A 

Abortion
Accounting
Advertising
Africa
African-American Studies
Aging
Agriculture
American Indian Studies
Anthropology
Archaeology
Architecture
Argumentative
Art: Artists (Alphabetized)
Art: General
Become an Affiliate and Earn $$$
Biographies (Alphabetized)
Book Reviews (Non-Fiction) (Alphabetized)
Business: Companies (Alphabetized)
Business: General
Business: Industries (Alphabetized)
Business: International
Business: Small
California
Canada
Caribbean
Child Abuse
China
Communication: Journalism
Communication: Language & Speech
Communication: Media
Communication: Non-Verbal
Communication: Television
Communication: Television & Children
Communism
Computer Science
Consumerism
Criminal Justice: General
Criminal Justice: Juvenile Delinquency
Criminal Justice: Police Science
Criminal Justice: Prisons
Cuba
Death & Dying: Euthanasia
Death & Dying: General
Death & Dying: Suicide
Drama: American
Drama: English
Drama: World
Drugs: Alcohol
Drugs: General
Economics: Banking
Economics: Economists (Alphabetized)
Economics: General
Economics: Inflation
Economics: International Trade
Economics: Macroeconomics
Economics: Microeconomics
Economics: Taxation
Education: Administration
Education: Curriculum
Education: General
Education: Higher
Education: Physical
Education: Psychology
Education: Reading
Education: Special
Education: Teaching Methods
Education: Theory
Energy: General
Energy: Nuclear
Energy: Solar
Environmental Studies
Evolution
Family & Marriage
Films: Artists (Alphabetized)
Films: General
Finance: Companies (Alphabetized)
Finance: General
Former Soviet Union: Post-1990
France
Gender & Sexuality
Geography
Germany
History: Ancient Greek & Roman
History: European
History: Great Britain
History: U.S. (After 1865)
History: U.S. (Before 1865)
History: U.S. Presidency
History: U.S. Presidents (Alphabetized)
Homosexuality
Immigration
India
Indonesia
International Relations: Arms Control
International Relations: Cold War
International Relations: Non-U.S.
International Relations: U.S.
Japan
Jewish Studies
Korea
Labor
Latin America
Law: Business
Law: Capital Punishment
Law: General
Law: International & Non-U.S.
Law: Supreme Court
Leadership
Literature, American: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, American: Faulkner
Literature, American: Fitzgerald
Literature, American: General
Literature, American: Hawthorne
Literature, American: Hemingway
Literature, American: Melville
Literature, American: Poe
Literature, American: Steinbeck
Literature, American: Twain
Literature, English: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, English: Chaucer
Literature, English: Conrad
Literature, English: Dickens
Literature, English: General
Literature, English: Joyce
Literature, English: Lawrence
Literature, English: Shakespeare
Literature, English: Swift
Literature, General: Children
Literature, General: Classic (Greek & Roman)
Literature, General: Russian
Literature, General: World
Management: General
Management: Japanese
Management: Motivation
Management: Theory
Management: Women
Marketing: Companies (Alphabetized)
Marketing: General
Marketing: Plans
Mathematics
Medical: Aids
Medical: Dentistry
Medical: Diseases & Disorders (Alphabetized)
Medical: General
Medical: Nursing
Mexican-American Studies
Mexico
Middle East: Egypt
Middle East: General
Middle East: O.P.E.C.
Military
Music: Classical
Music: General
Mythology
Nutrition
Parapsychology/Occult
Philosophy: Ancient Greek
Philosophy: Descartes
Philosophy: Eastern
Philosophy: General
Philosophy: Kant
Philosophy: Sartre
Poetry: American
Poetry: English
Poetry: Milton
Poetry: World
Political Science: Elections & Campaigns
Political Science: Foreign
Political Science: Lobbyists & Pressure Groups
Political Science: Machiavelli
Political Science: Mill
Political Science: Political Theory
Political Science: U.S.
