The Glass Menagerie

This is a great play, both for reading, and definitely for viewing. As a reader, pay close attention to the Author's stage directions, and notes. The play viewer won't hear or see these, and they are deliciously Williams.

I thought the book was interesting, however it started off entirely too slow. Most students my age need to read a book that excites them from beginning to end, and this book began excited me in the middle of the book. Overall, it was a interesting selection.

This bitter story of squandered lives was Williams' first successful play. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1945 and has been transformed for film and television. My favorite movie version is the 1987 hit with Joanne Woodward and John Malkovich.
My view is that the ironic miscarriage of the only good deed in Glass Menagerie almost overshadows the fiercely unremitting sadness of the lives of the Wingfields: Amanda, the mother; Laura, the daughter, and Tom, the son.
Amanda burdens her children with her querulous dissatisfactions and her selfishly revised memories of the abbreviated happiness of her youth.
Tom is beleaguered, bedeviled by his cloying mother—he finally escapes after being punished for his good deed.
Laura collects glass animals, she collects disappointments and inadequacies, she collects yesterdays that never had any real hopes…
She casts away a fleeting waltz of swirling, genuine, furnace-hot emotions because they didn't last long enough to cease feeling so very strange to her…
The Glass Menagerie may seem a tiny bit less achingly poignant if you can manage to think of it as Tennessee Williams’ wrenching, literate, relentless drama, and not think of it as a maelstrom of human frailty that could, all too easily, pull down real people.

Alas, the jonquils are too dreamily pathetic and altogether too believable.

Read more of my book reviews here
richardsubber.com

In this, his first hit play, Tennessee Williams draws on many aspects of his own life--his alcoholic traveling shoe salesman and often absent father, his Southern belle mother (a recurring character in Williams's work), his mentally ill sister Rose (who received a lobotomy), and his own difficulties with not fitting in--to create a compelling and complex psychological drama of people trapped in an illusory world. In the end, one attempts to escape, as Williams himself did, only to acknowledge that escaping from memories is impossible.

Tom Wingfield narrates the story of his family, focusing on his last days he is with them. Deserted by the father, whose picture hangs prominently on the wall, Tom must work in a shoe factory to support his mother Amanda and sister Laura. His role makes him resentful and angry. He dreams of and threatens to leave to pursue his own interests, writing.

Amanda lives in the past, regaling family and audience with stories of her upbringing and her beaus. Abandoned once, she fears Tom will walk out on Laura and her.

Laura suffers from crippling shyness, more debilitating than her physical limp.

At the urging of Amanda, Tom agrees to bring a "gentleman caller" home for Laura, who is reclusive, withdrawn into her own world populated by her glass figurines. Jim O'Connor accompanies Tom home one night, a night for which Amanda pulls out all the stops and spares no expense, though their resources are limited.

After a rocky start, Jim, with his big aspirational personality (though he, too, is a character wounded by life), puts Laura at ease to the point where possibilities seem to glimmer in her future. She admits to having had a crush on him in high school, where he was quite a big deal. There's even a spark between them. But, alas, it's not to be, as Jim has a girl, Betty, he will soon marry.

Jim excuses himself early, leaving Amanda to attack Tom for the joke he played on Laura and herself. Of course, he didn't know Jim was about to be married, because Jim had not announced it in the factory. It's the final row for Tom who leaves never to return. However, as his final words reveal, he really can never leave; the memory of Laura haunts him over distance and time.

While only the barest of bones, hopefully you can see just own psychologically complex Williams's play is. It's also filled with interesting features, some of which audiences never see, as directors omit them as clumsy, redundant, even condescending. The most prominent of theseis the screen that displays key ideas that the characters pretty much speak almost immediately. The others are the cinematic quality of the piece that include explicit key lighting direction and music cues.

For those who would like to see the play performed, you will find the 1973 television adaptation particularly good. It stars Katharine Hepburn as Amanda, Sam Waterston as Tom, Joanna Miles as Laura, and Michael Moriarty as Tom.

This is a great play and this volume is wonderful. I have the product pictured here. It is an excellent product. At the end of the play is an additional essay by Tennessee Williams. I am completely happy with it. The play is also very touching.

This play has s referred to as a "memory play". Apparently that term was coined for this play by the author, Tennessee Williams. The play is about a family, with a matriarch who has been abandoned by her husband. Within the family resides a young lady who is very shy and has a physical impairment. The matriarch is very concerned about the future of her daughter. They have a young male visitor.

In addition to this product, I watched a performance with Shirley Booth, Pat Engle and Hal Holbrook. It was really excellent. I saw it on "TCM" and could not otherwise locate it. It was not absolutely identical to this volume, but was substantially the same. Reading this volume and then referring to it as I watched the actual play was a great experience. Thank You...

Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for his 1945 play, "The Glass Menagerie". The work was the first success for its 34-year old author and the product of many years of hard work and frequent failure. The play quickly became an iconic part of American literature. John Lahr's biography, "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" (2014) inspired me to revisit Williams and "The Glass Menagerie".

The play is memory as Tom, the narrator and a character, states at the outset; and its predominant mood, according to Williams, is nostalgia. It is thus appropriate to recall my early experience with the play. In the early 1960s, we studied American literature in the junior year of high school. Our teacher assigned each member of the class to read and do an oral report on an American play. My play was "The Glass Menagerie". The teacher made plain her dislike for Williams based on what she saw as the sexual, violent character of most of his work. I had already seen Williams "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Summer and Smoke" performed on stage. I am afraid I disagreed with her broad opinion about Williams too vehemently for the time and place. I read "The Glass Menagerie" and gave what I recall as a bloated oral report which would have been defensive in tone given what I knew about my teacher's view of Williams. It probably wasn't so much a matter of not understanding the play. "The Glass Menagerie" was already standard high school reading and its themes and beautiful language are within the grasp of most high school students, including me at the time. I may have missed the play for itself in trying to impress the class -- a universal high school failing in such things -- and in rebelling against what I knew of my teacher's thinking.

The play is about memory and I remember my first reading, subsequent readings over the years, other readings of Williams, and life experiences which have informed my recent readings. Associations come from odd places. To take not the most important example, I studied Plato in college and, as with Williams, have gone back to him repeatedly over the years. I have recently reread a study of Plato I read in college. Plato taught the importance of "recollection" or "remembering" what one already knows as critical to knowledge and understanding. Williams stresses "memory" but in a different way from Plato. Plato's recollection is of the mind and Williams states explicitly that his memory speaks to his heart and to the hearts of those who see and read his work. Both types of memory are important, but it is probably more difficult to remember the heart.

Williams throughout and in "The Glass Menagerie" is a heavily autobiographical playwright. The play recollects Williams' life as a young man in St. Louis before he moved to New Orleans, explored his sexuality, and continued the process that eventually would lead to "The Glass Menagerie" and to his long career as a writer. The frustrated young poet Tom Wingfield, the narrator who both stands apart from the play and participates in it, is Williams' depiction of himself while Amanda, the former Southern belle who has been abandoned by her husband, depicts Williams' mother and the shy, withdrawn, and tragic Laura is based upon Williams' sister Rose who underwent a lobotomy in the 1930s which forever haunted her brother Tennessee. In its entirety, the play is set in a shabby apartment where Tom, 22, works in a shoe factory to support the lonely, unhappy family and Amanda tries with increasing intensity to find a job or a suitor for the 24 year old Laura, who has no apparent interests other than playing with small glass animals and listening to old records on the victrola. Tom needs to get away to pursue his life as a writer. When he chafes at his role, Amanda denounces his selfishness and enlists his help in finding a prospective suitor for Laura, a "gentleman caller". The caller happens to be an old high school acquaintance of both Tom and Laura, who had a secret crush on him. During an eventful dinner, Laura becomes enamored of her "gentleman caller" again; but the straightforward, conventional young man proves to be already engaged. Amid recriminations from his mother, Tom leaves the home at last, leaving Amanda to comfort her unhappy daughter. "Blow out your candles, Laura -- and so good-bye" the torn but resolute narrator concludes as he leaves to learn about the world.

The play is both lyrical and tightly controlled and constructed. It is about people unhappy, lonely, and lost, each in their different way including the "gentleman caller". The three Wingfield's each contend with their dreams and their difficulties in facing reality. Tom escapes at great cost to himself and to the family. In reading the play when young, I, together with most readers, would tend to think forward and out -- about young Tom trying to break free. In reading the play when much older, I thought of being out and of what has happened with the freedom that has been won in youth. "The Glass Menagerie" remains personal and poignant.

John Lahr's biography taught me a great deal about Williams and about this play. The Broadway debut starred an aging actress, Laurette Taylor, who gave a legendary performance as Amanda. Lahr describes the casting, the rehearsals, the critical notices and more. But Lahr gets to the heart of Williams' play when he succinctly describes its "dramatic goal": "to redeem life, through beauty, from the humiliation of grief."

