We all like movies, but is it better to read a play or to watch it? Most would rather pick a movie as an easier solution. It may be a burden to sit down and read a play, a more entertaining option would be an easy to follow movie. However, a movie may leave important information out that you would get from reading a play or it might just do the opposite. In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams we will see the differences between the written play and the 1950s movie directed by Irving Rapper. As we look deep into The Glass Menagerie’s reason for being written, we realize why the play should or should not be left unchanged and which version portrayed the meaning better.
The Glass Menagerie is about a single mother and her two grown children, Laura and Tom. The characters being surrounded by dreams that seem impossible in reality, are held on to by their strong-willed personalities. Laura who is crippled, dreams of her family staying together and keeping her life with her glass figures. Tom dreams of leaving his father-like responsibilities to his sister and mother to pursuit a career in poetry. Amanda dreams of her past beauty and most importantly for Laura to get married and Tom to not drink (Asian). The main character may be seen as Laura since most the conflicts surround her. Since she is crippled, she does not get out and thus has no self-worth. With the one chance of a gentlemen caller gone, the future looks bleak.
After reading a post by Lahr, it showed The Glass Menagerie was not randomly written by Williams. It is so much more. It is a reflection of Williams’s life. From Amanda to Laura to the undying dream to write like Tom we see many similarities. To change any part of the original writing would be a shame to cha...
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Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2005. Page 767-807. Print.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Writing, Thinking. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 1999. 1865-190
Williams, Tennessee. “The Glass Menagerie.” Backpack Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Third Edition. “Ed” X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. Pearson: 2010, 2008, 2006. 993-1049.
In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the glass menagerie is a clear and powerful metaphor for each of the four characters, Tom, Laura, Amanda, and the Gentleman Caller. It represents their lives, personality, emotions, and other important characteristics.
Bloom, Harold, Frank Durham, and Nancy M. Tishcler. Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2007. Google Books. Web.
Williams, Tennessee. "The Glass Menagerie." Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, Compact Seventh Edition. Ed. Karen Mauk. 7th. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Michael Rosenberg, 2009. 1628-1677.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
As the play develops, the theme that prevails and remains highlighted through the writing is the sense of abandonment, which is a core fear in humans that is intensified as we grow and realize that we lack a lot of things, such as self-esteem and even direction in life. Even though Williams did not experience a complete feeling of abandonment, what he lived was enough to mark his life with the necessary bitterness to expose in his writings. Those significant events that occurred in his life can be recognize also in the play The Glass Menagerie; his father was absent for the majority of his childhood, her sister Rose abandon herself to live in her own world, and his mother abandon him by letting operate on her ill sister. In the play, Tennessee Williams is "Tom" the son that is struggling to support his mother and sister after his father leaves. His form of escape is the...
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.
Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.
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.
Williams, Tennessee. "The Glass Menagerie." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. 1999. pp.1865-1908.
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.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
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.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.