I.  Goals and Objectives

A.  Interpret and appreciate an Expressionist drama

B.  Describe Tennessee Williams’s literary accomplishments and explain the historical significance of The Glass Menagerie

C.  Describe the structure of a drama

D.  Identify, define, and give examples of archetypes, irony, metaphors, and symbols in literature

E.  Write a critical essay

F.  Proofread for spelling errors

II.  As you read The Glass Menagerie, take notes on the following topics.

A.  You will be required to write a short essay on one of these topics.

1.  As you work through the play, make one list of references and descriptions of objects you encounter that embed the action in the “real” world of life in the Wingfield apartment and another list of what you perceive as “non-real” devices that enhance the development of the play. Be prepared to share and defend items on your lists with explanations of how they contribute to various aspects of the play. Give thought, particularly, to how Williams interweaves items on the two lists to affect “innuendo and nuances” that contribute to his development of characterization, narrative and theme.

2.  As Williams points out in his opening comments, the play is “episodic.” What does he mean by that reference?

a.       Think about the “rhythm” and sequencing of your memories.

i.  Are they episodic?

ii.   Could one argue that Williams’ use of episodic structure adds verisimilitude to his development of Tom’s memory as the structural device for accessing the past? Explain.

b.       Give careful thought to Tom’s final speech.

iii.  Does it align with the way memory works in your consciousness?

iv.  Try to think of two or three examples of what specifically triggered a recurring memory in your mind stream.

3.  Build a specific explanation of how you think each of the following “non-linear” references contribute to the development of such aspects as the characterization, narrative, and dramatic tensions (conflicting values, outlooks, situations) of the play.

·         Guernica

·         the “fifth” character

·         the fire escape

·         the movies

·         phonograph records

·         stage lighting

·         the D.A.R.

·         the jonquil dress

·         the warehouse

·         Blue Roses

·         the coffin “trick”

·         the unicorn

·         the blowing out of the candles at the end

B.  Through both direct statement and the implications of “non-real” symbolic devices, Tennessee Williams, in his play, The Glass Menagerie, projects an indictment of the economic and sociological landscape of 20th century America in the years preceding World War II.

1.  How do the “real” and “nonreal” aspects of the play, contribute to the shaping of Williams’ indictment?

III.  Terms to Know

A.  Stage Directions

1.  Stage directions are notes included in a play in addition to the dialogue for the purpose of describing how something should be performed on stage. Sometimes writers also include information about the economic, political, or cultural background of the play.

a.       Reread the stage directions at the opening of this play, before the entrance of the narrator.

v.  What is the social class of the people who live in the "overcrowded urban centers" described in those stage directions?

vi.  What "poetic truth" is expressed by the term fire-escape?

B.  Expressionism

1.  Expressionism is the name given to a twentieth-century movement in literature and art that reacted against Realism in favor of an exaggeration of the elements of the artistic medium itself.

a.       In the stage directions at the beginning of this play, we are told that the "scene is memory."

viii.  Whose emotional recollections will be viewed by the audience?

ix.  What elements of the setting, as described in the opening stage directions, are unrealistic and calculated to create emotional responses in the audience?

x.  What is special about the play's lighting and use of sound effects?

C.  Character

1.  A character is someone who figures in the action of a literary work.

a.       Amanda, the mother of Laura and Tom, is nostalgic about her Southern upbringing.

xi.  What statements made by her show that she remembers the South as a special, cultivated, refined place where life was more decorous and elegant?

xii.  What statements and actions on her part show that she wants the same kind of life for her children?

xiii.  What suggestions are there in scene 1 that Amanda's ideas are unrealistic, that she is clinging to a past that has disappeared?

xiv.  The commentary between her children ("I know what's coming now!" and "Yes. But let her tell it.") indicates that the world has changed and her children cannot relate to her memories and are merely humoring her by letting her recount them.

D.  Metaphor

1.  A metaphor is a figure of speech in which something is spoken or written about as if it were another. The figure of speech invites the reader to make a comparison between the two things.

xv.  Tom is saying that because people of this period did not wish to see or under­stand the world around them, they were being forced to face reality by the economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression. Tom com­pares the economy to the Braille alphabet. People might be begin­ning to question the American dream or ideal of material success.

E.  Irony

1.  Irony is a difference between appearance and reality.

a.       At the end of this scene, Amanda mentions the portrait of the father that hangs in the room. What became of this man?

b.       What makes it ironic that Amanda should pin her hopes on Laura's having a gentleman caller and then immediately think of her husband's picture?

c.       What does this sequence of events suggest about the fulfillment of Amanda's hopes?

xviii.  The sequence of events suggests that Amanda's hopes will not be realized.

