The Glass Menagerie Questions and Answers
The Glass Menagerie
The final scene depicts Laura as "she blows the candle out." What does this act represent and what message is it...
In the final scene of "The Glass Menagerie", Tom's monologue syncronizes directorily with Laura blowing out the candles of the candelabra. It was the candelabra that Amanda had given Jim (the...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the meaning of the title The Glass Menagerie?
The character of Laura, the protagonist of the story, uncovers the meaning of the title. Laura has a glass menagerie—a collection of small glass figurines that are very dear to her; she's very...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the symbolism of the fire escape in The Glass Menagerie?
One of the major symbols of "The Glass Menagerie," the fire escape is the means of exit for the characters, an escape from the fires of frustration and rage that burn in the hearts of Williams's...
The Glass Menagerie
What role does abandonment play in The Glass Menagerie? What are three examples, and how are they important to the...
Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie incorporates abandonment into the experiences of his three main characters—Amanda, Tom, and Laura—through the physical and the metaphysical. The first clear...
The Glass Menagerie
Elaborate on the concept of the American dream in The Glass Menagerie.
The American Dream is a perfectly valid, commendable goal. Working hard and becoming successful is what most people, American or otherwise, want for themselves, and Amanda in The Glass Menagerie is...
The Glass Menagerie
What is Plastic Theatre? How is Plastic Theatre used in The Glass Menagerie, and what are the effects?
Plastic theatre is a concept introduced by playwright Tennesee Williams in The Glass Menagerie. Williams argues against a one-hundred percent realistic presentation of realistic mise en scene,...
The Glass Menagerie
Why does Tom go to the movies in The Glass Menagerie?
Yes, one can assume that Tom does more than just escape to the movies. The movies for Tom are a chance for vicarious experiences for his much-desired "romance and adventure." But even Tom knows...
The Glass Menagerie
Who is the main character in The Glass Menagerie, is he/she also the protagonist, and is there an antagonist?
The central character, or the protagonist, of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie is Tom Wingfield. Tom finds himself in conflict with his own character traits at times, so he is sometimes his...
The Glass Menagerie
How is The Glass Menagerie a tragedy?
Tennessee Williams's classic play The Glass Menagerie is a tragedy because each member of the Wingfield family suffers in their own individual way and Amanda's plan for Jim O'Connor to court her...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, why did Laura quit business college?
Laura quit business college as she was simply too nervous to cope with the typing course she was taking there. However, she has been pretending to her mother that she has been attending. Amanda...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the lesson of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams?
The lesson to be learned in this great play is that the only thing to which one should be tethered is the present. Tethering oneself to an illusion or to material objects, as Laura does, can only...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the meaning of this line from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams: "I didn't go to the moon I went much...
The exact quote from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is found in the final scene of the play. It is spoken by the narrator, Tom Wingfield, and it reads this way: I didn't go to the moon,...
The Glass Menagerie
Why did Jim call Laura “Blue Roses" in The Glass Menagerie?
When Amanda asks Laura whether she ever liked some boy, she mentions Jim. She points out his picture in the yearbook in the Pirates of Penzance performance and with a debate trophy. She then tells...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, what is the symbolism and significance of the photograph of the father?
By keeping the photograph of her absent husband displayed so prominently, Amanda can continue to claim her victimization by the man who abandoned his family. It is a conversation piece that Amanda...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, Tom tells us that the gentleman caller is a symbol. Explain what he means.
In his introduction to the play, Tom says that Jim is a symbol of the long delayed but always expected something that we live for (scene 1) In other words, Jim is not just a character; he also...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the detailed meaning of Blue Mountain in Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie?
In Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie, Blue Mountain is a fictional Southern town in which Amanda, the mother in the story, grew up, and its name has significant symbolic...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, how would you describe Laura's relationship with Amanda?
In Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie, Amanda Wingfield is Laura Wingfield's domineering, manipulative, and, at times, emotionally abusive mother. Amanda's dreams for Laura are the same...