The play was fresh to me as I read it. It also was a memory play in reminding me of my first experience with the play and of the intervening years leading to my most recent reading.

Robin Friedman

After returning from Broadway's latest production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," I decided to reread the play. I was once again struck by how brilliantly Williams depicts the plight of a mother and her two adult children in the 1930s. Amanda Wingfield wistfully recalls her days as a Southern belle with seventeen gentlemen callers! She is still presentable and well-spoken, but admits that she erred in marrying a glib and charming man who later abandoned her. The Wingfields live in St. Louis on the meager earnings of Amanda's beleaguered son, Tom, an aspiring writer who ekes out a living working in a shoe warehouse.

Amanda, a well-meaning but self-centered individual, unsuccessfully tries to orchestrate her children's lives. Tom and Amanda quarrel constantly; he cannot stand his mother's domineering nature and lack of support for his literary aspirations. Tom's sister, Laura, is the play's most poignant character. She is a young and painfully shy woman who dropped out of high school, has no friends, and spends most of her time at home, listening to old phonograph records and tending to her precious collection of glass figurines.

Williams calls this a "memory play." Tom, the narrator (who is a somewhat autobiographical character modeled on the author's experiences), looks back with guilt and regret at his years in St. Louis. Could he have done more to rescue Laura from her fate? This superb work raises thought-provoking questions: What should we do when our own needs and aspirations conflict with those of our loved ones? Are illusions necessary crutches for people who cannot face the ugliness of reality? How did American society's restrictive view of women inhibit them emotionally and professionally?

The dynamics of the play shift from quiet and pensive to shrill and antagonistic. Laura at one point curls up on the couch in a fetal position, like a turtle retreating into her shell. She is as breakable as her glass figurines; it would take very little to shatter her already precarious sense of self. Tom escapes from his mother's incessant nagging by going out at night to movies and bars, a temporary solution at best. The interplay between Laura and Jim, the Gentleman Caller, is magnificent. It is as if Laura, after a long and terrible drought, finally drinks from a refreshing spring of cool mountain water. Here, at last, is Jim O'Connor, a handsome and ambitious man who speaks to her admiringly and gives her encouragement. Could he be the answer to her prayers?

"The Glass Menagerie" is a poetic and haunting psychological study of dysfunction, loneliness, self-deception, and failed dreams.

Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is a slow moving story with incredibly deep meaning. The story itself is simple, not much happens over the course of a few days in a run down apartment. But there is a whole universe of activity all the same, as the emotional lives of each of the three main characters, and even Jim to some degree, are revealed. There is much trouble, much heartache, much fear and no good way to process it all. Everyone is so damaged that no one seems to be able to help anyone. Instead, they hurt each other and damage each other deeply and repeatedly.

In the edition I read, there is a closing essay called "The Catastrophe of Success" in which Williams' reflects on the success of the play and how it affected his life.

So we just finished reading this book er..play in school and I loved it! The ending was a total surprise and I felt really sad!! Can I admit that I teared up a little on the inside?
Anyways, I had my doubts going into this because we had to read it in school, but of course I was the odd child out who sat there the entire class period and read ahead while everyone else was still on scene one.
It is sort of slow to get into but the ending is totally worth it. The conclusion makes this story the great piece of literature that it is.
I love the time period that it's set in too! (1944) It's beautifully written, easy to read, and so much fun to read too. Our main characters all bounce off each other with their different quirks and gimmicks. For example, Tom, our narrator, is calm and cool. Icy cool if you must. His sister Laura is a quiet, shy, and fanatic of glass miniatures. Their mother Amanda is loud, boisterous, and so much fun to hate. And of course the gentleman caller Jim is the suave and sexy boy that every tale needs.
Actually, not a lot of people in my class liked it because they thought it was boring, but I loved it! I would say check it out to broaden your view of plays and to become more educated. It's quick and easy to read like I said!
http://www.thepaige-turner.com/2012/01/glass-menagerie-by-tennessee-williams.html

Truly, one of the greatest playwrights, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, and the most talked about live theatre performance with Lauret Taylor as Amanda Wingefield. In the DVD documentary Broadway - The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There the veteran theatre actors raved about this performance, and not available on film. The play is brilliant and falls into the category of Williams "Southern belle-type", like Blanche in Streetcar, Maggie in Cat on Tin Roof; and Alma in Smoke and Summer.

Screen device included in some versions
Some versions of the written play, or theatre productions, have the screen device included, which is slides bearing images or titles. Keep in mind that not all versions have the screen device text included.

A memory play, backflash
Narration is done through the memory of a character, Tom, the frustrated son, who works in a warehouse and escapes reality by going to the movies all the time. Like Tennessee Williams, Tom is a poet. Amanda, a middle-aged southern belle whose "charming" husband deserted the family, lives in the past bragging and delusional about the gentleman callers she had and the men who got away. Laura, the crippled daughter with low self-esteem, whose entire life is all about her small glass animals. And the fourth character is the gentleman caller, Jim, who Amanda expects will be the man for Laura. Jim was everything in high school, expected to succeed greatly, and he was admired by Laura.

Amanda asks Tom to bring home for dinner a young man (not a drinker) from the warehouse for Laura, whose simple existence is to play with her managerie. You will learn everything written between the lines, how dysfunctional and illusional and/or delusional the family is. The moods are clearly defined.

The crowning moment for Amanda
One can't describe how great this play is, and for me, it was toward the end, the shocking tidbit that sends Amanda into another verbal assault on her son. It's comedy and tragedy.

The film versions
A DVD theatre version stars Katherine Hepburn, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive) who is superb, but the rest of the cast was displaced, unfortunately. And if you can, get a film version directed by Paul Newman, Glass Menagerie, The and stars Joanne Woodward. I can't wait to see it. And the only thing greater than the live versions is to see the performance with Lauret Taylor! ......Rizzo

"Glass Menagerie" provides a surreal tale of the Wingfield family and their diverse struggles with fantasy and reality. Set in St. Louis during the Great Depression, the play revolves around Amanda and her adult children, Tom and Laura, struggling to make ends meet in a St. Louis tenement. Although each cannot grip the realities of the modern world, they seek escape in different ways. Amanda deludes herself into thinking she is still a Southern debutante with many gentleman callers. Laura escapes into her fantasy world ruled by delicate glass animals, her "glass menagerie." Tom, constantly accosted and criticized by Amanda, seeks escape through movies and booze.

Doubtless, the theme of abandonment looms large throughout the play. The presence of their father, although only his picture is seen, plays on all their emotions. Unfortunately for them, he "fell in love with long distances" and abandoned them at an early age. This instills fear in Amanda that Tom would follow the same path and she tries to control his every action. Indeed, her smothering of Tom and her incessant accusations of selfishness lend her an unsympathetic aura.

Williams uses unusual cues and images for a play, as he forsakes the illusion of reality. Indeed, the novel is almost a dream-like existence, as it is contrived from the deep memories of Tom. Although reality may not have a firm hand, the theme of control and a yearn to escape is a biting reality that many people face today. Indeed, Tom seeks to escape the "coffin" of his existence, as he attempts to break away from the iron hand of his mother. Unfortunately for him, this also means abandoning his sister Laura if he chooses this path.

Although it is a short novel and quick read, "Glass Menagerie" provides a powerful message that is applicable today. It has not been lost in a time warp. This, and the fact that it is one of the first plays of Williams, should put this on a short list of "must read" classic American plays.

A domineering mother directs the destinies of the son and daughter, thereby stifling their individualities and aspirations. The theme isn’t fresh but Tennessee Williams, with masterful strokes of his pen, draws forth the drama that tucks the hearts of audience. We feel the tension, the frustration, the struggle, and ultimately the resignation. We sympathize with the children for having to sacrifice their dreams but we also pity the mother for trying to fill the role of the father and to revive a past that no longer exists. The play is humorous, satirical, and ultimately sad.

A domineering mother directs the destinies of the son and daughter, thereby stifling their individualities and aspirations. The theme isn’t fresh but Tennessee Williams, with masterful strokes of his pen, draws forth the drama that tucks the hearts of audience. We feel the tension, the frustration, the struggle, and ultimately the resignation. We sympathize with the children for having to sacrifice their dreams but we also pity the mother for trying to fill the role of the father and to revive a past that no longer exists. The play is humorous, satirical, and ultimately sad.

Amanda Wingfield, the matriarch of "The Glass Menagerie," always tells her daughter, Laura, that she should look nice and pretty for gentleman callers, even though Laura has never had any callers at their St. Louis apartment. Laura, who limps because of a slight physical deformity, would rather spend her time playing with the animals in her glass menagerie and listening to old phonograph records instead of learning shorthand and typing so she can be employable. When she learns Laura has only been pretending to go to secretarial school, Amanda decides Laura must have a real gentleman caller and insists her son Tom, who works at a shoe factory, find one immediately. After a few days, Tom tells Amanda he has invited a young man named Jim O'Connor home for dinner and at long last Laura will have her first gentleman caller.

