The Glass Menagerie
Glass Menagerie, The,play by Tennessee Williams, produced in 1944 and published in 1945.
Laura Wingfield, who wears a leg brace because of a crippling childhood illness and is hypersensitive about it, lives with her mother Amanda and brother Tom in a St. Louis tenement. Her father has long since deserted them, though a dashing photo remains as a reminder of his charm. Amanda, a victim of illusions about her past as a Southern belle and about Laura's future, persists in preparing her daughter for hypothetical secretarial work and for nonexistent “gentlemen callers.” She likewise wants Tom to get ahead in his warehouse job, which largely supports the family, but as a poetic dreamer his thoughts, like his father's, are often about escape from the family, as he turns to compulsive movie-going or plans for merchant-marine service. Amanda persuades Tom to invite a friend from the warehouse for dinner, and lets herself leap to romantic conclusions...
[The entire page is 372 words long]
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