F.  Theme

1.  Theme. A theme is a central idea in a literary work.

a.       Jim, who is taking night classes and who wishes to become an executive, epitomizes those people who aspire to a dream of material success.

b.       What sort of person is Jim?

c.       Would you describe him as optimistic or pessimistic?

d.       What indications does the play give that Jim is shallow and egotistical?

e.       Jim says, "You know, knowledge—ZSZZppp! Money—Zzzzzzpp” POWER! Wham! That's the cycle democracy is built on!"

xxii.  Do you agree with him?

xxiii.  Why, or why not?

f.        What has happened to the old, gracious way of life that Amanda remembers?

g.       At the end of the play, Tom says, "I speak to the nearest stranger—anything that can blow your [Laura's] candles out!—for nowadays the world is lit by lightning!"

xxv.  How is Tom's phrase "lit by lightning" related to Jim's statements about television and electricity

xxvi.  Is someone like Laura suited to life in the modern world?

b)       Why not?

xxvii.  What commentary is Williams making about modern urban life by drawing this comparison?

G.  Archetype

1.  An archetype is an inherited, often unconscious ancestral memory or motif that recurs throughout history and literature. The notion of the archetype derives from the psychology of Carl Jung, who wrote of archetypes as making up humanity's "collective unconscious."

a.       Tom says that "Like some archetype of the universal unconscious, the image of the gentleman caller haunted our small apartment."

b.       Why is Amanda so insistent on Laura's having gentlemen callers?

c.       How does Laura respond to the idea?

d.       How is the idea of the gentleman caller related to the picture of absent father, the one that is always smiling?

H.  Conflict

1.  A conflict is a struggle between two forces in a literary work.

a.       What struggle does Tom face?

b.       What family circumstances make it very difficult for him to pursue his own dreams?

c.       What options does Tom have?

d.       Why do none of these options seem particularly attractive?

 

I.  Symbol

1.  A symbol is a thing that stands for or represents both itself and something else.

a.       Of what is the glass menagerie in this play a symbol?

b.       With whom is the menagerie associated?

c.       What similarities do the menagerie and this person have?

d.       How might Tom's actions affect his sister, Laura?

e.       What symbolic significance does the breaking of the menagerie have?

2.  Writers use two types of symbols—conventional, and personal or idiosyncratic.

a.       What does the coffin of which Tom speaks symbolize for him?

b.       What "trick" does Tom want to be able to perform?

c.       What "nails" would he have to remove in order to perform this trick?

d.       Why does Tom think that it would take magic for him to be able to do that?

J.  Cliché

1.  A cliché is a tired or hackneyed expression such as quiet as a mouse or couch potato.

a.       Identify some of the many clichés with which Amanda's speech is peppered.

b.       What does Amanda's use of clichés reveal about her?

c.       How does her language differ from that of Tom?

K.  Consider these symbols and their possible meanings to the text.

Explain the symbolic significance of the following elements of act one:

1.  the fire-escape

a.  The fire-escape symbolizes a way out of the human desperation that burns within the apartment building

2.  the gauze curtains

3.  The gentleman caller

4.  the glass menagerie

5.  the name "Blue Roses"

6.  the father's picture

7.  Tom's breaking the glass menagerie

8.  the difficulty that Tom has in getting on his coat

9.  Laura's tripping and falling on her way out to Garfinkle's Delicatessen

10.  Tom's trying unsuccessfully to use a key to open the door

11.  the coffin trick performed by Malvolio the Magician

12.  Amanda's jonquils

13.  The movies

14.  the partially melted candelabrum

15.  the glass unicorn

16.  Jim's giant shadow

17.  the bits of colored glass that Tom sees in shop windows

18.  the candles referred to by Tom at the end of the play

19.  the lightning that now lights the world, referred to by Tom at the end of the play

 

IV.     Additional Vocabulary

1.        vitality—power to go on living

2.        hostility—feeling of ill will; unfriendliness

3.        ritualistic—characterized by hav­ing a set form or system of rites

4.        translucent—able to be seen through

5.        compose—pull together; settle

6.        domestic—of the home

7.        illumination—light

8.        negligence—carelessness

9.        revival—coming back into life or use

10.     decanter—decorative glass bottle

11.     indulgence—giving way to one's desires

12.     inferiority complex—any feeling of being inferior to, or not as good as, others

13.     aggravate—make worse; annoy

14.     partial—favoring one more than another

15.     extinct—no longer in existence

16.     rejuvenate—make feel or seem

17.     impulse—tendency coming from within

18.     automatism—automatic action

19.     lattice-work—open-work door, gate, shutter, or trellis

20.     gallantly—in a brave or noble manner

21.     ascend—move upward

22.     secretion—substance released

23.     temperament—one's frame of mind or natural disposition

24.     nimble—quick; agile

25.     absurd—ridiculous; silly; nonsensical

26.     inaudibly—in a manner unable to be heard clearly

27.     humility—state or quality of being humble

28.     vivacity—liveliness

29.     allusion—indirect reference; casual mention

30.     martyr—person who suffers great pain or misery for a long time

31.     debutante—girl or woman making debut into society

32.     confiscate—take away from

33.     impudence—quality of being bold or disrespectful

34.     jeopardize—endanger, put at risk

35.     vice—bad or harmful habit

36.     solemn—serious; somber

37.     avert—turn away, look away from

38.     bower—person or thing with great strength

39.     compensation—amends for a loss or damage

40.     pathetic—pitifully unsuccessful

 

V.      General Questions about the play

1         What happened to Laura when she went to the business college? Why did she drop out? What does she spend her days doing? What did Jim call her, and how did he come up with this name? What do all of these details tell you about Laura's personality and character?