The night of the dinner Amanda does every thing she can to make sure Laura looks more attractive. However, when Laura realizes that the Jim O'Connor who is visiting is possibly the same Jim on whom she had a crush in high school, she does not want to go through with the dinner. Although she has to be excused from the dinner because she has made herself physically ill, Laura is able to impress Jim with her quiet charm when the two of them keep company in the living room and she finally loses some of her shyness. When Jim gives Laura her first kiss, it looks as if Amanda's plans for Laura's happiness might actually come true. But no one has ever accused Tennessee Williams of being a romantic.

"The Glass Menagerie" was the first big success in the long and storied career of playwright Tennessee Williams. Written in 1944, the drama consists of reworked material from one of Williams' short stories, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," and his screenplay, "The Gentleman Caller." In many ways it is an atypical drama from Williams, with the character of Tom (a role I will confess to playing on stage) serving as a narrator who breaks the "fourth wall" and addresses the audience, which evinces Williams' affinity for Eugene O'Neill (e.g., "The Emperor Jones") at this point in his career. Tom tells the audience that this play offers truth dressed up as illusion, and in his stage directions (which are usually not taken full advantage of in the various performances I have seen because what was cutting edge in 1944 is overly quaint today) he uses not only monologues but also music and projections to enhance the memories on display. Williams also explicitly tells his audience that the gentleman call is the symbol of "the expects something that we live for."

This "memory play" tells of a family trapped in destructive patterns. After being abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield, a woman of the Great Depression, has become trapped between worlds of illusion and reality. She says she wants what is best for her children, but seems incapable of acknowledging what that would be or actually providing it for them. Tom, tired of only watching adventure at the movies, is determined to break away from his dominating mother, but stays only for the sake of his sister. Laura may not be the glamorous belle of the ball her mothers wants, but she has her own inner charm and when confronted with Jim, a visitor from the normal world, there is the chance that she will finally claim her life as her own. This is a poignant drama on the importance of love and it represents a memory of not only family but also of loss.

Tennesse Williams struggled for years to get his break as a writer and more specifically as a playwright. Williams finally got his break and came into his own when THE GLASS MENAGERIE was performed at the Civic Theatre in Chicago in 1944. The show was an instant success and finally brought Williams the fame and recognition he had been seeking most of his life. Though there are several differences (for instance, Williams' father never left his family--in fact the family wished he was absent more than he was) the play is a somewhat autobiographical play. The play has just four characters: Amanda Wingfield, the devoted and loving mother; Laura Wingfield, the fragile as glass daughter; Tom Wingfield, the supportive and oppressed son; and Jim O'Connor, Tom's friend and the "gentleman caller" who's visit brings about the play's climax. Williams called the play a "memory play" and that is exactly what it is--a look at time and family and the search for one's identity all through the lens of memory. Even though audiences have changed a great deal over the years, the play still resonates, almost as strong as it did when it was first written. Williams was a playwright, but he wrote almost everything in pure poetry and every line of THE GLASS MENAGERIE is filled with his poetic imagination and genius. As a side note, the play is usually interpreted as a straight drama. However, performed as a comedy, the play works just as well with very little substance getting lost. After all, it's all about memory and sometimes we need to look at something in a different way to remember it a little better.

Tennessee Williams rightfully takes his place as one of the premier playwrights in the history of the American theater. He relentlessly turned out of high quality pieces (and other short literary expositions) on subjects that in an earlier day before the 1950's would have not found nearly so receptive an audience. Here Williams, studying a willfully dysfunctional family, relies on a seemingly autobiographical presentation of the life of a faded Southern Belle mother and her two captive children who are fodder to her dreams of renewed grandeur and style when things `get better'. The gist of the better is a suitable husband for her distracted daughter. That those `things' do not get better drives the dramatic tension of the work, as it almost always does in a Williams play.

Williams has a magic knack for getting to the core of human relations, unpretty as they are some times. The mirror, in many cases, may be harder to take than the reality. Here the son's desire to `help' his obviously unworldly sister at the arm twisting behest of Mother by bringing a co-worker to dinner triggers a trail of events that make Sis fall further and further in the battle with reality. Someone once said that in a Williams's production no good turn ever gets rewarded. And that is the case here. While this is not the most compelling of his plays it is well worth looking at or better, reading.

This classic tale by Tennessee Williams captures the reader's emotions by so forcefully displaying those of its main characters. This is a story of longing and frustration, set in a frustrating time (The Great Depression). The story is narrated by Tom, who hates his factory job and desires to run to sea, but is the main support for his mother Amanda and sister Laura. The matriarchal Amanda clings desperately to the past, while fragile Laura is devastated more by shy self-consciousness than her slight disability. The plot is simple - helping Laura's social life - but moves at a relentless pace. We see Amanda pain her daughter with wistful talk of gentleman callers from a generation past, then place false hopes on the singular visit of Jim - with resulting further desperation and loneliness. This story tugs gently but relentlessly on our heartstrings; so many of us can relate to its message.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) earned his name as a great playwright with this moving story. Readers may also like his other top plays, including STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, etc.

Tennesse Williams struggled for years to get his break as a writer and more specifically as a playwright. Williams finally got his break and came into his own when THE GLASS MENAGERIE was performed at the Civic Theatre in Chicago in 1944. The show was an instant success and finally brought Williams the fame and recognition he had been seeking most of his life. Though there are several differences (for instance, Williams' father never left his family--in fact the family wished he was absent more than he was) the play is a somewhat autobiographical play. The play has just four characters: Amanda Wingfield, the devoted and loving mother; Laura Wingfield, the fragile as glass daughter; Tom Wingfield, the supportive and oppressed son; and Jim O'Connor, Tom's friend and the "gentleman caller" who's visit brings about the play's climax. Williams called the play a "memory play" and that is exactly what it is--a look at time and family and the search for one's identity all through the lens of memory. Even though audiences have changed a great deal over the years, the play still resonates, almost as strong as it did when it was first written. Williams was a playwright, but he wrote almost everything in pure poetry and every line of THE GLASS MENAGERIE is filled with his poetic imagination and genius. As a side note, the play is usually interpreted as a straight drama. However, performed as a comedy, the play works just as well with very little substance getting lost. After all, it's all about memory and sometimes we need to look at something in a different way to remember it a little better.

Tennessee Williams rightfully takes his place as one of the premier playwrights in the history of the American theater. He relentlessly turned out of high quality pieces (and other short literary expositions) on subjects that in an earlier day before the 1950's would have not found nearly so receptive an audience. Here Williams, studying a willfully dysfunctional family, relies on a seemingly autobiographical presentation of the life of a faded Southern Belle mother and her two captive children who are fodder to her dreams of renewed grandeur and style when things `get better'. The gist of the better is a suitable husband for her distracted daughter. That those `things' do not get better drives the dramatic tension of the work, as it almost always does in a Williams play.

Williams has a magic knack for getting to the core of human relations, unpretty as they are some times. The mirror, in many cases, may be harder to take than the reality. Here the son's desire to `help' his obviously unworldly sister at the arm twisting behest of Mother by bringing a co-worker to dinner triggers a trail of events that make Sis fall further and further in the battle with reality. Someone once said that in a Williams's production no good turn ever gets rewarded. And that is the case here. While this is not the most compelling of his plays it is well worth looking at or better, reading.

This classic tale by Tennessee Williams captures the reader's emotions by so forcefully displaying those of its main characters. This is a story of longing and frustration, set in a frustrating time (The Great Depression). The story is narrated by Tom, who hates his factory job and desires to run to sea, but is the main support for his mother Amanda and sister Laura. The matriarchal Amanda clings desperately to the past, while fragile Laura is devastated more by shy self-consciousness than her slight disability. The plot is simple - helping Laura's social life - but moves at a relentless pace. We see Amanda pain her daughter with wistful talk of gentleman callers from a generation past, then place false hopes on the singular visit of Jim - with resulting further desperation and loneliness. This story tugs gently but relentlessly on our heartstrings; so many of us can relate to its message.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) earned his name as a great playwright with this moving story. Readers may also like his other top plays, including STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, etc.

Tennessee Williams very thinly masks his own family in this heartbreaking play. Amanda Wingfield is the mother of Laura and Tom - they have been abandoned by their father and, after a few short scenes with Amanda, you can see what drove him away.
This awful woman lives in her imagined past of gentility and gentleman callers. One doubts her memories even closly mirror the reality of her past.
Laura, her daughter, has been so brow beaten by Amanda that she has retreated into an imaginery world where her glass animals are her only friends. She is painfully shy, has a slight limp and has been made to feel horribly handicapped and unattractive by Amanda. Tennessee Williams mother actually had a lobotamy performed on his beloved sister and it is not a stretch to see the similarities.
Tom, Laura's brother supports the family and dreams of leaving it all behind. He would except for his love for and loyalty to his sister.
Although the story elevates the dysfunctional family to an entirely new level, the writing is beautiful and each character is memorable. The frustration and sadness are palatable. The writing is marvelous and the characters will stay with you forever.

