Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Essay Example

Tennessee Williams’ play Glass Menagerie, is a memory play-meaning that parts of the play while changed exist as biographical information about Williams’ life, reflecting on Wingfield’s (the main character’s) memories.

The tragedy in a modern sense

The tone of the play is tragic; the family’s father is gone now for 16 years, yet the mother still has the portrait of him hanging up in the house. There’s also the case of the daughter. Laura’s shyness is one of the main themes; a shyness that caused her to drop out of high school as well as a secretary job and that prevents her from pursing her fancy Tom’s friend Jim. There’s more loss for Laura as her infatuation prevents her from having dinner with Jim when he comes over but then, after sharing a quiet moment like dance and a kiss she finds out he’s married. She then gives Jim the unicorn glass figurine he broke as a parting gift. This gift is a metaphor of Laura’s life: something magical and frail and easily broken. The entire concept of the symbolism of the glass menagerie is endemic of the loss of the characters in the play. The mother loses her youth and her husband. Tom losses himself in his family and his desires to write, while Laura losses herself. This family’s been failed and easily broken.

The main tragedy, however, in the drama is Tom’s regret of not being able to save Laura. Tennessee Williams was always feeling guilty of not being able to save Rose, his sister from herself, and could not let other people see the beauty inside her. In a way, through the drama and Laura’s character, he is making up for Rose.

Symbolism

The story has rising and falling action it’s mainly centered around Laura and the dinner party, but the resolution of the story as witnessed in Tom’s soliloquy about illusions represents just how lost the family is: to each other and within themselves. It is interesting that Williams chose glass as the symbol piece although it’s a memory play.  His real sister collected these ornaments, and Tennessee Williams is trying to understand her motivations through the character of Laura. Glass is an element that a person can easily see through making them transparent. The characters are three-dimensional, but their shape changes when viewed from a different angle. Also, glass is formed from sand after having been exposed to high temperatures. This could mean that the characters aren’t fully formed yet in the play, that they must first pass through trouble, or friction in order to become who they are; or else it means that the loss has made them who they are; very breakable and fragile beings. Either analysis works, but the latter is the better one.

Plot 

The plot seems to be built around the struggle of a broken family, in which Tom is the centerpiece holding it all together. The plot begins with his soliloquy and ends with his leaving. The plot is not linear, and the author does not follow a chronological order; instead, jumps from the present to the past. The author builds up the drama in a way that it is a combination of reflection and emotional story-telling. There are two parallel linear story lines, between which the author switches to increase and reduce the distance of the events. The story of the present is about reflecting on the past from a distance, while the scenes in the “memory plot” are much more intense and emotional.

The memory plot-line starts with an inciting incident being when the mother asks Tom to bring a boy he knows over for dinner; this escalates into recognizing each character’s personal tragedy.  When Jim breaks the unicorn: this represents the fragile “other world”, the dreams of Laura. The “present” plot later tells the audience that – while Jim kissed Laura – he was engaged to a girl. Laura gives him the “broken unicorn”, the symbol of an “unreal” but beautiful creature; her dreams.

What provides relief for the drama is the relationship between Tom and Laura. They are sometimes sweetness in regards to Tom being sweet to Laura are what create another dimension for the play. Also, when Tom hasn’t paid the electricity bill and the lights turn off, the author uses comic relief to ease tension. This makes it that much more heart breaking when Tom leaves because he doesn’t want the burden of his family any more.

Williams, T.  “Glass Menagerie”. New Directions Books, 1999. First Published: 1945. Print.