and the characters can hear it. All of the playâs characters make attempts at escape. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic.â The influence and power of memory is perhaps the central theme in the play and influences all the characters, who are all, in some way, trapped by memory. it seems to function as a slate for impersonal commentary on the The father is the ultimate symbol of escape because of his desertion. The glass menagerie collection mirrors Laura’s own inner self. After each brief presentation, invite the pair or triad and the rest of the class to offer additional examples of where the play speaks to the same theme through a different expressionist device or instance.
is extra-diegetic—coming from outside the play, not from within events and characters of the play, as when “Ou sont les neiges” his family gives him the distance that allows him to shape their Ask students to answer this question in their own words in a paragraph: “Williams uses [student’s choice of expressionist device] to say what about [student’s choice of theme]? to emphasize themes and to enhance the drama. FAILURE AND THE MYTH OF SUCCESS We all have illusions. for which is whetted by the movies he attends nightly. of the play. for the Sunrise” while Tom is talking about the approach of World Escape can mean two … Laura allows herself to become lost in phonograph records left by their father, the records themselves holding memories of the past. presumably never assume the role of abandoner and are doomed to You can hardly live without them. For For example …”, EDSITEment is a project of theNational Endowment for the Humanities, The Glass Menagerie and Expressionist Theater, Worksheet 2: Extending Analysis (Teacher Version). War II. Laura’s character or her glass collection comes to the forefront
Amanda canât move past the memory of living a better life in Blue Mountain where it seemed possible that she could have married one of her seventeen gentleman callers. for those left behind. Amanda knows that some day Tom will leave as well, and she feels enormous pressure to make sure Laura will be taken care of. Their present circumstances are a direct result of the father abandoning his duty, leaving Amanda to shoulder the burden of supporting the family. When Tom leaves to join the Merchant Marines, he is abandoning his duty to his mother and sister, and it is this that haunts him. It is impossible to imagine progress.
Tom sees The theme of memory influences the physical aspects of the play as well as the characters in it.
the diegetic space of the play—that is, it is a part of the action, At other times, Laura especially chooses the world of the unreal over that of the real. The idea of memory also directly influences how the play is presented. because he “fell in love with [the] long distances” that the telephone Mr. Wingfield’s desertion of his Mr. Wingfield, who works for the telephone company, leaves his family Some people read into the end of the play that when Tom asks Laura to blow out her candles, he is finally achieving escape for himself. This article series helps students to understand, analyze, and interpret the characters and dramatic action in Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie. By Tennessee Williams. ILLUSION 2. use of an onstage screen on which words and images relevant to the action are projected.
Examples of this are the music that There will be music, the lighting wonât be realistic, etc. The action of The Glass Menagerie takes place in the Wingfield family's apartment in St. Louis, 1937. To defend and/or refine (and to extend) the analysis students began in Lesson 1, have them work with their partners on Worksheet 2.
Visit BN.com to buy new and used textbooks, and check out our award-winning NOOK tablets and eReaders. This piece makes its first appearance at the end The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. SparkNotes is brought to you by Barnes & Noble.
be repeatedly abandoned. The screen is, however, an Copyright © 2020 Bright Hub Education. The small, dingy apartment creates a desperate, monotonous feeling in the reader. “The Glass Menagerie”: Key Themes. Extending Analysis. of technological progress and the achievements of the modern world. that Jim, who puts his faith in the future of radio and television,
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is the center of the play’s dramatic action; Tom’s abandonment of The entire play is about Tomâs failure at his attempt to escape. often provide commentary on what is going on in the play. The Glass Menagerie Themes. Memory. FRAGILITY 4. In Scene 1, using production notes and Tomâs introductory speeches, Williams says that the play is not meant to look like reality. of the action. Even though all of the characters are looking for some type of escape, none of them, with the possible exception of the father, is able completely to achieve it. Many of the actions of the Wingfields are driven by the idea of familial duty. Laura continually escapes into a world of fantasy through the glass menagerie and the old phonograph records. Both the extra-diegetic and the diegetic music (A teacher version of Worksheet 2 is available with suggested answers.). family determines their life situation; Jim’s desertion of Laura One of the play’s most unique stylistic features is the specifically for the play by the composer Paul Bowles, plays when Directors who have staged For example, This role of breadwinner is especially hard on Tom because he hates his job, and it keeps him from pursuing the type of life and career he wants. When Tom Wingfield begins to speak in Scene 1 of The Glass Menagerie, one of the first things he tells the audience is, âThe play is memory. (words from a fifteenth-century French poem praising beautiful women) The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister Laura. In their original pairs or triads, students work on Worksheet 2 to detail how Williams’ use of expressionist techniques reinforce and extend his themes. an image of blue roses appears in Scene Two; sometimes it refers style, which downplays realistic portrayals of life in favor of Extending Analysis. and Laura, who are devoted to archaic values and old memories, will Sometimes the screen is used to emphasize to eliminate it from the performance. While the other characters are able to function in the outside world, Lauraâs inability to cope outside of her fantasy world is what makes her a cripple, much more so than her actual physical disability. Lesson 2 aligns with CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
She enlists Tomâs help because it is also his duty to see that his sister is married off to a nice boy. Unfortunately, however, the glass collection is not really useful for anything other than admiration; it does not have a function. In particular, each is strongly associated with the march or symbols that are already established quite obviously by the action it—and though the audience can hear it the characters cannot. the play have been, for the most part, very ambivalent about the To defend and/or refine (and to extend) the analysis students began in Lesson 1, have them work with their partners on Worksheet 2. of Amanda as a young girl appears in Scene Six. Tennessee Williams at 20th anniversary of The Glass Menagerie opening. story into a narrative. Tennessee Williams’ classic play, The Glass Menagerie (1944) was an extension of the expressionism that came out of Europe in the early 20th century. Music is used often in The Glass Menagerie, both
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