Rating: 
Summary: Ick
Review: I found this play rather dull. While Williams' use of symbolism to relate dreams is interesting, the rest of the work is not. Blaah
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but lacked redeeming theme
Review: Readers who are looking for a fairytale, happy ending, will not find one here. It was depressing, yet the skill with which William's crafted the story demands admiration from its readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking
Review: Tennessee Williams' best play, it is a story of four people who are alone and sad, so cold you want to reach out and comfort them, each living in their own worlds but unable to touch each other. I particularly cared for Laura, who is clearly the most tragic of all the characters. I was near tears during the final moments of the play when she shows her glass unicorn to Tom, and even more touched when she chooses to give it up...the thought of a helpless girl alone in a world of glass figures is simply heartbreaking. "The Glass Menagerie" is simply a masterpiece, better than any of Williams' other plays because it depends more on human emotions than the others do.
Rating:
Summary: Shines
Review: Possibly Williams' finest play, The Glass Menagerie has all the emotion and power of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof or Streetcar Named Desire without the violence. Sadly sweet, this play is more concerned with nostalgia and the unraveling of dreams than lies and violation. It retains its poignancy throughout the three acts and evokes powerful characters and themes.
Rating:
Summary: this play is ultimately Williams' crowning achievement
Review: This play is, in my opinion the best of all of Williams' many prolific works. All of Tennessee's plays evoke a strong sense of emotion, and all reach deep within to the very heart, mind and soul of the reader to envoke passionate response and sympathy for the characters and situations .All show deep understanding of human nature,and through his brilliant writing technique, the characters spring forth into life and we cannot help but to love, hate and sympathize/empathize with them. In his characters, we all see someone we know,and often, that someone is a part of ourselves. However there is no work that exemplifies this better than The Glass Menagerie. The characters is this play are amazing and overwhelmingly tragic and complex,and the issues so relevant,even today,that we all find ourselves relating and sympathizing with one or more of the characters. The imagery is amazing,and the story heart wrenching. I found myself near tears on numerous occasions,moved so easily by the Plight of the tragic heroes of this play, Tom and Laura, and Amanda. The relationships between these characters is truly one of the best and most realistic of any literary work that I have read. Their tragic lives are described in an intreguing and gut wrenching manner, and you find yourself suddenly drawn into their sad, twisted lives,unable to escape,and wanting only to shout out and offer support to these tragic figures,whose lives are spiraling forever downwards into inescapable turmoil and despair. You often find yourself unable to put the book down,yet at the same time not wanting to read further,so as not to get to the next tragic scene. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is simply too amazing to describe. READ IT!!
Rating:
Summary: Work of Art
Review: This is the work of art. William. T has used a variety of symbols representing this play. This is a high rated book, because of the great uses of symbols and facts in reality. You must see and study the play, to figure out the symbols representing different facts in this artistic play.
Rating:
Summary: In-depth work full of thought and precision
Review: The Glass Menagerie is a very well-written play that portrays a family that all lacks. Tom lacks the ability to prosper because of his childish attitudes. Laura lacks the ability to live because she refuses to come out from her shell created by her physical deformity. The mother lacks a life of her own that pleases her and therefore tries, in vain, to live a new, wonderful life through her children. Every movement and object in this play represents some deeper thought. Williams includes many motifs that make The Glass Menagerie one of the best plays that I have ever read
Rating:
Summary: I love this story very much.
Review: I love Tennessee's plays, but I think that this is the best play of his. It's so impressive, sentimental, so sad, which reminds me of something I have forgotten.
In this play, Tom is described as a sort of selfish person and outsider, but I feel deep love for his family, Amanda, and Laura.
If you haven't read it yet, you should read it right now!
Rating:
Summary: "What shall I wish for, Mother?"
Review: This drama of the Wingfield family is one of the twentieth century's great American plays, and it is no surprise that it is still taught throughout the country as an example of fine theater. The characters are psychologically true for their 1930's setting, and they reveal themselves brilliantly through their dialogue. The story is simple, the symbolism is obvious and readily understandable, the claustrophobic and depressing atmosphere is heightened by the fact that all the action takes place in a small apartment, and the line between reality and dream world, while clear to the audience, is tragically unclear to the players on stage. Though the play may be structurally and aesthetically satisfying to an older audience familiar with this period, it may be less successful, after sixty years, to a contemporary audience. Amanda is so meddlesome that her good heart, her dreams for her family, and her control over Tom are unrealistic by today's standards. Tom, with his sense of obligation toward the family, sometimes appears personally weak. Most difficult, however, is Laura, so pathologically shy and introverted that she is happy to stay indoors all day, polishing her glass animals and remaining completely dependent on her brother and mother to support and protect her. This has always been one of my favorite plays, but reading or watching it now feels a bit like watching a costume drama. Though it is brilliantly written, its characters and dramatic situations are so different from our twenty-first century lives, that the play and characters really come alive only when analyzed in conjunction with the social context in which they were originally presented. For a modern audience, Laura may be more pathetic than tragic. Mary Whipple
Rating:
Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Review: "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams was very well written. Williams did an excellent job of portraying life-like characters. They were so well written, that they seemed real, like us at certain points in our lives. At one time, we were all like the mother, Amanda, who seems to live in the past, and be kind of overbearing at times, for example when Laura only went to three days of her business class that she was sort of forced into going to. Laura, the shy character, also is very life like in the fact that we all were a bit like her too. Everyone, at one point in their life was really shy and just wanted to stay locked up in their room. Tom, the son, is the narrator in the story. He constantly tries to escape reality by going outside and to the movies. He's the sort of person who just needs to constantly escape from life. The main theme of "The Glass Menagerie" is just that. Trying to escape from the sometimes-disappointing reality called life. The plot was simple, yet very effective. A reason for the simplicity I think is that this book is meant for us to realize that even though things may have been better in the past, not to live in it, but rather to live in the present, because we may be missing something even better than what we had that is right in front of us, waiting for us to notice it, but we're so enthralled in the what has happened in the past we don't see it. Basically what "The Glass Menagerie" is trying to tell us is that we need to live in the future and if we don't, then we will miss out on all the un-lived life that lies right in front of us, waiting for us to discover it.
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