The Glass Menagerie

5 Pages 1357 Words

The Glass Menagerie


Tennessee Williams’ “memory play” originates after World War II in a dark, dreary alley in St. Louis. The play consists of only four main characters or actors; a mother, brother, sister, and the gentleman caller round out the people. The names given by Williams are; Amanda Wingfield to the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother who narrates the play, and Jim the gentleman caller. The story progresses along the lines of Amanda searching for a mate for her daughter, because she had seventeen callers in her day. The father figure has abandoned the family years before leaving Tom as the man of the household.
At the outset of things, Tom is plotting and scheming, while his mother wants him to hear once again about Blue Mountain and of all the callers she had back in her day. She is rather degrading/racist to the dark skin folk and very close-minded when recalling these times. The three can’t agree on whatever they’re talking about and the scene end’s with Amanda feeling as though she is going to be an old maid.
In the next scene, Laura catches her mother missing the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting the night before. Amanda also catches Laura when she asks about why her typing teacher had not even seen her showing up at school. Laura gives a very puny speech, she goes on telling her mother of how she wandered the streets the night before, going inside various places to warm up. Then, the two of them begin chitchatting about how Laura used to really like one boy who called her Blue Roses. She explains the name to her mom, but Amanda wants to hear nothing of this or her crippled-ness and emphasizes that she has charm and vivacity.
Amanda chooses to ask Tom to be the one to find a caller for his sister after he and his mother have another frank discussion and he storms off once again to the “movies”. He does so in a rage and on his way out to the movies ends up b...