The Glass Menagerie
At the end of The Glass Menagerie, why does Tom ask Laura to blow her candles out, and why does she blow the candles...
According to one criticism, the Expressionist play, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, ...identifies the conquest of reality by illusion as a huge and growing aspect of the human...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the significance of Laura's glass menagerie, especially the symbolic unicorn, in Tennessee Williams' play The...
In addition to the glass menagerie, especially the glass unicorn, symbolizing Laura's fragility and feelings of freakishness, the glass further symbolizes her hidden inner radiance. Her inner...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, why does Tom contrast the social backgrounds of Spain and America in his opening speech?
One purpose of Tom's opening monolog is to ground the audience in the setting of the play. After brief opening remarks, he immediately establishes both time and place.First, he tells the audience...
The Glass Menagerie
In Tennessee William's play, The Glass Menangerie, Tom says that the stage magician “gives you illusion that has the...
In Tennessee William's play The Glass Menagerie, in Tom's introductory soliloquy, he likens himself to a magician. ...I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the...
The Glass Menagerie
In"The Glass Menagerie," what is the meaning of the lights going out in the middle of dinner and candles being lit to...
The lack of electricity is an indication of Tom's irresponsibilty in not paying the bill. However, the darkness and candlelight afford Tennessee Williams better opportunity for the expressionism...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, what are Tom's dreams and goals, and what obstacles does he face before he can achieve them?
Tom is a daydreamer who longs for a life of adventure. His particular dream is to go to sea to lead a romantic roving life and he sets out to achieve this goal by applying to join the Merchant...
The Glass Menagerie
What is the meaning of "I didn't go to the moon... distance between two places--"?
The full line is, "I didn't go to the moon, I went much further--for time is the longest distance between two places--" In Tom's final speech at the play's conclusion, he speaks as narrator, the...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, what is the symbolism of the Victoria?
Many of the characters and items in The Glass Menagerie are symbolic. The story takes a look at different types of people and their actions through life, so almost everything has some...
The Glass Menagerie
What is significant about the lighting used in The Glass Menagerie? What effects does it create?
The stage directions in The Glass Menagerie are a very important part of the play. They enhance the meaning. In the beginning of the play, Tom says, "Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is...
The Glass Menagerie
What stereotype does Amanda believe about the Irish in The Glass Menageries?
In Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie, Amanda is looking for a proper suitor for her painfully shy daughter, Laura. Her son, Tom, invites a friend, Jim O'Connor, home from work to have...
The Glass Menagerie
Which aspects of "The Glass Menagerie" are realistic and the most unrealistic?
The most realistic aspect is the dreary tenement building where the Wingfields live. The fire escape leads down to the street where a multitude of other buildings replicate the same atmosphere...
The Glass Menagerie
Generally, plays do not have narrators. How does the fact that Tom is the narrator affect the style and content of...
When a play has a narrator, it is, from the get-go, demonstrating its unusual structure. Tennessee Williams was writing during a time when experimental format in plays was not very common; having a...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, what inner conflicts create tension in the family?
Tom's conflicts are perhaps the most obvious in the play, so a focus on the self-delusions of Amanda and Laura offer an alternate perspective on tensions within the Wingfield family. In addition to...
The Glass Menagerie
Explain the dramatic irony of Amanda's remark to Tom in their final dialogue in The Glass Menagerie: "You don't know...
With dramatic irony as a discrepancy between what a character thinks and what the reader knows to be true, Amanda's words to Tom that he "lives in a dream world and manufactures illusions" are...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie what conflicts does Tennessee Williams develop in the first three scenes of the play?
It is immediately apparent in the first scene of this play that there is conflict between Amanda Wingfield and her son. Although he is an adult, she badgers him about his table manners, telling him...
The Glass Menagerie
What are the plot, summary and conclusion of the drama The Glass Menagerie?
The plot of The Glass Menagerie is a three-fold conflict. The first involves Tom, who is thrown into a job he doesn't like because the family has been abandoned by the father and Tom was the only...
The Glass Menagerie
Why is Amanda obsessed with finding a suitor for Laura?
