According to Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie is a “memory play.” It is narrated from the perspective of the character Tom Wingfield. What Williams calls “personal lyricism” is employed in the play not so much to challenge the accountability of Tom’s narrative as to display, from a character’s point of view, the impact that illusion has on individuals. The play, for example, portrays a large group of characters whose obsession with the past complicates their connection to the present. Illusory worlds are created by these characters, either to cherish the not-so-accurate memory of an idealized past or to protect an already-tattered emotional integrity. It is typical of Williams, a self-proclaimed romantic dramatist, to create characters who prefer dwelling in a fantasy world. Yet, the playwright, aware of the inevitability of the conflict between illusion and reality, also leaves the audience with no doubt about his cynical and bitter attitude in dramatizing the sometimes self-deceptive but always debilitating nature of his characters’ illusory world. Flashbacks are used effectively to underscore the struggle that characters must undergo when they do not know how to disentangle themselves from the past.

The main plot of The Glass Menagerie centers on what happens to the Wingfield family on one unforgettable evening. A childhood illness has left Laura Wingfield crippled; one of her legs is slightly shorter than the other and is held in a brace. Self-consciousness and a lack of self-confidence have turned Laura into an extremely shy person. She prefers living in a dream world created through her fantasies and her collection of glass animals. Laura’s mother, Amanda Wingfield, believes strongly in tradition. Her faith in the traditional Southern practice of having a “gentleman caller” has led her to make an arrangement for Laura to meet with one of Tom’s coworkers at the warehouse.

Jim O’Connor shows up one evening at the Wingfields’ apartment as the “gentleman caller.” He behaves like a gentleman, charming Amanda and strengthening her belief in this tradition. During the meeting, Jim’s outward glamour and glibness temporarily rekindle hopes in Laura’s closed heart. She tells him how much she admired him in high school and entrusts him with her favorite glass animal, the unicorn. When Jim clumsily breaks the unicorn’s horn and tells her that they are not compatible with each other, Laura loses even more of her ever-dwindling confidence in herself and furthers her alienation from reality.

At the end of the play, Laura is apparently thrown off her emotional balance and ready to retreat permanently into her fantasy world. Amanda, holding Tom responsible for the fiasco of Jim and Laura’s meeting, blames him as the manufacturer of dreams and illusions. Tom, now fully aware of the detrimental effects of the conflicts between the past and the present and between illusion and reality, decides to leave the family and take on the challenge of shaping his own life.

Wingfield apartment

Wingfield apartment. St. Louis, Missouri, home of the narrator, Tom Wingfield, and his mother and sister. Along with its outside fire-escape landing, this apartment is the setting for the entire play. It is too small for the Wingfields’ needs—Laura sleeps on a sofa bed in the living room—and its contents are worn and aging. The contrast between the dingy apartment and the world in which Tom’s mother, Amanda, alludes to having grown up in is striking. During the play’s first scene, Amanda relates a well-worn story of her youth in Blue Mountain in rural Mississippi. Her story contains a significant allusion to the front porch on which she received gentleman callers—some seventeen young men by her account. Williams contrasts the porch in Blue Mountain with the apartment’s fire-escape landing, on which the family watches the moon rise over a delicatessen.

Alleyways

Alleyways. According to Williams’s opening stage directions, the play’s audiences should see alleyways running on either side of the apartment building and its rear wall before they see the apartment rooms in which the action will take place. The alleys are described as “murky canyons of tangled clotheslines, garbage cans, and the sinister latticework of neighboring fire escapes.” This is significant, as the alleys remain visible throughout the play. Williams uses them to generate a constant visual comment on the action within the apartment. The alleys strike a strong contrast to the idyllic life Amanda describes from her youth and are in conflict with Tom’s vision of a life of high adventure.

*Famous-Barr Department Store

*Famous-Barr Department Store. St. Louis’s leading department store at the time in which the play is set, in whose lingerie department Amanda works. Williams uses the store to emphasize Amanda’s frustration over the way her life has turned out. In the opening scene when she talks about her suitors, she blames her poor choice as the cause of her public humiliation of having to sell bras at Famous-Barr.

World War II

The Glass Menagerie is set in the 1930s, during the Great Depression and just before the onset of World War II. Although Williams wrote the play after America had entered the war, it was before any decisive victory had been achieved. The play premiered in Chicago in 1944 and made its way to New York in 1945, the year the war ended. For Americans, the most significant event of the early 1940s was the United States' entry into World War II. Initially reluctant to join, the U.S. was propelled into the conflict after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, making U.S. involvement inevitable on the side of the Allies, which included England, France, and Russia. Alongside Japan, the Allies fought against Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, and Italy, led by Benito Mussolini. Franklin Roosevelt served as President for most of the war until his death on April 12, 1945, after which Vice President Harry S. Truman took over. The European phase of the war concluded in May 1945, and the Pacific phase ended with the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Women in the Workforce

One of the significant impacts of World War II in America was the sudden surge of women entering the workforce. With many men serving in the armed forces, women began taking on roles that were previously unavailable to them, such as factory work, which was now seen as patriotic. "Rosie the Riveter" became an iconic symbol of this movement. However, when the war ended and men returned home, women were expected to vacate their jobs to make room for the returning soldiers. It wasn't until the 1970s that women re-entered the workforce in significant numbers again.