Amanda Wingfield, the matriarch of "The Glass Menagerie," always tells her daughter, Laura, that she should look nice and pretty for gentleman callers, even though Laura has never had any callers at their St. Louis apartment. Laura, who limps because of a slight physical deformity, would rather spend her time playing with the animals in her glass menagerie and listening to old phonograph records instead of learning shorthand and typing so she can be employable. When she learns Laura has only been pretending to go to secretarial school, Amanda decides Laura must have a real gentleman caller and insists her son Tom, who works at a shoe factory, find one immediately. After a few days, Tom tells Amanda he has invited a young man named Jim O'Connor home for dinner and at long last Laura will have her first gentleman caller.

The night of the dinner Amanda does every thing she can to make sure Laura looks more attractive. However, when Laura realizes that the Jim O'Connor who is visiting is possibly the same Jim on whom she had a crush in high school, she does not want to go through with the dinner. Although she has to be excused from the dinner because she has made herself physically ill, Laura is able to impress Jim with her quiet charm when the two of them keep company in the living room and she finally loses some of her shyness. When Jim gives Laura her first kiss, it looks as if Amanda's plans for Laura's happiness might actually come true. But no one has ever accused Tennessee Williams of being a romantic.

"The Glass Menagerie" was the first big success in the long and storied career of playwright Tennessee Williams. Written in 1944, the drama consists of reworked material from one of Williams' short stories, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," and his screenplay, "The Gentleman Caller." In many ways it is an atypical drama from Williams, with the character of Tom (a role I will confess to playing on stage) serving as a narrator who breaks the "fourth wall" and addresses the audience, which evinces Williams' affinity for Eugene O'Neill (e.g., "The Emperor Jones") at this point in his career. Tom tells the audience that this play offers truth dressed up as illusion, and in his stage directions (which are usually not taken full advantage of in the various performances I have seen because what was cutting edge in 1944 is overly quaint today) he uses not only monologues but also music and projections to enhance the memories on display. Williams also explicitly tells his audience that the gentleman call is the symbol of "the expects something that we live for."

This "memory play" tells of a family trapped in destructive patterns. After being abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield, a woman of the Great Depression, has become trapped between worlds of illusion and reality. She says she wants what is best for her children, but seems incapable of acknowledging what that would be or actually providing it for them. Tom, tired of only watching adventure at the movies, is determined to break away from his dominating mother, but stays only for the sake of his sister. Laura may not be the glamorous belle of the ball her mothers wants, but she has her own inner charm and when confronted with Jim, a visitor from the normal world, there is the chance that she will finally claim her life as her own. This is a poignant drama on the importance of love and it represents a memory of not only family but also of loss.

His first big Broadway success, "The Glass Menagerie" is Tennessee Williams' beautifully detailed semi-autobiographical memory play set in Depression-era St. Louis. Reading the play makes one genuinely appreciate the art of his prose in masking the self-deceptions of the four characters. I am so used to seeing this play dramatized that reading the words shows the care with which Williams nurtured each of the character arcs. Beyond the play's title, his use of symbolism becomes clearer from the fire escape to the various religious references. It doesn't have the heated melodrama of his later "A Streetcar Named Desire", but it is arguably his most poignant work as a playwright.

An aging Southern belle whose husband left her sixteen years earlier, Amanda Wingfield desperately clings to her despotic role as the matriarch of her small family. Her concerns revolve around keeping up appearances, retaining a sense of gentility and etiquette in her dilapidated house and finding a life for her daughter Laura. Amanda's narcissism stands in direct contrast to her painfully shy daughter overly sensitive to her slight limp, but it is a cause for fury in son Tom, a poet who has to work at a shoe factory to support the family. Modeled after Williams, he acts as the narrator of the play and provides insights to the characters that are not readily apparent.

Each character holds onto dreams. Amanda shares her past at every opportunity. Laura cares for her collection of glass animals and listens to her father's worn records on the vitrola. Tom dreams of joining the Merchant Marines to avoid Amanda's clutches like his father did. It comes to a head when Tom surprisingly heeds his mother's wishes to bring a gentleman caller, a co-worker named Jim O'Connor, to the house for dinner as a possible suitor for Laura. The confident Jim turns out to be Laura's crush from high school, and the play's most touching scene has Jim and Laura reminiscing by candlelight after dinner. In an ironic twist, Jim turns out to be engaged, and the family is irreparably damaged.

The play has a universal and enduring appeal because of the relevance of the dysfunctional family at the core. Tom's frustrations remain a touch point for anyone feeling trapped by obligation and using it as an excuse not to pursue one's dreams. Amanda is such a rich character, steeped in the reality of her impoverishment but maintaining illusions about her daughter's condition and returning to the wealthy lifestyle she once had in Blue Mountain. Laura is the perennial victim of her family's follies, as she cannot summon the strength to break her dependency on them.

It's no wonder this play has provided such a powerful acting showcase since its debut in 1944 beginning with Laurette Taylor's legendary performance as Amanda. Her successors are a virtual who's who of acting luminaries - Gertrude Lawrence, Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Julie Harris and Jessica Lange. Last night, I saw Rita Moreno give a monumental performance at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, and the drama still resonates as clearly as it must have sixty years ago. This 1999 paperback also includes an introduction by Robert Bray, editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, who looks at the lasting impact of the play; a brief essay by Williams, "The Catastrophe of Success", in which he describes his surprise and horror at sudden fame after the play opened; and some interesting production notes from the original staging by Williams himself.

Tennessee Williams' play in seven scenes continues to fascinate
audiences and readers a half a century after its Chicago premiere.
Based loosely on autobiographical memories of his southern boyhood GLASS MENAGERIE strikes a responsive chord because most people can relate to conflict within a family unit. The three main characters strive to follow their private dreams--no matter how unrealistic they are. Mother and children seek both to escape their drab existence in a honeycomb of Chicago tenements, while concealing their frustration and despair from
each other. They scorn to seek solace or encouragement at home.

A former Southern belle, Mrs. Wingfield desperately wants social success for her daughter; her visions of jonquils and gentleman callers are pathetic attempts to relive her own youth through her socially-stunted daughter. Amanda, overzealous to control her son better than she did her long-gone traveling husband, merely succeeds in alienating Tom, a warehouse worker with dreams of writing poetry and/or joining the merchant marine.

Slightly crippled Laura ("sister" as Amanda calls her) fails at everything she touches, including most recently a typing course at a business college. Seeking escape and unconditional acceptance with her collection of glass animals Laura is excessively shy, terrified of all new social interactions. She seems doomed to early spinsterhood--incapable of providing for herself in the world.

Amanda's scheme to marry off her daughter hinges on the success of luring suitors to their modest apartment. Pressed into providing a gentleman caller Tom invites Jim O'Connor, an affable coworker. In fact both Wingfield siblings knew the former athlete in high school. Despite resistance from Laura, who refuses to cooperate in any social con game, the two young people seem to hit it off when left alone--until Jim drops a bombshell. Dreams are shattered like the glass unicorn, as Amanda despairs because she has two children who are not normal. How will either of the Wingfield offspring escape and find the freedom which their father coveted more than domestic duties? Williams' stage version deliberately blends typical stage business with a cinematic style acquired during his years in Hollywood. Audiences are reminded of the
the question of social survival and the painful fragility of tortured individuals bonded by genetic hostility.

"The Glass Managerie" does for shy young girls what "Death of a Salesman" does for the working man. In this life, all people truly want is to be happy and recognized. Young Laura receives neither. This conflict initiates the story.

Laura's mother Amanda wants Tom to find a proper suiter for his fragile sister. Tom, who also serves as the narrator, is tired of caring for his mother and sister in the absence of his father. Despite his yearning for adventure, he attempts to find a suitor for Laura. While he fails in finding a mate for his sister, he does find a man who shows Laura her qualities and gives her confidence.

In the end, Tom leaves his mother and sister and Laura gains confidence from her experience. Aside from these changes, the characters are still left with the same problems. "The Glass Menagerie" is an enjoyable little read. I, however, found myself waiting for more to happen. I suspect that Tennessee Williams wanted us to be left to think about the consequences of the characters' actions.

Tennessee Williams was a rising, if still largely unknown, writer when he created the short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass;" he would later adapted the same into a screenplay treatment titled "The Gentleman Caller," which he saw as a vehicle for Ethel Barrymore and Judy Garland. But it was not until 1944 that the story took its final form as THE GLASS MENAGERIE, opening in Chicago and then moving to New York, with actress Laurelette Taylor giving what may consider to be the single finest stage performance of the 20th Century as Amanda Wingfield. The play itself defied many theatrical conventions and standards, possessed a lyric quality rare to stage plays, and by 1950 was easily one of the most widely performed, studied, and read dramas on the face of the earth. It has remained so ever since.