Psychology: Behaviorism
Psychology: Child & Adolescent
Psychology: Disorders
Psychology: Dreams
Psychology: Experimental
Psychology: Freud
Psychology: General
Psychology: Jung
Psychology: Physiology
Psychology: Piaget
Psychology: Rogers
Psychology: Social
Psychology: Testing
Psychology: Therapies
Public Administration: General
Public Administration: Government Agencies (Alphabetized)
Racism
Real Estate
Recreation & Leisure
Religion: Eastern
Religion: General
Religion: Islam
Religion: The Bible
Research: Completed Studies (With Statistics & Results)
Research: Designs & Proposals
Research: Statistics & Methodology
Russia: Pre-1917 Revolution
Science: Astronomy
Science: Biology
Science: General
Science: Genetics
Sociology: Durkheim
Sociology: General
Sociology: Marx
Sociology: Social Problems
Sociology: Social Theory
Sociology: Social Welfare
Sociology: Weber
Soviet Union: 1917-1990
Sports: Drugs
Sports: General
Technology
Transportation: Automotive
Transportation: Aviation
Transportation: General
Transportation: Railroads
Urban Studies
Vietnam
Women Studies
 

"THE GLASS MENAGERIE."   Term Paper ID:29317 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of the Tennessee Williams' play.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 5 sources, 21 Citations, APA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Analysis of the Tennessee Williams' play. Thesis of the play. Character of Laura. How her development throughout the play influences the evolution of the thesis; her move from illusion towards reality and back to illusion. Laura's mother as the driving force behind her daughter. Role of Tom and of the Gentleman Caller. Paper Introduction: Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie INTRODUCTION The Wingfield family in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is one that is held together by the bonds of illusion, dysfunction, and entrapment. Amanda Wingfield lives in a lower middle-class apartment that Williams tells us is “symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass of automatism” (Williams, 1945, 400). Amanda and her two children, Laura and Tom, are enslaved in different ways. Amanda is a slave to a past when the bloom was not off the rose, so-to-speak. Tom is enslaved by pity for his mother and sister that keeps him working in a warehouse job he h Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Laura is enslaved by her illusions. Martin's: 399-447. She and her family have been abandoned by their father. New York: Thomas Y. ReferencesBlock, H. Contemporary Drama: Eleven Plays. It is Laura's mother who is the driving force behind motivating herdaughter to development more realistic behaviors. Tom disagrees: "Not quite all- in the eyes of others - strangers - she's terribly shy and lives in aworld of her own and those things make her seem little peculiar to peopleoutside the house...She lives in a world of her own - a world of - littleglass ornaments...She plays old phonograph records and - that's about all"(Williams, 1945, 423). James O'Connor tries very hard to instill a sense of self-worth inLaura. Butyou're my right-hand bower! When Amanda becomes overjoyed at the news andbegins planning O'Connor's future as Laura's husband, Tom warns her she isoverreacting and should not expect much of Laura. When the moment of O'Connor's arrival occurs, Laura becomes ill andtries to shrink away from reality once more. Once sherealizes Laura can just not stomach the business world, she decided shewill find her a good marriage prospect, "Girls that aren't cut out forbusiness careers usually wind up married to some nice man. Laura's developmentthrough the play influences the evolution of the thesis of the play, thatone must escape enslavement to have the chance for a fulfilling existence.BODY Laura's development over the course of the play is one that movesfrom illusion towards reality and then swings back into illusion at the endof the play. Making Literature Matter. Laura begins to danceat O'Connor's insistence, and her unicorn is broken when they do. We see Amanda encouraging more illusion in Laura byfitting her with a pair of breast enhancements she calls "Gay Deceivers"(Williams, 1945, 425). and Shedd, R. Tom tries to help his mother andsister. Amanda and her two children, Laura andTom, are enslaved in different ways. Don't fall down. Stay home and watch the parades go by? (196 ). Crowell Co.Signi, L. Williams' noted thisabout the characters in his play: "I put all the nice things I had to sayabout people into The Glass Menagerie. In contrastto Laura's painful shyness in the beginning of the play, her presentationis now lit by a certain glow but nothing permanent, "A fragile, unearthlyprettiness has come out in Laura: she is like a piece of translucent glasstouched by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting"(Williams, 1945, 424). Tom is enslaved by pity for hismother and sister that keeps him working in a warehouse job he hates as heis a poet. At the beginning of the play we see that Laura is a painfullyshy girl. While her good intentionsmake her unwittingly cruel at times, Amanda