The Glass Menagerie
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The Glass Menagerie is a play by Tennessee Williams. The play premiered in Chicago on December 26, 1944, and in 1945 won the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The Glass Menagerie was Williams's first successful play; he went on to become one of America's most highly-regarded playwrights.
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[edit] Synopsis
The play is set in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, during the Great Depression and deals with the troubled relationship between an aging mother, Amanda Wingfield, and her painfully shy daughter Laura Wingfield, as told by the son and brother, Tom Wingfield, who is supposedly relating events from memory. He states that the play is not completely realistic, because "memory takes much poetic license." In this "memory play", the time scheme moves freely between the past (the 1930s) and the present (1944-1945). (The action occurs in either 1935 or 1936, since it is "two years" after Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair.)
Amanda is fixated on her idealized version of her Southern childhood and is the perfect example of the 'faded southern belle' whom Williams often writes about in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire. She often recalls days when as many as seventeen gentleman callers would visit her. Her current life involves such sorrows as a complete reversal of fortune - her husband, described as a "telephone man who fell in love with long distance", abandoned the family when Tom and Laura were children. Amanda has since made a meager living working in a department store and selling magazine subscriptions. She therefore suffers a withdrawal from reality (to a smaller extent than that suffered by Tom or Laura), yet is the most extroverted family member in the play. Laura has a slight physical handicap: she wore a brace in high school, and now has a slight limp. She has become cripplingly shy as a result. The outside world frightens her, and she prefers the comfort of her collection of glass animals and the sounds of her father's old Victrola records. Although Tom provides financial support, working long hours in a shoe warehouse (a job he thoroughly despises), Amanda sees Tom as a "selfish dreamer" who irresponsibly retreats into movies, alcohol, and novels instead of doing more to provide for the family.
Amanda soon discovers that Laura, instead of attending business college, dropped out after a few days. Sensing her mother's disappointment, Laura explains that she was frightened and embarrassed, becoming physically ill at her first typing test. Her hopes of Laura's employment dashed, Amanda resolves to find a suitable companion for Laura, fearing that she will become like the "barely tolerated spinsters" she recalls from her past. Laura is less enthusiastic, but nevertheless mentions a boy named Jim whom she liked in high school.
Meanwhile, Tom and Amanda's relationship grows even more strained, illustrated by a quarrel in scene 3. The fight is sparked by Amanda's returning one of Tom's D. H. Lawrence novels to the library because she sees it as obscene "filth". Here Tom threatens to leave for good referring to his father in a reluctant yet promising manner. Before he begins to leave the house he tells Amanda a sarcastic story of his life when he allegdedly "goes to the movies". He tells of villainy, drug use and prostitution that would cause her to get not a moment's sleep without worry, the fight continues. Then at the climax of the argument, Tom hurls his overcoat across the room and breaks some of Laura's glass animals; at the sound, she cries out as in pain.
In the next scene, Tom apologizes for the fight, and Amanda asks him to find a clean-living man from the warehouse to meet Laura over dinner. Somewhat reluctantly, he does so, and in scene five announces that he has found one: an Irish man named Jim O'Connor. Ecstatic, Amanda interrogates Tom about his suitability and frantically prepares for his arrival, tidying the house and fussing over Laura's appearance. However, once Amanda mentions Jim's name, Laura immediately recognizes him as the boy she loved in high school and pales. Once he arrives at dinner, Laura is so nervous she can barely come to the dinner table. When she gets there, she gets ill and has to be excused to the couch where she stays as the others finish dinner. After Tom and Amanda entertain Jim at dinner, Amanda leaves the room to do dishes taking Tom with her, leaving him alone with Laura.
During their conversation, Jim judges Laura as the victim of an inferiority complex, and advises her to see herself as "superior in some way", relating his own experience and goals for the future - in his case, the new invention of television. Jim manages to coax Laura out of her shyness. She shows him her collection of glass, noting a unicorn as her favorite. Laura even agrees to dance with him after he offers. Inadvertently, Jim breaks the unicorn; Laura says it is no trouble, imagining that it had an operation to feel less "freakish". Eventually, Jim kisses Laura; however, he quickly realizes this mistake and hurriedly explains that he is engaged to a girl named Betty, proceeding to expound on how this engagement has changed him through love. Laura, crushed, offers him the broken unicorn as a "souvenir".