Although some think of it as simple, the actual story is extremely complex. Once a famous Southern belle, Amanda Wingfield made the wrong choice in marriage and her husband walked out, leaving her with children Tom and Laura, the latter a beautiful but lame young woman who suffers from truly pathological shyness. At present, the family lives in St. Louis, where they endure in a rundown and drap alley apartment and rely upon Tom's income as a warehous shipping clerk to scrape by. But Tom feels the pressure and has an explosive argument with Amanda, who accuses him of planning to abandon her and Laura "just like your father." She asks him for one thing before he goes: to help her find a husband for Laura, a man to take Tom's place as head of household and provide for them. The play deals primarily in relationships and how the various characters relate or fail to relate to each other. Amanda's love for her children has turned into grasping need; Tom's love for Amanda and Laura has been exhausted by Amanda's demands; Laura, passing time by playing old gramaphone records and gazing at her collection of glass animals, has reached an untenable position, drifting into a future of nothingness. It is a sad story, and it is told with temendous poignancy.

Williams described THE GLASS MENAGERIE as a "memory play," but it might be more accurate to describe it as a "ghost play" akin to those written by the legendary playwright August Strindberg, who mixed dreamlike and hallucinatory imagery to strangely disquieting effect in his later work. Tom speaks directly to the audience, an effect that was extremely uncommon in 1940s drama; the stage has a dim and misty quality, as if rising out the past; the conclusion is one of quiet catastrophe, Tom making his escape but at unknown cost to Amanda and Laura. What happened to them, after all? Williams offers no clear, and certainly no easy, answers.

Plays are not written to be read, but to be seen, and the manuscript of THE GLASS MENAGERIE requires considerable knowledge of live theatre, and it is truly better seen than read. Unfortunately, since the play contains little profanity and no open sexual activity, it is often taught to junior high school students--who are precisely of an age least likely to appreciate this delicately wrought, elegantly beautiful work. Strongly recommended, but you do best to seek out an expert production.

GFT, the store Reviewer

Sometimes, the most important and influential characters are those that never come forth and make an appearance. This is the case in Williams' The Glass Menagerie. The absent father serves as an explanation and a foreshadow for why his wife, Amanda; his daughter, Laura; and his son, Tom behave as they do.
The story has somewhat a dry line; however, it is not so much the plot but the characterization that makes this story memorable, introducing odd and unique characters that can be, unusually enough, identified with. Many who venture into this work see the characters by their surfaces only-a loony, demanding mother; a shy daughter; and an uncaring brother. However, this play requires a deeper look, a search for an explanation that reveals that the mother is not nuts, only lonely and worried her son will abandon her, just as her worthless husband has. She has fears, such as worrying that her Laura will become alone and unsupported, just as she is. Laura can also be examined, discovering she is not only shy, but is a victim of low-self-esteem, for her disability causes her to believe she is unable to be like others, never able to partake in the activities other girls enjoy, such as dancing; thus, she lives a life in solitude, for that is where she feels unexposed. Tom, too, with a closer look, can be viewed as a man tiresome of being treated as a boy, stuck in a world he is unhappy with, desiring escape to follow his dreams.
A close characterization reveals the turmoil inflicted by the father, exposing characters with problems, worries, fears, and desires. This is a play about real life, a dysfunctional family who wants only the happiness that they cannot achieve. This, by far, is Williams' greatest work yet.

This play enters a new realm of thinking and perception on Tom and the reader's part and examines the difficulty in telling a story purely from memory. When someone remembers something, they tend to alter its meaning to cater to their own intentions in their heart, such as Tom does, showing that memory alone cannot be trusted, ultimately altering the entire perception of the play to be tailored to Tom's specific desires.

Tom starts the play admitting that some events he will recount may not be told exactly as they have happened but rather as he remembers them, this proving to be somewhat devoid of reality. Since Tom is both the narrator and a character in the actual play, his intentions are not at first clear. The readers do not know whether or not he is telling this story out of pride for his actions, dismay for his family or to examine his past actions that have led up to a probable mistake. It is not known and this causes need for speculation. It is also not known whether or not any of these events have ever happened or if they are simply a figment of Tom's imagination. The entire play takes on a dreamlike state when the screen is used to display what will happen next or with the picture illustrations to aide in comprehension. These elements, combined with the habitual playing of the Glass Menagerie song make the play seem more a distant memory than an actual report of events now passed and gone. Tom also appears to be stuck between the past, present and future because his thoughts are constantly consumed in the past events of his life. He only rarely comes out of the past to his present state, almost as if he were afraid to do so--that his life were so unbearable that he would not be able to do so without causing much pain and suffering on himself. These are the conflicts that govern the mindset of all those listening to his story throughout all of the events that are shown.

With this sense of doubt and uncertainty eating away at the minds of the audience, the rest of the plot of the story cannot be fully comprehended as reality, altering the meaning of the intended story. When Tom recounts this story, he makes it seem as if all of his actions were provoked, almost as if he were trying to escape a sense of guilt he has bestowed upon himself. He makes his mother seem all powerful and controlling, possibly stretching reality in the process. When this is seen as his "memory" it can be understood why he would want to leave his family. His family does not give him anything in return for all his hard work and suffering that he is forced to spend the gray hours of the morning who knows where doing who knows what. The entire play is enveloped in a sense of mystery and self doubt when the facts presented are too closely pertaining to reality. In this sense, not even the truth can be seen. Nothing and no one can be trusted, which is in fact the likely intention of Williams' style of play.

Memory. So many vast possibilities to be explored where anything can be anything else and the truth is often disguised as a fantasy itself. Nothing is perceived as it should be. This is seen when Tom leaves his family at the end and finally reveals why he has told this story. He shows how hard it is for him to leave at the end of the play because he is so close to Laura, even though no emotional attachment is shown earlier in the play. This is when it is clearly revealed that he has not been honest about everything and maybe not about anything at all. He tries to hide his feelings of remorse for leaving his family deep within his memories, not knowing that nothing can stay hidden forever. As long as it is kept in the heart, it will come through no matter what.

I've treasured my Caedmon LPs of this performances for decades. IMHO, this is the finest production of the play ever mounted. Montgomery Clift gives perhaps his best performances as "Tom", Jessica Tandy is wonderful as "Amanda", David Wayne - a steady "B" actor from the 50s, a touching performance of the fabled "Gentleman Caller" - and, finally, Julie Harris is heartbreaking as "Laura". And a side-note, the music was written by Paul Bowles. I'm so happy this performance is on CD. Don't miss it!

When I first bought the book, the name sounded really interesting, but I didn't understand what "menagerie." After I flipped a few pages, I notice

how dysfunctional, yet almost normal, family the book portrayed. In a way, many people can relate the situation with their personal life.

During the 1940's and after the World War II, many people were in desperation trying to find jobs and create a better life. However, as a result of this mindset, some did not succeed and ended up living in a life of disaster. Such calamity resulted in not only financial misfortune, but also social and mental failure. Everyone seemed to scramble to quickly find a great life, but little did they know, the truth of the reality was that not everyone could succeed at the same time. As a result, many hoped for too much, plunging in a world of delusion. Avoiding reality, several other were just assuming fortunes would find them, creating self-fulfilling prophecies.

In Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams wants to depict exactly that tragedy resulted from constant escapades to fantasy by employing Amanda as the typical woman who just lost her grip on reality. Amanda has lost control ever since her husband had left her, destroying the family. Unable to cope with that reality, she just drifted onto another world. She refused to believe that fact and tried to impose her ideals onto her daughter, Laura. Amanda has always boasted that she was the most popular girl attracting all the find young men. She lived a life of glamour, while everyone stared enviously at her success. However, success took a u-turn and even a crash into the wilderness of failure. Amanda was distraught, devastated by the fact that her husband had left her and her family was filled with shame and quirk. Unable to get a grip of reality, she loses her control and drifts into a fantasy, where everything seems to work out perfectly. She puts too much emphasis on being popular and attracting all the rich suitors. She superimposes all her ideals onto her daughter, Laura, so she could be just like her mother. Unintentionally, she forces her daughter to achieve exactly what she has. Despite Amanda's genuine push, she actually forces Laura off the edge, but she changes and matures into a woman, more open to the world around her. Although Laura grown to be less inclusive and more open to the world, the family has broken apart as a result of Tom's escape. Ultimately, as a result of Amanda's fantasy world, the family has been torn apart into bits and pieces, revealing the notion that the escape to fantasy would only ruin one's life.

Tennessee Williams argues that fantasy is only a false depiction of the world in its most rudimentary image, which causes one to lose control of the complications of reality, inevitably resulting in a disaster.