tries to force Laura away fromher world of illusions and escape into the world of reality. (1945). and Pressey, B. She gives himthe unicorn to keep as a "Souvenir" (Williams, 1945, 443). Amuse ourselves with theglass menagerie darling? The big evening occurs in the scene following this one. Laura's world at the opening of the play islike a piece of her own glass, tucked away safely on a shelf. When Laura tells her mother, "I'm crippled!",her mother tells her it's "Nonsense!" (Williams, 1945, 4 8). (1962). O'Connor tells her shehas an inferiority complex as he once has and gives her advice: "Think ofyourself as superior in some way" (Williams, 1945, 439). Tom, Amanda, and Lauraare not viewed as all-bad or all-good in the play. This is painful for Tom because he ishaunted by guilt over leaving Laura on his travels. M. American Drama. Laura will gain a sense of reality just wheneverything goes dark. He then tells her Laura is different from other girls and she saysthat difference is all to Laura's advantage. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc.Watson, E. New York: Random House.Downer, A. In the scene between Lauraand Tom that ensures, we see Laura engage in reality as much as she everwill in the course of her development. When Tom finally calls his mother an ugly, babblingold witch, he tries to leave in a pitch of rage but has trouble getting onhis coat. O'Connor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Williams, T. While his guilt overher and his mother's welfare has kept him from escaping in search of hisfreedom and a fulfilling existence, it is in the end Laura's situation thatgives him the courage to leave. Amanda, despite her unwitting cruelty, has positive intentions.Laura, however, is too immersed in her world of illusion to be able tobreak free and utilize such support. O'Connor engages her in a series ofsmall talk, but Laura remains pretty shy and monosyllabic at the outset.When Laura finally begins to reveal her disability as the source of hershyness and friendless state, she opens up as much as is possible. They aremultidimensional. Tennessee Williams. Amanda leadsa life of illusion as well. Laura's painful experiences have caused herto become introverted, living in a world of illusions that is symbolized byher collection of glass animals - the glass menagerie of the title. AsDowner (196 ) notes: "As a writer he is basically a poet, and he has donemuch to develop the possibilities of poetic expression in a theater thatwas created as a home for relentless realism" (222). Thisillusory world shields Laura from the painful realities in the real world.It is a colorful and safe world in which the victrola provides a soothingtone to relieve the monotony. I'm just notpopular like you were in Blue Mountain" (Williams, 1945, 4 4). Laurasays: "I'll just imagine he had an operation. From this pointon Laura will return to her painfully shy, illusory world. Laura isalso overwhelmed by the unrealistic expectations her mother has for her,ones she will never fulfill. Amandatells him: "I've had to put up a solitary battle all these years. Don't fail!" (Williams,1945, 414). Tom regularly fights withAmanda and reminds her that he pays the rent on the apartment she acts likeshe owns, he "who makes a slave of himself to-" (Williams, 1945, 41 ).This scene leads to an escalation of their battle, during which Tom pointsto the symbolic portrait of his long-gone father on the wall and says toAmanda: "If self is what I thought of, Mother, I'd be where he is--!"(Williams, 1945, 411). Before Laura can do this, however, she must dip into herillusory world of music to gather enough strength to enter the real world.She reluctantly makes her way to the door. New York: Bedford/St. She shows O'Connor her glass menageriefigures and explains how the Unicorn sits with horses without horns butthey seem to get along. Sister, that'swhat you'll do!" (Williams, 1945, 4 8). Masters of Modern Drama. What I write hereafter will beharsher" (Watson and Pressey, 1956, 137). While her experiences withO'Connor almost gave her the courage to change, Laura returns to hervictrola for comfort when O'Connor departs and her mother berates Tom forbeing a dreamer: "You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions"(Williams, 1945, 445). Laura's mother worries over her daughter. It can't be true!There must be a flood, there must have been a tornado!" (Williams, 1945,4 4). Even Amanda's overbearing nature is unintentionaldespite the damage it inflicts on Laura and Tom. Once they reconcile Amanda begins urging Tom to find a niceyoung man at work to bring home for Laura since any social outing she hastried to embark upon with her has ended up a fiasco. Amanda wantsLaura to use the kind of vivacity and charm she possessed as a girl, butLaura does not have the capacity because of an inferiority complex. Tom is enslaved in a warehouse jobbecause of his guilt for Laura and his mother. G. There is a constantstruggle between reality and illusion in this "memory" play, somethingironic in light of the fact that Williams attempted to avoid realism. Sadly, Laura's