The Value of Society: The Glass Menagerie
The Values of a Society: The Glass Menagerie
Set in the American south during the Great Depression, The Glass Menagerie is a powerful tale narrated by character Tom Wingfield, who reflects on his memories of family life and the events leading to his departure from the Wingfield home. Tennessee Williams writes the story, set in the
1930s during the Great Depression. It deals with a Southern family living in a city tenement in St
Louis, Missouri. The story reflects the values of the society and a family that belongs to the lower middle class in the late 1930s, a time of struggles and national conflicts. It depicts people who have lost their fortune and must work hard to survive, but who are not able to forget about their wealthy past. The play opens with a description of the Wingfield apartment and its surroundings. Tennessee Williams shows how the architecture of the buildings resembles the life of the people that live there, people living in a mass of human beings without identity. He shows them as isolated, like prisoners in a beehive that destroys their individuality and makes them like cattle. Tom, who is a sensitive person, is aware of this fact and wants to escape to preserve his creativity. He thinks that his creativity will be destroyed if he remains in such a place. The Wingfields’ apartment is like a prison from which Amanda and Laura, Tom’s mother and sister, are unable to escape. By the end of the play, they are even more deeply enmeshed in their closed world than they were at the beginning. Amanda’s great hope was that Laura would graduate from a business college and pursue a career as a secretary, but once she finds out that
Laura was too shy even to attend classes, she pins all her hopes on finding Laura a husband.
When that scheme fails too, all hope seems lost. A life of worry, economic insecurity and dependency seems inevitable. As a contrast to this, an image of escape is presented throughout the play, in the form of the
Set in the American south during the Great Depression, The Glass Menagerie is a powerful tale narrated by character Tom Wingfield, who reflects on his memories of family life and the events leading to his departure from the Wingfield home. Tennessee Williams writes the story, set in the
1930s during the Great Depression. It deals with a Southern family living in a city tenement in St
Louis, Missouri. The story reflects the values of the society and a family that belongs to the lower middle class in the late 1930s, a time of struggles and national conflicts. It depicts people who have lost their fortune and must work hard to survive, but who are not able to forget about their wealthy past. The play opens with a description of the Wingfield apartment and its surroundings. Tennessee Williams shows how the architecture of the buildings resembles the life of the people that live there, people living in a mass of human beings without identity. He shows them as isolated, like prisoners in a beehive that destroys their individuality and makes them like cattle. Tom, who is a sensitive person, is aware of this fact and wants to escape to preserve his creativity. He thinks that his creativity will be destroyed if he remains in such a place. The Wingfields’ apartment is like a prison from which Amanda and Laura, Tom’s mother and sister, are unable to escape. By the end of the play, they are even more deeply enmeshed in their closed world than they were at the beginning. Amanda’s great hope was that Laura would graduate from a business college and pursue a career as a secretary, but once she finds out that
Laura was too shy even to attend classes, she pins all her hopes on finding Laura a husband.
When that scheme fails too, all hope seems lost. A life of worry, economic insecurity and dependency seems inevitable. As a contrast to this, an image of escape is presented throughout the play, in the form of the