The Glass Menagerie

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 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...

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...

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 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...

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,...

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 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...

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...

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 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 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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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 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...

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 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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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 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 ‘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 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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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 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...