Despite the low amount of characters in the play, the strong plot brings forth the daily struggles of family problems. Amanda Wingfield, tells her daughter that she should look nice so that gentleman callers will come for her even though no callers have ever been inside their apartment. Laura, would rather spend time playing with her glass animals instead of learning to become a normal person, typing and learning shorthand. When Amanda finds out that Laura did not attend secretary school and only faked it, she knew it was time for her to be met up with a real gentleman caller. Her son Tom, who is a shoe factory worker, is told to find a gentleman for his sister. Jim O'Connor is picked and called to come to their apartment for dinner.

Amanda does everything the day of so that Laura will look presentable and her best for Jim. Laura soon finds out something that makes her realize that Jim is not just any person, but a person she knows. As a result, she does not want to go on with the dinner, and tries her best to ruin it. Laura falls out of her shy bubble, and Jim gives her her first kiss.

The close knit family of a desiring mother, a shy daughter, and a selfish brother requires the reader to search for a deeper meaning in the play. The mother is not just crazy, but she is also self-conscious and sad that because of her own marriage that she finds the need for her daughter to marry correctly. Laura can be found not only to be a shy character, but also self-conscious if herself, locking away anyone who tries to help her. This play is a real life event, about a dysfunctional family which cannot achieve happiness.

Tennessee Williams’s Glass Menagerie showcases the relationship of many modern families. Tom, the narrator, is expected to give up his dreams for the well-being if his family because of the disappearance of his father. Amanda, his mother, was left to raise a family, turning her into a realistic person who seeks for stability in life. Laura, the sister, handicapped with a leaping leg, is an anti-social student who is expected to have many gentleman-callers but only seek interest in her glass menagerie set. Williams has an exaggerated style, consisting of many hyperboles and many over the top phrases, bringing humor to the audience. He is successful in that not one character is the protagonist nor the antagonist; each character is sympathized with his or her situation and each goes through internal conflicts to choose between who they want to be and who they need to be for others. One of the many themes discovered in this novel is the need to sacrifice to adapt to the harsh truth of reality. Williams developed a realistic relationship in a family, showing sides of all characters that other family members may not see.

Unfortunately, for too many students, literature is only as good as the professor who is teaching it. Some students of literature end up studying it on their own, for their own pursoses - with no time deadlines and no required 'number of words' essays. If you have never seen this play, I encourage you to read it and underline it at your own pace. "Quality literature is not intended to be immutable Truth sent down from the mountain; rather, it is a conversation to be continued with future generations."

In the beginning of the text of the play, each character is described. The playwright's description of the key role of Tom, the son, sets the stage for unavoidable tragedy. The playwright himself suggests the only solution to the social problems raised in the play is: "to escape from a trap he has to act without pity." This foregone preclusion is nonsense.

The words of this play are beautifully and thoughtfully chosen. The play clearly displays tragedies of the female characters, who make their personal success dependent on executing a perfect traditional marriage - an objective the mother, the daughter, and the son are not likely to achieve any time soon - if ever. The play shows what often happens to people who frame their mental success or measure the quality of their soul on whether they can obtain and maintain an absolute, singular intimate relationship with only one other person. And as with many Tennessee Williams plays, the drama is not so much a result of defective people trying to succeed in healthy social environments and constructs; rather, the drama (the stuff that "the theater" was created to show) is created more when ordinary, complex & fragile people try to fit into narrow social molds that few people are likely to prosper in.

Amanda, Laura, and Tom are worthy of lasting love. The tragedy is they have each defined love in different, seemingly small but devastating ways. And as a result, they have blinded themselves to their potential to love each other and find love in others. A tragedy in any relationship would be to be with someone who, for whatever "good" reasons, stops learning & adapting - they become someone from whom little new can be learned or expected. Tom senses those trends in his mother and sister and concludes that neither of them are capable of reconsideration. Thinking he cannot reason with either of them, he incorrectly assumes he is trapped. He knows of no method of education to change their mindsets, and he tragically abandons them, like his father before him.

Tom says, "I didn't go to the moon, I went much further - for time is the longest distance between two places." And his abandonment, leaving them not only for a period of time, but more accurately for an indefinite and possibly never ending period of time is a level of insensitivity I doubt he fully conceives. Because as the playwright says, "His nature is not remorseless;" rather more likely he is lacking either the education and/or human experiences that would give him a better understanding of the harms his abandoment could cause. Leaving a poor mother and handicapped, hard to employ sister during the depression is not an act that (as the playwright himself incorrectly asserts) warrants him acting without pity. His mother and sister do not need pity. They need support, education, and a determined, dogged willingness to find new ideas, perceptions, and possible solutions.

I have no problem with Tom going off and exploring the world, but he doesn't tell his mother or sister when or if he will ever return - a decision that is neither necessary nor healthy for him, his family, or the other people close to him. And I don't need to hear Tom at the end of the play trying to engender sympathy from the audience for his abandonment by saying he is still haunted by the plight of the sister he left behind. To quote the sentiment of a more recent great American playwright: "If He ever did come back, if He ever dared to show His face, or His Glyph or whatever in the Garden again . . . if after all this destruction, if after all the terrible days of this terrible century He returned to see . . . how much suffering His abandonment had created, if He did come back you should sue the bastard . . . Sue the bastard for walking out. How dare he. That's my only contribution to all this Theology."

Tom go home. There is great discovery, challenge, and adventure in working to reconcile the irreconcilable differences in our roots - even if you are only partially successful. The road less traveled is often the more difficult one leading us back home.

3 things make this play stand out as truly spectacular: 1. the stellar plot, 2. the engaging and interesting characters, 3. it's ability to move the reader with its sadness and despair without asking for it. this play is truly a mus read for anyone who loves American literature.

In the story, Tom is a young man given the burden of caring for his mother and sister, Laura. Working at a dead-end job in a warehouse, Tom longs for the day he can be like his father and desert the family, to go on the quest for his own dreams and ambitions. he often writes literature during work and attends the movies every night as a way to escape from his otherwise monotomous life. Tom refuses to accept reality for what it is, and instead dwells in his own wishes, having no regard for his family. Laura, a shy girl who is crippled at the leg, does not interact with anyone outside of her family.

now, i must resist the temptation to say anymore, because i do not want to give away the ending, thus keeping any of you from reading this spectacular play. Set during the Great Depression, Williams oes an excellent job of placing the plot in historical context, because it was a time during which people were depressed and wanted to get out of "the hole", such as Tom. There are many symbols to be found throughout this play, such as the glass menagerie and the unicorn, which makes the play that much more engaging and interesting to read, as you try to decipher them. Williams' tone and style are also very appropriate with each changing character, giving the reader a better view of the characters. All while Williams achieves his rhetorical brilliance in the play, there is an underlying message of the dangers of dwelling in memory and fantasy rather than accept reality and deal with the present. I must recommend this book to anyone who is literate.

When I was young I saw two astonishing Kazan movies and thought Tennessee Williams was a genius, the greatest playwright who ever lived. I didn't realise then that a script is of minor importance to great films.
Then I read his Collected Prose - florid, flat, dead things - and I assumed he was a pretty bad, overrated writer whose continuing reputation was largely thanks to an awesome Brando performance.
So I approached this play with extreme negativity, and I was pleasantly surprised. Much of it is unbearable - the control-freak stage directions, written with the most pretensious, unreadable floweriness imaginable, pointing out to us all the film's themes and observations like we're idiots, stressing obvious effects; the rather misogynistic wallowing in victim-glorification; the trite metaphors that are actually explained within the play.
But, especially in this written version, there is a lot of fun. Even when I admired Williams, I always thought that what you saw is what you got. There didn't seem to be much irony, and once you've realised that Tom, gay, spends most of his nights on the docks with willing sailors, you've pretty much grasped the subtleties.
But Williams here subverts his own play by making hilarious use of a screen to print flippant, bathetic legends or illustrative slides over the action, making ridiculous the ostensible play. The whole thing is in Tom's head anyway, and he seems to mock his own nostalgic emotion. It's impossible to be caught up in Laura's despair when you've got a sniggering screen gloating behind her.
Unfortunately, Williams abandoned this device for performance, and The Glass Menagerie has been ossified as the grim tragedy it so obviously isn't. While his preface urging this play as experimental theatre is risible to anyone who's read Beckett or Ionesco, it at least shows that he recognised his own narrow limits.
That's not to say that the play itself has no merits. Williams could, I admit, have a wonderful way with dialogue, that builds up a strange emotional power based on banalities. The main characters are sympathetically drawn, and occasionally break out of their simplistic conception. All in all, much better than I'd feared.

Plays are a little outside of my usual purview, but my book club was reading this so I wanted to give it a shot. It's short and sweet, and beautiful in its simplicity. There is a lot of symbolism, and Williams attempted things that really weren't done at the time, such as the use of projected images. There is also a probable autobiographical component to the story. It's not a happy story, but it definitely has something to say. A play I would enjoy seeing in person.