2         What does Amanda fear? What circumstance is she in because of the departure of her husband? What does she want for Laura? When she realizes that Laura will not attend business school, what alternative plan does she immediately devise?

3         Why doesn't Laura enthusiastically embrace Amanda's plan for her? How would you describe Laura's physical condition? her psychological condition? Why is the latter more significant than the former?

VI.     Questions from the Acts

A.      Act I, Scene i, p 689

1.        How does Tom differ from a stage magician?

2.        About what is Amanda nostalgic? What does she want for her daughter?

Whom does Amanda expect to be calling? Why does she ask Laura to study her typewriter chart and to practice her shorthand? What does Amanda want for her daughter?

 

B.       Questions: Act I, Scene ii, p 694

1.        What happened to Laura when she went to the business college? Why did she drop out? What does she spend her days doing? What did Jim call her, and how did he come up with this name? What do all of these details tell you about Laura's personality and character?

2.        What does Amanda fear? What circumstance is she in because of the departure of her husband? What does she want for Laura? When she realizes that Laura will not attend business school, what alternative plan does she immediately devise?

3.        Why doesn't Laura enthusiastically embrace Amanda's plan for her? How would you describe Laura's physical condition? Her psychological condition? Why is the latter more significant than the former?

 

C.                   Questions: Act I, Scene iii, p 699

1.        What does Tom want to do with himself? What does he fear will happen if he continues working at Continental Shoemakers?

2.        As a result of his argument with his mother, Tom acts in a way that hurts Laura. What does Tom want to do with his life? How would doing that also harm Laura?

3.        Tom and his mother want very different things in life, but in a sense they are quite similar, for they both are passionate dreamers. Of what does each person dream? In what ways do their dreams conflict with one another?

 

D.                  Questions: Act I, Scene iv, p 700

1.        Why is Tom so impressed by the magic trick of escaping from a coffin without removing a nail? What similarities are there between the trick and what Tom would have to do to get himself out of his current situation?

2.        What is Tom thinking about doing? How would doing that make him like his father?

3.        In what ways is Tom already preparing to escape in this scene? In what ways is he distancing himself from his present life?

4.        Ask students how they feel about the fact that Tom treats Laura as a child and does not reveal his intentions to her. Would it be kinder of him to prepare her in advance of his possible leaving?

 

E.                   Questions: Act I, Scene v, p 707

1.        How does Tom feel about getting up in the morning and going to work at the warehouse? Why might Tom find his mother's way of waking him up particularly annoying, given the feelings that he has?

2.        At the beginning of the scene, we learn that Amanda has decided not to speak to Tom. What happens in the rest of the scene? In what way is such behavior typical of Amanda?

3.        What similarities does Amanda see between Tom and her husband? Of what is she afraid?

4.        What is Amanda's plan for her family? Why does she need Tom in order to carry out that plan?

5.        Why does Tom go to the movies? What does he want out of life? Where does Amanda suggest that he might find that? Why doesn't Tom agree?

6.        What philosophical differences do Amanda and Tom have in their views of human beings? Why is Amanda horrified at Tom's discussion of instincts?

 

F.                   Questions: Act I, Scene vi, p 714

1.        Why is Amanda excited about Tom's news?

2.        What do Amanda's questions for O'Connor reveal about her plans for him? What makes it funny that she is making such plans at this time?

3.        Amanda accuses Tom of ignoring "the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past. . . everlasting regret if you don't plan for it." In your own words, what is the warning that Amanda gives Tom here?

 

G.       Questions: Act II, Scene vii, p 724

1.        How does Laura feel toward Jim? How do you know?

2.        What attitude does Jim have toward Tom's writing? What comment is the playwright making about the role of the artist in a society driven by material success?

3.        Why is Jim studying public speaking? What does he hope to do? Why is Tom not interested in taking such a course?

4.        According to Tom, what do people in America do instead of living their own lives and having their own adventures? What has Tom decided to do?

5.        Is Jim O'Connor the sort of person whom Amanda would want to have as a suitor for Laura? Why, or why not?

6.        Do you believe that Amanda's hopes for Jim and Laura are realistic? Why, or why not? In what ways are Jim and Laura different? Explain.

H.      Questions: Act II, Scene viii, p 738

1.        How does being plunged into darkness affect the final scene of the play? What situation is thereby created for Jim and Laura? What might this darkness represent?

2.        Why does Amanda want to leave Jim and Laura alone together? In what sense is this "apparently unimportant” event the climax of Laura's "secret life"?

3.        What is special about the candelabrum? With whom is the candelabrum associated? How is this candelabrum related to Tom's comments at the very end of the play?

4.        With whom is the figurine associated? What do this person and figurine have in common? How is the breaking of the figurine related to the breaking of Laura's heart and of her dream?

5.        What is an inferiority complex? Who, according to Jim, has one? What advice does Jim give about overcoming an inferiority complex? Does his advice seem realistic to you?  Why, or why not?

6.        Why does Tom leave? Years afterward, how does he feel about leaving? What continues to haunt him?