As an aging mother, Amanda realizes that she needs to have her children in stable positions so that they may be able to provide for her. Her conflicts with Tom indicate that she does not trust him...
The Glass Menagerie
Why does Tom say the coffin trick would come in handy for him?
In Scene Four of "The Glass Menagerie", the protagonist, Tom, returns home after a night of drinking. He describes a magic show that he had just seen, involving a magician who had himself nailed...
The Glass Menagerie
How does Tom justify abandoning his family in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams?
Tom Wingfield has a lot of reasons for wanting to leave home in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. His mother, Amanda, is annoying and is constantly nagging at him about how he eats and...
The Glass Menagerie
What does the moon represent in "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams?
The moon also represents mystery and promise. It takes on a symbolic meaning that transforms it into a magical wishing star. When Amanda and Tom have their playful discussion in Scene V. The fact...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, how is the blue roses symbol similar to that of the glass unicorn?
The ‘blue roses’ symbol is similar to that of the glass unicorn as both represent Laura. It refers to the friendly nickname that Jim bestowed on Laura in high school, while the unicorn is Laura’s...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, how does the family’s social status affect the choices each individual...
The Wingfields are a family whose social status has declined along with its financial status. For the two young adult children, the vision of an unpromising future is just as burdensome as their...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, does Amanda sell newspaper subscriptions to earn more money, or does she take out a personal...
Amanda tries (obviously without much success, considering the family's difficult economic circumstances) to sell magazine subscriptions over the telephone to earn income. This information is...
The Glass Menagerie
What does Tom Wingfield mean when says "middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind..."?
Let's go to Tom's full-paragraph description of the time period of the play: To begin with, I turn bark time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of...
The Glass Menagerie
What are the similarities between Tom and his father in The Glass Menagerie?
The major similarity between Tom and his father is that Tom, like his father would like to leave his family. Amanda, his mother, suggests a number of ways in which his habits remind her of his...
The Glass Menagerie
looking for a thesis statement for The Secret life of Walter Mitty and The Glass Menagerie
A simple and accurate thesis statement involving The Glass Menagerie and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" would convey that we are ultimately responsible for finding our true identity using...
The Glass Menagerie
What does Amanda nag Tom to provide in "The Glass Menagerie"?
Amanda believes that Tom should be the provider for the family, much as a husband might do. Because Tom is the only son, Amanda believes he should feel obligated to provide for them. Tom and...
The Glass Menagerie
In The Glass Menagerie, why does Tom appear dressed as a merchant sailor although he is still in the employ of the...
Let's first establish that The Glass Menagerie is what is known as a "memory play." This term was actually coined by Tennessee Williams himself to explain the nature of this particular play, one...
The Glass Menagerie
What is Tom's dual role as narrator and character in "The Glass Menagerie"?
It has been said that this play, one of Tennessee William's best-loved works, is somewhat autobiographical. The character of Laura is based upon Williams' sister, Rose. By making Tom into a...
The Glass Menagerie
How does Amanda's activity -- Williams's description of 'working like a Turk' sounds strange to us -- make you feel?
The phrase "working like a Turk" is a simile (it compares two things i.e., Amanda with a Turkish person "Turk") and it is also an idiomatic expression. An idiomatic expression is a phrase that...
The Glass Menagerie
What are the expressionistic techniques in The Glass Menagerie?
In both writing and staging, Tennessee Williams uses expressionistic techniques throughout the play. He immediately has Tom Wingfield characterize The Glass Menagerie as a “memory play.” Memory...
The Glass Menagerie
How did Laura become crippled and when?
In Scene 7 of The Glass Menagerie, as dinner has just finished, the lights go out because Tom has not paid the electric bill. So, the family and Jim rise from the table and go into the...
The Glass Menagerie
Discuss the mood created by the set and Tom's speech in the first scene of The Glass Menagerie.
The mood Tennessee Williams creates through the setting and Tom's opening speech is melancholic, desperate, and tragic. The Wingfield apartment is narrowly positioned between two alleyways, and a...
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