Amanda returns and soon discovers Jim's engagement for herself. When Jim leaves, she blames Tom for the situation; furious, Tom leaves for good. As Amanda is shown comforting Laura, silently, Tom delivers a soliloquy, revealing that he was never fully able to abandon their memory. The play closes with an image of Laura blowing out the candles, leaving darkness.
[edit] Symbolism
Like most of Williams's works, The Glass Menagerie is rich in its symbolism. Probably the most prominent is that of the glass menagerie itself; it symbolizes Laura's fragility and delicacy, qualities that contrast with the bleak setting. The unicorn in particular represents her as well, being different from other horses; other critics interpret it to represent her illusions about Jim. When Jim breaks it, the action foreshadows his ensuing revelation.
The unicorn also possibly represents Laura's virginity. According to legend, the only way to trap a unicorn was for the hunters to place a virgin in the forest. The unicorn would approach her and lay its head in her lap, allowing the hunters to capture it. In the play, the breaking of the unicorn's horn may symbolize Laura's never-to-happen sexual awakening.
The setting contains much symbolism as well. The fire escape (a name described as having "poetic truth") parallels his desire and eventual escape from reality. Tom's recounting of the stage show given by Malvolio is similar. Across the alley from the house is the Paradise Dance Hall; as its name suggests, it is a surrogate paradise for the people who frequent it.
A more overt device is seen in Tennessee Williams's use of on-screen "legends" written to accompany certain portions of dialog. However, these are omitted in most productions of the play.
In addition, a pattern of religious imagery is seen throughout the play, likely influenced by Williams' Episcopalian background. Amanda and Laura are often described in saintly or angelic fashion; for example, light shining on Laura described as similar to that which illuminates saints or madonnas. Tom's descriptions, by contrast, tend more to the anti-religious; one example is seen during his fight with Amanda, where he refers to himself as "El Diablo" (the devil). Jim is portrayed as a modern-day savior similar to Jesus Christ; this portrayal becomes ironic when he fails to rescue the Wingfields.
Another important symbol repeated throughout the play is that of light. Tom's refusal to pay the light bill, his command for Laura to blow out her candles at the end of the play, Laura coming into the light during Jim's visit and the moonlight vigil, seem to suggest that it represents the characters' hopes and their relationships to each-other. The 'lightning' Tom speaks of at the play's end is also contrasted with the actual lighting onstage at the time he delivers his final monologue - Laura's candles.
Perhaps even another important symbol is Tom's obsession with cinema. His constant retreat from the house to the theatre is a way for him to literally and mentally escape his life. While watching a movie, Tom can escape from his world into the movie world. His final departure to the Merchant Marines seems almost theatrical in its un-uniqueness.
Yet another important element of symbolism is found in Tom's desire to imitate the magician and escape from the coffin without damaging any of the nails. He feels that his family has trapped him in a bad situation, or "coffin," and he wants to get out of that situation without harming any of his family members.
The gentleman callers that Amanda references throughout the play, also have significant symbolic clout. Amanda becomes absorbed in her world of gentleman callers, especially when she reminisces about her times living in the South. But they also represent a life that she ultimately never had, one of popularity and happiness with a significant other. This ends up being one of the reasons why she tries so feverently to find Laura a proper suitor. Amanda fears that Laura will ultimately end up like her, and thusly, tries to fix the mistakes in her past through Laura.
The dance hall, from which Tom often hears the music out on the fire escape, represents untouchable adventure. Like the magic trick with the coffin and the nails, Tom wants to go to the dance hall, he wants a different life. Of course, he can't go to the dance hall, as he would remove some of the "nails."
[edit] Autobiographical themes in the play
One of the key interpretations of the play is its relation to Williams's life. All of the characters appear to be connected to members of his family: the mother, Amanda Wingfield, shares characteristics with Williams's mother, an aggressive woman who had delusions of being a southern belle and living a genteel life. Laura Wingfield, her daughter, is similar to Williams's mentally handicapped sister, Rose. For most of his life, Williams felt guilty about leaving his mentally ill sister on her own, to nearly die from a botched lobotomy. In the play, Tom feels as if he is betraying his sister by leaving home, just as his father did.