biggest contribution to reality isto discuss her imaginary friends in her collection. In oneinstance Amanda says to her: "Not one gentleman caller? F. She pretends she goes to typing class, when inreality she has not been going. Laura refuses tocome to the dinner table and takes ill when her mother insists she does.When dinner is through the lights go out because Tom spent the money forthe light bill on his membership to the Merchant Seamen. Amanda is a slave to a past when thebloom was not off the rose, so-to-speak. (1956). Block and Shedd(1962) comment on the dimly lit setting as a means of making the strugglebetween reality and illusion more expressive, "In keeping with theatmosphere of memory, the stage if dim. Just as Laura begins to warm toO'Connor's affections, he informs her he has a steady girl. In some ways while these actionsspur Laura to concede to having a date with a friend of Tom's, they alsoshow us she is painfully aware of the realities of the situation. During this scene Laura is encouraged by discovering O'Connor is notengaged as she previously thought. Shafts of light are focused onselected areas or actors, sometimes in contradistinction to what is theapparent center" (991). Her mother refuses to brookany such nonsense from her and insists she greets O'Connor and her brotherat the door. The horn was removed to makehim feel less - freakish!" (Williams, 1945, 441). Amanda unwittingly keeps Lauraaway from reality, however. The Glass Menagerie, in John Schilb and John Clifford (Eds.). When he flings it across the room in despair, it smashes one ofLaura's glass figurines and she cries out as if wounded herself. Laurareveals her crush on O'Connor in high school and how she once wanted toapproach him for an autograph in a play he was in but refrained. Tennessee Williams The Glass MenagerieINTRODUCTION The Wingfield family in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie isone that is held together by the bonds of illusion, dysfunction, andentrapment. Tom is pressured intosaying he will and informs his mother that he is bringing home a coworkernamed James D. The reply Laura gives shows us she knows reality, but prefers toavoid it: "It's not a flood, it's not a tornado, Mother. S. When her mother realizes this she tries totear Laura from her illusions: "So what are we going to do the rest of outlives? This reversal of development has a catalyzing impact on Tom.He departs one final time in his "father's footsteps", but he can neverextinguish the candles of guilt he feels over abandoning Laura, "Blow outyour candles, Laura - and so goodbye" (Williams, 1945, 446).CONCLUSION We can see that Tom's escape is catalyzed by one more poignantexample of Laura's inability to fit in with reality. As such, she remains on the shelf inlife much like her glass figures. Tom, who serves as narrator, tells us that once his mother got sucha notion in her head, the "image of a gentleman caller haunted our smallapartment" (Williams, 1945, 4 8). In reality, it is Laura and Amanda that manufactureillusions while Tom is painfully aware of the realities of the situation.Jessica Tandy the noted stage actress, sounds like she is describing Laurawhen she describes another of Williams's characters, Blanche DuBois in AStreetcar Named Desire, "Having lived through one shattering experienceafter another, Blanche has begun to create a world of pretense" (Signi,1961, 172). When they make up we see that Amanda and Laura motivate Tom to stayput instead of seeking his freedom and adventure in the world. At this point Amanda insists O'Connor join Laurawith some wine while she and Tom do the dishes. (2 ). She is physically disabled and is left crippled from a childhoodillness. We see Laura's yearningto feel less freakish in this symbolic gesture of how she wishes anoperation could make her fit in more. He signsthe program for her but when the situation becomes romantic Laura clutchesa piece of her glass menagerie to help her cope. (1961). When his mother says whynot, Tom says because they love her they do not notice she is crippled.His mother again, like she did with Laura, tells him never to mention thatword. Amanda Wingfield lives in a lower middle-class apartment thatWilliams tells us is "symptomatic of the impulse of this largest andfundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity anddifferentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass ofautomatism" (Williams, 1945, 4 ). Eternally play those worn-out phonograph recordsyour father left as a painful reminder of him?" (Williams, 1945, 4 7). After the initial greeting withO'Connor, who tells her she should play some hot swing music to warm up hercold hands, Laura immediately rushes back to the safety of her victrola.Tom reveals his membership in the Union of Merchant Seamen to O'Connor andinforms him of his plans to leave like his father did. B. She continually remindsLaura of her youthful past, when gentleman callers came from all over thecountry for the presence of her company. It has beenanother fiasco of emotional pain for Laura. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.