I enjoyed the book, The Glass Menagerie. It wasn't too long and it was very interesting to read. This was my favorite out of all the summer reading books i had to read. One reason is that it is written as a play. The play focuses on three main characters: Amanda, the mother, her daughter Laura, and her son Tom. I also liked it because it is one of those books you can't put down. I found myself wondering what was going to happen next. I perceived the atmosphere of this play to be a sad one. It's not like a sudden tragedy had occurred, but just their day-to-day life seemed hopeless. I felt sympathy for the characters. I wanted to give them help and support at times! Amanda and Tom always fought with one another. Tom was sick and tired of the way he had been living. He wanted real adventure instead of just watching it on the movies. Laura, on the other hand, was content to sit at home with her glass menagerie. Their mother, Amanda, had become so obsessed with finding a gentleman caller for Laura that everything else almost didn't matter anymore. Amanda always reminisced of how she had so many gentleman callers in her day. She wanted the same for Laura. But Laura was much different than her mother was. It wasn't that easy for Laura to meet gentlemen. Amanda needed to realize and accept that. I was impressed by this play. It was filled with emotion and diverse characters. They were almost oblivious to reality. They had their own worlds and expectations of what life should be. Their struggles to make their lives better were desperate and real. In the end we don't really know how everything turns out, but we were left thinking that anything could happen.

This story is a must read! Despite the boring title, it's a true eye opener that questions your ethics and provokes you to contemplate on the troubles of society. Throughout the book, the characters struggle to come to terms of their reality.

One of the main characters is Laura, who is handicapped and is constantly nervous about what society thinks about her and her condition. Her poor understanding of who she is as a person and the exaggerated difference believes she has between others prevents her from ever being fully comfortable around others and even herself .Although Laura believes that society has shunned her from the acceptance that she deserves, Laura has actually shunned herself from the possibility of retaining friendships because of the paranoid thoughts in her own mind. Amanda and the pressure she places on Tom is also a large issue in the play which ultimately leads to Tom's tragic abandonment of the family at the end of the story. Because of her dependency on Tom's paycheck, she placed a huge burden on Tom who soon comes to the conclusion that if he would ever want to achieve his dreams, he would have to completely abandon his family. So, read the book and watch the predicaments unravel in the Wingfield family from Amanda's refusal to accept reality of Tom's dreams , Tom's desperate plea to be free from his obligations as breadwinner of the family, and Laura's personal struggle with being comfortable with her disability. Will Laura ever break out of her shell and lead the normal life she deserves? Read the book and contemplate on the effects of a judgmental society and the dangers of holding on to the past being ignorant of the present.

Most people have great difficulty grasping the themes, much less deciphering the symbolism and foreshadowing, embedded within great literature from "A Separate Peace" and "Catcher in the Rye" to "The Glass Menagerie." Each of these examples is an exemplary piece of art, but if for no other reason than the prolific nature of Tennessee Williams' calling compared to that of the other two authors, "Menagerie" deserves a special place on the mantle of top-notch reads -- not only literary but true brilliance with ink on mere pages of paper.
Some assign responsibility for the family's well-being on Tom's shoulders when all he longs for is a life of his own and at last arranges to flee his hellish world, aptly, via the fire escape -- whether it ends up going as he expects or not -- thereby "devastating" the others. Nonsense! Williams' ultimate points were two. The first was that Thoreau was right (in Williams' own depressed worldview) when he wrote in "Walden":
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet
desperation. What is called resignation
is confirmed desperation."
The second, which was quite a paradox to Tom's generally perceived as selfish desertion of the family, was that we all make our own lives. Tom simply chose to make his.

For my theatre class we were split up into groups of two and told to pick a scene from a play, so my partner and i picked Scene two from Glass Menagerie. It was my first time to ever read this play and as im reading it i was like oh jeez could this be anymore predictable, but then the end came and i was like......wow that was sooo not what i was expecting.... and about two weeks later when my partner finally finished the play (needless to say she wasnt exactly interested in this assignment) she was also in shock at the climax of this play i highly recomend this book to ppl that have short attention spans (its wicked short) and to those who like surprise endings.

This play was great, dispite what anyone says... I had to read it for class my Senior year... to be frank, I couldn't put it down and ended up speed reading the whole play in one night... I love his use of symbolism and bleak display to shed hope, light and happiness on the dull life of one girl that is so far out of touch with reality... it shows that what makes people happy isn't always prestege, wealth, or fame... but the small simple things in life... I loved it so much I read " A Street Car named Desire" and "A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" to which I loved just as much as this book. I must say it makes Tennessee Williams one of my personal favoriates.

What a coincidence ! I had just loaded this into iTunes and was looking for the art work to load up too. This is just superb
with a dream cast if I ever saw one. Get it, anyway u can !
I am just crazy about the movie and the book.

It's just such a brilliant play and turned into a super movie that stay with you ! And now the audio book !

Amanda Wingfield, the matriarch of "The Glass Menagerie," always tells her daughter, Laura, that she should look nice and pretty for gentleman callers, even though Laura has never had any callers at their St. Louis apartment. Laura, who limps because of a slight physical deformity, would rather spend her time playing with the animals in her glass menagerie and listening to old phonograph records instead of learning shorthand and typing so she can be employable. When she learns Laura has only been pretending to go to secretarial school, Amanda decides Laura must have a real gentleman caller and insists her son Tom, who works at a shoe factory, find one immediately. After a few days, Tom tells Amanda he has invited a young man named Jim O'Connor home for dinner and at long last Laura will have her first gentleman caller.

The night of the dinner Amanda does every thing she can to make sure Laura looks more attractive. However, when Laura realizes that the Jim O'Connor who is visiting is possibly the same Jim on whom she had a crush in high school, she does not want to go through with the dinner. Although she has to be excused from the dinner because she has made herself physically ill, Laura is able to impress Jim with her quiet charm when the two of them keep company in the living room and she finally loses some of her shyness. When Jim gives Laura her first kiss, it looks as if Amanda's plans for Laura's happiness might actually come true. But no one has ever accused Tennessee Williams of being a romantic.

"The Glass Menagerie" was the first big success in the long and storied career of playwright Tennessee Williams. Written in 1944, the drama consists of reworked material from one of Williams' short stories, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass," and his screenplay, "The Gentleman Caller." In many ways it is an atypical drama from Williams, with the character of Tom (a role I will confess to playing on stage) serving as a narrator who breaks the "fourth wall" and addresses the audience, which evinces Williams' affinity for Eugene O'Neill (e.g., "The Emperor Jones") at this point in his career. Tom tells the audience that this play offers truth dressed up as illusion, and in his stage directions (which are usually not taken full advantage of in the various performances I have seen because what was cutting edge in 1944 is overly quaint today) he uses not only monologues but also music and projections to enhance the memories on display. Williams also explicitly tells his audience that the gentleman call is the symbol of "the expects something that we live for."

This "memory play" tells of a family trapped in destructive patterns. After being abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield, a woman of the Great Depression, has become trapped between worlds of illusion and reality. She says she wants what is best for her children, but seems incapable of acknowledging what that would be or actually providing it for them. Tom, tired of only watching adventure at the movies, is determined to break away from his dominating mother, but stays only for the sake of his sister. Laura may not be the glamorous belle of the ball her mothers wants, but she has her own inner charm and when confronted with Jim, a visitor from the normal world, there is the chance that she will finally claim her life as her own. This is a poignant drama on the importance of love and it represents a memory of not only family but also of loss.

This book focuses on the individual struggles of the three main characters of the book, but I personally enjoy the story of Tom and Laura who have to cope with problems that many can relate to.

Tom is a young man who has great dreams. This is not hard to imagine because many of us or many of the people we know dream of pursuing great goals in life. This is how we are programmed, what we are taught. But as a young man with a father who has abandoned the family, he must decide between pursuing his dreams or staying home and supporting his mother and sister. Such an interesting situation made me want to sit down and read to see what choice he would make.

Laura is the typical shy girl. However, because she is so self conscious about her crippled legs, she has grown to isolated herself so much that her mother has to worry whether or not she will marry since she refuses to talk to even other women. Instead, she turns to a glass collection for friends and company. Pretty crazy. Now when his hermit of a lady suddenly is forced to meet and converse with a normal human being outside of the household, the conclusion is waiting for you to read and find out. It is not your typical type of ending but it is nonetheless something that was satisfying and compatible.

The play is filled with symbols, which is a real good plus because it make the book all the more interesting to read and dig through. You will notice things like the glass collection, the fire escape, and the unicorn all representing something more than what they are. These are what makes the play more than just a browse through a story--it is more like an adventure or a mystery waiting to be torn apart.

Tom is a poet, cynical and tired of his overbearing mother, Amanda, lost in her own world, refusing to see the harshness of reality. His sister Laura is a shy, quiet type of girl with pleurosis. They make up their family of three, their father having left them. It may not seem like much of a plot, but when you read it, there is an insightfulness, an understanding of what Tom feels. Tom, our narrator, calls it a "memory play". We delve into Tom's thoughts and words. It's a well-written, heartfelt play, and should be read by anyone who thinks they have a dysfunctional family.

