linear set of discoveries and positive transformations in Away; rather, they are strongly forced to acknowledge the complex, comic and tragic elements in the characters’ lives. Gow’s inclusion of intertextual references is consciously metatheatrical as the play is framed by other plays, beginning with a Shakespearean comedy and ending with a speech from the tragedy
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.
The technique he provided did not lose the main focus of the overall message, the importance of family bonding. Because the dialogue between the play and the movie were almost similar, the audience were engaged into the plot scene. Newman provided the same background setting as Williams did to help Tom recollect his thoughts he encountered. This provides us a more understanding of his distort past of his life. The movie brought the play to life that gives the characters vivid and unimaginable emotions. The audience realizes that the movie visualizes the characters character and dialogue than the movie. The movie would only confused the reader if he or she do not understand how the the originality of the play was distributed By getting a sense of the text and the film, the audience can identify various resemblance from the play in the film. “Oh! I felt so weak I could barely keep on my feet! I had to sit down while they got me a glass of water! Fifty dollars’ tuition, all of our plans, my hopes and ambitions for you, just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that." Both productions blind Amanda into what Tom and Laura actually want, therefore, failing Amanda’s initial plans of hope for the children’s future ahead of them. The use of the quotes from the text was approximately the same that helps us distinguish the feeling expressed by the character. “We have to be making some plans and provisions for her. She 's older than you, two years, and nothing has happened. She just drifts along doing nothing. It frightens me terribly how she just drifts along." The tone in both production was very serious and worried, providing the concern of Amanda in regards to the children 's future. It is not what is best for Amanda, it is what is best for the children. They both want to walk around peaceful with their lives without a worry in their path. It
Since it is a play, some would say that Edson’s use of the soliloquy is not very effective because the audience is seeing Vivian’s pain with their own eyes. However, the soliloquies undoubtedly add to the viewer’s experience as Vivian breaks the fourth wall to express her feelings and describe the agony she is facing. Without Vivian’s monologues, the audience may see Vivian suffer, but they would not be able to truly sympathize with her. By putting Vivian’s torment into words rather than having it acted out on stage, Edson causes the lead character to transcend the stage and become a presence which the audience can understand rather than a fictional character that the viewer pities.
Dysfunctional. Codependent. Enmeshed. Low self-esteem. Emotional problems of the modern twenty-first century or problems of the past? In his play, The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams portrays a southern family in the 1940's trying to deal with life's pressures, and their own fears after they are deserted by their husband and father. Although today, we have access to hundreds of psychoanalysis books and therapists, the family problems of the distant past continue to be the family problems of the present.
The story begins in The Wingfield apartment in the rear of a building, which can only be entered by a fire escape. A picture hangs on the living room wall of Mr. Wingfield, who took flight from his family when the children were very small. As Tom, the son recounts, "Father was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances; he gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the fantastic out of town." There are three main characters throughout this play. Amanda, the mother, is unable to forgive herself for the poor judgement of character she made as a young lady ultimately leaving a lonely, bitter and fearful future for herself and her children. She so dearly loves her children. Tom is a man with dreams of a future but is stifled into a world of disgust and guilt by his overbearing mother. He is a poet at heart, stuck in a job at a shoe factory trying to make ends meet, bearing the responsibility of his younger sister, and all the while dreaming of a life of his own.
Through characterisation William’s demonstrates how the character of Tom is constantly torn between the freedom of following his dream and the responsibility to look after his dependant family, with his dreams ultimately leading him to leave his family unsupported. At the start of the play the character of Tom is working at a low paying factory wherein his colleagues constantly refer to him as “Shakespeare” (52), as in the time that he should be working he instead writes as his dream is to become a creative writer. This demonstrates how Tom, in the pursuit of his dream is willing to irresponsibly and selfishly risk the income of his family. Furthermore, through dialogue when Amanda states “every night to the movies!” (43), Williams is uncovering how for Tom to achieve his dream he is not only willing to risk the family income, but also spend it with no thought as to the wellbeing of his family. The selfish nature of dreams is finally uncovered as Tom ultimately chooses to abandon his dependant mother and crippled sister in the hope of achieving his own selfish dream. The selfish nature of dreams is also conveyed through dialogue when Amanda refers to Tom as a “selfish dreamer” (85), indicating that his dreaming is perceived by his mother as ultimately selfish due to his irresponsible behaviour occurring as a result of his dreams. Therefore, through the characterisation of Tom and the dialogue it is evident that Tom is an extensive example of how dreaming can cause one to become selfish in their endeavours, as he was so desperate to achieve his dream as a creative writer that he risked the financial stability of his family and then abandoned them. Therefore, just as Williams portrays that dreams can cause the dreamer to become selfish through the characterisation of Tom and dialogue, it is clear through the characterisation of Laura,
The play begins with the Messenger announcing that the theme of the play is about Everyman’s journey that begins with life which constantly moves and transitions until it ends in death. The play is the study of what a person must do prior to death and follows the journey of Everyman to his grave. The play emphasizes that the only thing any person can take to the grave is good works (Ford 342-343).
Glass, although beautiful, can break with even the slightness of breath. Behind beauty, there is fragility and Tennessee Williams represents this idea in his play, “The Glass Menagerie”. Williams infuses symbolism into the play by incorporating the glass menagerie, to portray the underlying fragility of the Wingfield family. The glass menagerie symbolizes fantasy and escape for Laura, a distraction from reality for Amanda, and is the object of eventual scorn for Tom. Through the symbolism that the glass menagerie signifies we are able to uncover the fragility, vulnerability, and need for escape that is apparent within the Wingfield family.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was a memory play written in 1941. The small cast of characters included Amanda, a southern belle who still lives in the past of her younger days. Tom, the dedicated son who took over his father’s role as the man of the house once his father left. Laura the timid, shy daughter who with a mild physical defect lived a self-induced secluded life and the one gentleman caller Jim, who later in the play we find out that he was not really a caller for Laura at all.
Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, describes three separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they face in a modern world. The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Williams' use of symbols adds depth to the play. The glass menagerie itself is a symbol Williams uses to represent the broken lives of Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield and their inability to live in the present.
Tennessee Williams presents us with four characters whose lives seem to consist in avoiding reality more than facing it. Tom uses the movie theaters and dreams of a better life to avoid the harsh fact that he has nothing. Laura uses her victrola and collection of glass animals to help maintain her fantasy world. She would much rather pretend to be somewhere else than actually be somewhere else. Amanda lives her life through her childrens lives. This helps her to avoid seeing how truly sad her state of life has become. And Jim, who probably has the least need to escape reality, by avoiding telling people whats really going on in his life. Instead of telling Laura that he is engaged, he takes her memories of him as the high school hero and feeds off them.