The Boom Years

The return of soldiers also led to the passage of the G.I. Bill of Rights, which provided educational benefits and home loans for many veterans. This resulted in a substantial increase in college enrollments, making higher education more accessible to middle and lower-class students. There was also a boom in new home construction and suburban development, leading many middle-class families to move out of major cities. Conversely, the availability of factory jobs prompted a mass migration from rural areas into urban centers.

Technological advancements were also made during this period, though by today's standards, they might seem outdated. In 1944, the first general-purpose digital computer began operating at Harvard University. It took four seconds to perform multiplication and eleven seconds to perform division, and was built with 760,000 parts and 500 miles of wire—far from the compact computers we use today. While its inventors may not have foreseen the electronic age of the late twentieth century, they certainly set the stage for a technological revolution.

More relevant to everyday Americans was the introduction of Kodacolor, a color film marketed by Eastman Kodak. This development allowed individuals to take color photographs with affordable cameras.

The Growth of Post-War Arts

Tennessee Williams thrived in a vibrant artistic environment. In New York and major European cities, plays such as Lillian Hellman's The Searching Wind, Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, and John Van Druten's Remember Mama—which featured Marlon Brando—were performed. W. Somerset Maugham released his novel, The Razor's Edge, in 1944. That same year, Stephen Vincent Benet received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and T. S. Eliot published his Four Quartets. Renowned painters like Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo created much of their notable work during this era. Entertainment icons such as Cole Porter, Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, and Gene Kelly were widely celebrated. On a lighter note, 1944 also marked the debut of the Chiquita Banana song, which promoted brand recognition for the fruit—a phenomenon that grew significantly by the late twentieth century.

Conflict

Although the events in The Glass Menagerie unfold over just a few days, nearly every scene is filled with explicit conflict. The most apparent clash is between Tom and Amanda. Tom needs to leave the family to pursue his aspirations, while Amanda wants him to stay. This tension is most evident in their constant arguments over trivial matters like how Tom eats or the number of cigarettes he smokes. However, a deeper conflict exists within Tom himself. To chase his somewhat undefined dream, he must abandon not only Amanda but also Laura.

Narrator

While most plays do not use a narrator, The Glass Menagerie is designed so that Tom can serve dual roles. He is both a character in the play and the narrator who occasionally addresses the audience directly. This is particularly evident at the play's beginning when Tom summarizes prior events and describes the setting, and at the end when he shares what has happened to him in the intervening years.

Protagonist

The protagonist in a literary work is the central character who must undergo some form of change throughout the story, even if the change is purely internal. Tom is unmistakably the protagonist of The Glass Menagerie. Although he is not heroic and likely will not overcome his challenges, he does take decisive action by the play's conclusion.

Setting

The broad setting of The Glass Menagerie—as detailed in Williams's stage directions—is "one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units that flower as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers of lower middle-class population." In simpler terms, it is a sizable apartment building in a relatively poor area. The specific city is not named, suggesting that the details are unimportant since such neighborhoods are quite similar. All the action takes place within the living and dining rooms of the Wingfield's apartment, emphasizing the characters' sense of confinement. The time period is also somewhat vague. Clearly, the play is set several decades ago, as Tom can barely support a family of three on sixty-five dollars a month. However, without such details, the play could easily be set in the present day.

Symbolism

The Glass Menagerie derives much of its impact from the prominent use of symbols. The father's portrait dominates the family's wall, symbolizing his enduring psychological presence despite his long absence, which profoundly influences the other characters' attitudes. Candles also carry symbolic weight in the play. When Tom neglects to pay the electric bill, Amanda lights candles in the apartment, suggesting this will create a more romantic ambiance. The play concludes with Laura extinguishing the candles, symbolizing a death-like attempt to erase herself from Tom's memory.

The central symbol in the play is Laura's glass menagerie, particularly the unicorn. These delicate glass animals mirror Laura's own emotional and physical fragility. Although they mimic reality, they are not real; their value lies primarily in Laura's imagination. When the unicorn's horn breaks, Laura remarks that it is now like the other horses, implying that one must be broken to be considered normal. However, Laura is already "broken" and lacks the mythical status of a unicorn, signifying she will never achieve normalcy.

1930s: Adolf Hitler started to gain power in Germany. Despite the United States not officially participating, some Americans fought in the Spanish Civil War. World War II commenced in Europe in 1939, but the United States declared its neutrality.

1940s: During World War II, most men served in the military unless they were exempt for health or other reasons. The war had a significant impact, influencing both politics and everyday life.