Some critics have thought that Tom is a homosexual (just as Williams was). Tom is a writer working a menial job in a shoe factory (as Williams did). While he works at this factory, Tom actually writes poetry. Tennessee Williams's real given name was Thomas, so there is clearly a connection between Tom in the play and Williams himself (also, Williams' father was a traveling shoe salesman). Jim O'Connor, Laura's love interest, may reflect the type of popular, charismatic character that Williams wishes he could have been. Women flock to O'Connor; Williams has not always been so loved. The end of the play is tragic: O'Connor leads Laura on with a kiss but lets her down shortly afterwards with the news that he is engaged to another woman. Tom, the family's sole provider, leaves home to be a sailor and fulfill his want for adventure. He fulfills it, much as Williams finally fulfilled his dream of being a successful writer.
[edit] Parodies
The Glass Menagerie was parodied by Christopher Durang in a short one-act entitled For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, in which Laura is replaced by a wimpy hypochondriac son named Lawrence, and the "gentleman caller" becomes a butch female factory worker with a hearing problem named Ginny.
Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans did a parody called The Plexiglass Menagerie, set in a FEMA trailer in post-Katrina New Orleans, with Landry playing Amanda in an all-male cast.
[edit] Production
The Glass Menagerie was actually reworked material from one of Williams' short stories, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass". The play was first produced by Eddie Dowling and Louis J. Singer at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, Ill., on December 26th, 1944. It was later performed at the Playhouse Theatre in New York City on March 31st, 1945. The cast was:
- Amanda Wingfield: Laurette Taylor
- Tom Wingfield: Eddie Dowling
- Laura Wingfield: Julie Haydon
- Jim O'Connor: Anthony Ross
It was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the season.
The Glass Menagerie is in active production in 2007, with a West End revival at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. The run will continue until 19 May 2007. It is directed by Rupert Gould and starring Jessica Lange as Amanda Wingfield. Jessica Lange has also played Blanche in an American television production of A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Alec Baldwin's Stanley.
[edit] Film and Television Adaptations
At least two movie versions of The Glass Menagerie have been produced, the first directed by Irving Rapper in 1950, starring Gertrude Lawrence, Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas, and Arthur Kennedy, and the second by Paul Newman in 1987, starring Joanne Woodward, John Malkovich, Karen Allen, and James Naughton. Williams characterized the former, which had an implied happy ending grafted onto it, as the worst adaptation of his work. It is not currently available on VHS or DVD, and is difficult to find unless recorded off of television airings.
More popular than these, however, is a TV adaptation by Anthony Harvey from the year 1973, starring Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, Michael Moriarty, and Joanna Miles. This was first shown on the American Broadcasting Company. All four actors were nominated for Emmys, with Moriarty and Miles winning. An earlier television version, recorded on videotape, and starring Shirley Booth, had been presented in 1966 by CBS. Hal Holbrook played the Gentleman Caller. Ms. Booth was likewise nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Amanda.
There is also an Indian version of the movie, filmed in Malayalam, a regional language. The movie titled 'Akale' (meaning Beyond), released in 2004, is directed by Shyamprasad. Prithiviraj, Geethu Mohandas, Sheela and Tom George give life to the main characters.
[edit] External Links & Resources
| The Plays of Tennessee Williams |
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| Adam and Eve on a Ferry, And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens, At Liberty, Auto Da Fé, Baby Doll (screenplay), Battle of Angels, Beauty Is the Word, Camino Real, Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!, Candles to the Sun, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Chalky White Substance, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Creve Coeur, The Dark Room, Demolition Downtown, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Fat Man's Wife, The Frosted Glass Coffin, Fugitive Kind, Garden District, The Gentleman Callers (screenplay), The Glass Menagerie, Grand, Hello from Bertha, A House Not Meant to Stand, I Can't Imagine Tomorrow, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle, Kirche, Küche und Kinder (play), The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, The Last of My Solid Gold Watches, Lifeboat Drill, The Long Goodbye, Lord Byron's Love Letter (libretto), The Magic Tower, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Moony's Kid Don't Cry, The Mutilated, The Night of the Iguana, Not about Nightingales, The Notebook of Trigorin, Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, The One Exception, Orpheus Descending, Out Cry, The Palooka, A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot, Period of Adjustment, The Pink Room, Portait of a Madonna, The Purification, The Red Devil Battery Sign, The Rose Tattoo, Something Unspoken, Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein), Something Cloudy, Something Clear, Spring Storm, Stairs to the Roof, Steps Must be Gentle, A Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly, Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, Summer at the Lake, Small Craft Warnings, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tiger Tail, This Is (An Entertainment), This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God, This Property is Condemned, Three Players of a Summer Game, Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton, The Two-Character Play, Vieux Carré, Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?, You Touched Me |
