Stage Directions

Many plays do not require elaborate stage directions because it's not always important to the play's structure. In Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, however, stage directions are essential to the understanding of the play. The play had a number of stage directions but all contributed immensely to show the reader and or audience what exactly was going on. The stage directions and use of spectacle in The Glass Menagerie intensify the somewhat unrealistic setting and help show certain elements like characters appearances, mood, foreshadowing, and emphasize key events. Describing characters' appearances and presenting messages upon the screen, the stage directions foreshadow and emphasize events. For example, Tom standing on the fire escape looking "like a voyager" (Scene 1)
The stage directions in the play helped develop the characters almost as much as the dialogue did. The night the gentleman caller, Tim, comes to the house for dinner Amanda "wears a girlish frock of yellowed voile with a blue silk sash. She carries a bunch of jonquils--the legend of her youth is nearly revived" (Scene 5). Although the stage directions show how Amanda cannot face reality, they leave the audience and or reader with a sense of admiration for Amanda and her attempt to protect her family. The development of Amanda in the play shows she came along way and even though she was self absorbed she wanted the best for her children. Another character that developed a lot throughout the play was Laura. Laura's character went from being a shy girl who played with glass animals to being a girl who danced the night away with her crush. Although the stage directions said that she hadn't totally came out of her shell after that. Without the directions written it would be hard for the audience and or reader to see that. Tennessee did a great job with having detailed stage directions contribute as much to the play as the dialogue