Just finished watching The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theater Archive Directed by Anthony HArvey) on DVD with Katharyn Hepburn,Sam Waterston, Michael Moriarity and Joanna Mills. This powerful play has matured with age and the times to create a forceful message to all humanities psycologicaly challenged widows,living with a son and daughter who are suffering from a backgrouind of a family where ther farther deserted the family and the children are held in bondage by an overpowering mother whom you are not sure is more interested in bagering her children or really struggling with her own sad life. Amanda (Hepburn) can't stop talking and criticizing her children driving them to destracton. Son Tom (Sam Waterston) appears more able to defend himself but his sister (Joanna Miles) who has been handicapped with a leg brace is far gone introvered in her lass Menagerie world and totaly in her inability to relate to the world becase of her infirmaty. I had a problem with Hepburn's diction and shrill voice in additon to her non stop chipping away at her children. Amanda does display her motherly love at times as when she understands her daugher's problem in dropping out of the business school. She does the same when after the blow between Tom and Mother, the silence between them is broken by Tom who reallay is a very sensative and caring porson but is driven to his wits end by the constant cackling of his mother. The most poignant and beautiful scene for which I was glad that I didn't stop watching in disgust was the interlude of Laura and Mr. O'Connor in the living room where they demonstrate the greatness of Williams. One is brought to tears as O'Connor who is a sensaitive young man, reveals to Laura her inner and outer beauty shredding her inferiority complex and shyness because of her handicap. It isa ost senative scene as he explains that most people are handicapped in one way or another and that she is realy a beautiful person and that her beauty and senativity overcomes her physical challenge. When he teaches her how to dance, lifts her and twirls her around in spite of breaking the prized unicorn she has had an epiphiney strong enough to overcome the disclosure that O'Connor will not be calling again. This play offers a message to one and all which cautions parents from being too domineering over the lives of their adult childrren and for those with handicaps to realize that their inner soul and spirit can shine outwards if they only give themselves an opportunity to blosom. In addition the message for the adult children is to educate yourselves and to learn to listen to your parents but be independant, never forgetting the fact that hopefully parents want their children to succeed and to be happy
I was disappointed with the ending of the play. I wish there was a more satisfying resolutin. One of a happier emancipation of son and daugher with a continued affecton for the mother. You never know where the characters will end up. Maybe that's good writing where you think about the future of their lives knowing all the issues the characters are still facing.

The Glass Menagerie, by Tennesse Williams is a tale of desperation and a longing for something more. The characters within this incredible stories pages yearn for more than the mundane facts of life. Amanda, who plays the mother, grew up a pure southern belle. As she describes it, men practically kissed the ground she walked on. Wouldn't you think her daughter Laura would be the same? The answers no. Laura is a shy, crippled girl who is forced to wear braces on her legs. Unlike her mother, Laura rarely has gentlman callers and this bothers Amanda. Her mother, not knowing what to do with Laura, signs her up for business classes which Laura secretly skips. Her brother Tom is an aspiring poet who is forced to work in a shoe warehouse so he can support his family. Their father ran out on them at an early age and the only thing they have recieved from him in years is a single postcard.
The Glass Menagerie is one of the few books that has ever caught me by surprise. You can't help but feel the agony of repression these three main characters feel. The novel, which was originally written for the stage, only takes place over a very short period of time in late 1930's. It was a time of change and growth of the human spirit. The beliefs of youth and age clashed and no matter who you were you longed for something different. But as our character Tom figures out at the end, change isn't always what you need.
I feel the most interesting quality this novel contained was it's use of symbolism. The fire escape had so much meaning behind it, it was practically impossible to miss. It was their only way of escaping the pain that was inside the walls of their home. The music that was often cued in the play took a major part in creating the essense behind the story. Music relates to memory and that is what this play comes down to, memories of how it should be, or should I say, the delusions the Wingfield family created.
Overall this book impressed me. It had all the elements a good story should have,(pain, pleasure, humor, distruction and healing). I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to sit down and sink into a well written story. After all, everyone lives within their own glass menagerie.

The central question in The Glass Menagerie can be seen as "Why and how do people attempt to escape and avoid reality?" There are many details showing that this fear of reality in every family member of the Wingfields. All of the three Wingfields has something that they do to escape from the reality and truths of the world.
Of the three, Laura seems to be the one who has the weakest grip on reality. She is extremely shy, and when her mother gave her a chance to become a working woman in the business world, she throws that hope away by dropping out after just a few days because she was too nervous being around a bunch of strangers. On top of trying to get away from the real working world, she deceives her mother by going out every day to make her mother think she was in school. By a fluke, her mother discovers Laura's absence in school, and Laura explains how she would take walks in the park or sometimes go to a movie. In these examples, Laura seems to be afraid of the outside world and her personal life and relationship with her mother. She doesn't want anything out of the ordinary to happen, because she does not want to face reality. She is too scared to tell her mother the truth, so she escapes further into her own mind. Since she has no outside life, she uses her glass menagerie to entertain her thoughts during the day. As the story develops she seems to be slipping further out of reality, with no plans for the future, until her "gentleman caller" arrives. Jim O'Connor makes her less uneasy with his warmth and begins talking to her and giving her advice about how to overcome her shyness and her inferiority complex. Until this point, there is no sign of Laura showing that she has a life and that she might go somewhere with it.
Tom's case is almost opposite from Laura's, but with the same effect of avoiding reality, in the fact that not enough is happening in his life. He wants to make something of himself and do something with his life, but he makes no effort, and keeps his boring job. Since he feels that his life is empty, he makes up for it by going to the movies. Amanda worries about him, and the possibility that he is making trouble, but he responds by telling her how he goes to the movies because of the adventure. He doesn't have enough adventure in his own life, so he compensates by seeing others have adventures in movies. He also puts his thoughts into writing and reading, again to escape from putting forth any effort to make something of his life. The most dangerous part of Tom, however, is his escaping reality through being drunk, and the release of all of the reality of the world around him. His father had the same problem, and through the story, there are hints that Tom is becoming more like his father, especially in one final example when he is talking to Jim about his life, and his plans to leave his family because he is the "[...] son of a [...]" and he must leave to find himself; but ends up wondering aimlessly around numerous towns, not finding anything different that what was back at home.
Amanda's personality is the most complex of the three Wingfields. She has a grip on real world values such as longing for her children to be successful people and to make lots of money, and also for herself and her children's social success. This is part of the real world, but she is so obsessed with them, that she cannot accept some of the truths about the reality around her. She still thinks she should be the girl she was in Blue Mountain, with servants and slaves and the like. Whenever Tom talks to her about Laura being crippled or peculiar, she says for him not to say such horrible things. She cannot accept that Laura is both crippled and peculiar and wants the situation to be normal. She doesn't even know what to think of Tom. She accuses him of not going to the movies, but to somewhere else. She says to him that he is too selfish and needs to support the family more, when in reality, it is her constant instruction of how he should eat, how he should act, what he needs to do, that drives him further away from the family and more like his father.
It seems as though all the Wingfields want to do something with their lives, but they don't have the motivation to change anything. Tom complains about the people in the movie substituting finding adventure in their own lives for the adventure on screen, but does the same thing himself and doesn't make a real effort to change. This play seems to be showing the idea that people are afraid to change, even if any change would be for the better. They would rather escape the reality they live in and find ways to avoid becoming part of the real world. At the end of the play, Tom decides to leave, but that doesn't solve his reality problem. Amanda is left with no one in the house to support her and to pay the bills, because she was lost in her idea of what reality should be with her recollection of her spoiled childhood and not what reality actually is. Laura seems like the only one in the family that is actually showing signs of change and the possibility of accepting the outside world and making something of herself, because of Jim's comfort and encouragement.

What makes for great art is the embodiment of the universal within the particular. The characters in the play are clearly drawn and yet represent our own conflicting desires and aspirations. I sympathized with them all even as I recognized their faults. This play is about the characters and not about plot. The end of the play follows tragically and invevitably from the characters. The play is surprisingly contemporary in the issues it raises. It made me yearn and ache and feel awful and wonderful all at the same time.

Quite simply, The Glass Menagerie is the very reason you read a book. For the passion, the pain, the happiness, that indescribable feeling you get when you've finished the very last sentence. Tennessee Williams doesn't disappoint. The Glass Menagerie tells the story a family trapped in the ruthless battle of life, struggling to survive their circumstances and the memories that plague the Wingfield apartment. So subtlety and tenderly does Williams weave the reader within the words of his play that we too are left like his characters, gasping for a breath away from the intoxicating despair that inhabits their existence. The Glass Menagerie's brilliance lies in Tom as narrator, Williams continues symbols (eg. the Paradise Dance Hall, the gentlemen caller, the fir escape) and his ability to create characters so real you can almost hear their heart beat. Basically if you haven't read The Glass Menagerie you should, it's an unforgettable experience.