“The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams written in 1944. In many of his plays the circumstances reflect his own life, in the Glass Menagerie this is especially true. His father, a violent traveling salesman, and mother a puritanical, preacher’s daughter. He also had an older sister named Rose, whom he cherished, she suffered from psychological problems which lead to an institutionalized life. The Glass Menagerie represents a somewhat altered image of the Williams family. The play set in the 1930’s in the Wingfield’s meager apartment; which is in a lower-class tenement building in St. Louis, it’s a “memory play,” in which Tom (after his own real name Thomas) recalls scenes from his youth during the height of the Depression. Outspoken Amanda, …show more content…
The glass menagerie of the title refers to Laura’s prized collection of beautiful, delicate glass, miniature animals. The Collins English Dictionary definition of menagerie “A menagerie is a collection of wild animals.” (Collins English Dictionary) Laura’s collection personifies her imaginative world, her sanctuary from society. Somewhat innocent, timeless nature of the menagerie further highlights Laura as a figure who exists outside the conventional confines of time and place. It also embodies the susceptibility of memory and of dream worlds. The glass menagerie becomes symbolic of anything that is too exquisite and too fragile to endure in harsh reality. “A fragile, unearthly prettiness has come out in Laura: she is like a piece of translucent glass touched by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting.” (Williams) This description made about Laura’s appearance while Amanda is helping to dress her to receive their gentleman caller; it compares to that of her glass menagerie of unearthly fragile glass creatures some real and some not of this world. The glass figurines can break effortlessly so too can