Today: While the United States has engaged in smaller military conflicts in recent decades, no war has captivated the national consciousness since the Vietnam War ended in the mid-1970s. Although men must register for the draft at age 18, no one is currently drafted, and the military frequently discusses "downsizing."

1930s: The Great Depression was the major economic event, lasting most of the decade. Unemployment in the United States peaked at 13.7 million in 1932. While men were typically seen as the primary breadwinners, women also sought employment and were thankful for job opportunities.

1940s: During the war, women entered the workforce but returned to homemaking after the war ended. They took on roles in factories and other traditionally male-dominated workplaces to support the men fighting overseas.

Today: Many women work outside the home, even those with young children. This is often due to the necessity of dual incomes and the influence of the women's movement advocating for equal treatment in politics and business, which has expanded opportunities for women.

1930s and 1940s: Literature could be easily censored if it was deemed obscene, even subtly. Authors like James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence often faced scandalized reactions from the public.

Today: Issues of artistic merit and censorship persist. Works once considered pornographic in the 1940s are now often taught in high schools, but other works still face criticism. This is particularly noticeable when Congress debates the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts.

1930s and 1940s: Romantic interactions between men and women were typically formal and constrained. Men were expected to initiate dates and introduce themselves to a woman's parents. Women generally lived with their parents until marriage.

Today: While some relationships remain "conventional," the range of acceptable behavior between men and women is much broader. Gender roles are more flexible, although women still perform the majority of housework and childcare. With the age of marriage rising, both women and men often live independently before marriage, and cohabitation before marriage is common. Women can also choose to remain single without being labeled "old maids."

1930s and 1940s: During this period, it was rare for women to attend college or pursue higher education. Even for men, higher education was typically reserved for those who were financially well-off. Women who did attend business school often studied subjects like typing and shorthand, preparing themselves for secretarial roles where these skills were essential.

Today: The proportion of women and men attending college is now almost equal, though certain fields such as technology and engineering still see male dominance. Those aiming for office work today need a far more advanced skill set. Shorthand has become obsolete, and the ability to type alone is insufficient for employment unless complemented by knowledge of various computer programs.

The Glass Menagerie was adapted into a film by Warner Brothers in 1950. This black-and-white movie was produced by Jerry Wald and Charles K. Feldman, with Irving Rapper as the director. The cast featured Jane Wyman as Laura Wingfield, Kirk Douglas as Jim O'Connor, Gertrude Lawrence as Amanda Wingfield, and Arthur Kennedy as Tom Wingfield. The film also included roles for characters mentioned only in the play.

Another film adaptation of The Glass Menagerie was released by Cineplex Odeon in 1987. This version was produced by Burtt Harris and directed by Paul Newman. Joanne Woodward, Newman's wife, played Amanda; John Malkovich took on the role of Tom; Karen Allen portrayed Laura; and James Naughton played the gentleman caller. This version is available on video through MCA/Universal Home Video.

A television adaptation of the play aired on CBS in 1966. This version starred Shirley Booth as Amanda, Hal Holbrook as Tom, Barbara Loden as Laura, and Pat Hingle as Jim. It was produced by David Susskind and directed by Michael Elliott.

Another television version was broadcast on ABC in 1984.

Caedmon also produced a sound recording of the play. Released in 1973 as a two-cassette set, the cast included Montgomery Clift, Julie Harris, Jessica Tandy, and David Wayne.

FURTHER READING

Berkowitz, Gerald. "The 'Other World' of The Glass Menagerie" in Players, Vol. 48, no. 4, April-May 1973, pp. 150-53.
Berkowitz contends that the setting or "locus" of The Glass Menagerie, as well as other Williams's plays, shapes perceptions of the characters to the point where they appear "normal," while "normal" individuals seem like outsiders.

Bunan, Jarka M. "The Glass Menagerie" in International Dictionary of Theatre-1: Plays, edited by Mark Hawkins-Dady, St. James Press, 1992, pp. 187-89.
Bunan offers multiple character analyses, with a particular emphasis on Tom.

Chesler, S. Alan. "Tennessee Williams: Reassessment and Assessment" in Tennessee Williams: A Tribute, edited by Jac Tharpe, University Press of Mississippi, 1977, pp. 848-80.
Chesler discusses Williams's traits as a playwright and places his career within the context of his impact on American theater.

Hirsch, Foster. A Portrait of the Artist: The Plays of Tennessee Williams, Kennikat Press, 1979.
Hirsch examines Williams's plays through the lens of their autobiographical elements.

Londre, Felicia Hardison. "Tennessee Williams" in American Playwrights since 1945 - A Guide to Scholarship, Criticism, and Performance, edited by Philip C. Kohn, Greenwood, 1989, pp. 488-517.
Londre delivers an in-depth discussion of Williams's body of work and reputation, including a production history of several of his plays.

Moe, Christian H. "The Glass Menagerie" in Reference Guide to American Literature, edited by James Kamp, third edition, St. James Press, 1994.
Moe outlines the play's evolution from a short story and summarizes the plot.