The Glass Menagerie

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Summary: A Simplistic Story of Human Emotion
Review: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is what many refer to as a memory play about the Wingfield family set in St. Louis during the 1930's. The narration is doused with nostalgia so the reader never receives a true sense of reality when reading the story. The dialogue is simple and easily understandable. The story's message shines through and the general public can relate to the characters because of this very fact.
Williams interweaves symbolism between characters with their surroundings or objects in several instances throughout the play. Whether Williams is comparing Laura's innocence with the fragility of her glass figurines or Jim, "the gentlemen caller", with the hopes and dreams of the whole Wingfield family, symbolism is a key literary device used in the play.
However, despite the symbolism being intriguing and fun to figure out, the social ideals of the time might be hard for younger generations to understand or relate to. One could easily find Laura's extreme shyness and unwillingness to leave the house for school quite perplexing. Also, the way in which her innocence was revered by Jim for being precious might also confuse some readers. Moreover, Amanda's many stories of gentlemen callers and the pressure she puts on Tom to find one for his sister Laura is not a situation most people are faced with in this day and age. However, if the reader can look past these differences and focus on the family dynamic of the three characters I think they'll be able identify better with the story.
I could connect with the character of Laura's sense of awkwardness because of being "handicapped" and also felt sympathy towards Tom's feelings of obligation for his family. I enjoyed this play very much and would recommend anyone to read it. I think any reader could appreciate this play because it is so easy to read and we all have family and friends who we share a dynamic with similar to the ones provided by the characters in the story.


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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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Summary: Cast delivers that realism
Review: Glass Menagerie was 20th-cent. realism @its zenith, although I didn't know that in high school when this play was assigned. Desperate to read & understand, I found the recording with Monty (Misfits) Cliff & Jessica (Miss Daisy) Tandy in the local library. I read along with the recording, & when I was done, I read it again.

When the time-warped Amanda Wingfield crows, "What? Not one gentleman caller?," you wanna smack her. Sure it's depressing: all these realism guys--O'Neill, Williams--were miserable & depressed. That's why what they cranked out was "art," as opposed to advertising.

It makes a difference to me who's reading or performing: the actors here were top-notch, the material was complex & agonizing. Complex: @the beginning of a play about failure & defeat, who can beat a line like Tom Wingfield's "My father was a telephone repairman who fell in love with long distance?" Etc.

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Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Review: I really enjoyed the play "The Glass Menagerie", by Tennessee Williams. It was very well written and at times you felt as though you were a part of the cast. The way Williams has made Tom the narrator and character is unique and interesting. The characters are very real and you are able to see each of their faults, which enables you to relate more to each character. The thing I most enjoyed about the play was that it was a pretty easy read, and it had an important underlying meaning. As you read, you realize that there are many things you miss out on in life while living in an "imaginary" world; you have to take time to come back to reality and see what you're missing.
One thing in particular that I didn't like about the play was the fact that the characters were so engaged in their fantasies that they could not snap back to reality.The mother, Amanda, is so consumed with controlling the lives or her children and attempting to make their lives what she wants them to be, that she has missed out on living her own life. Laura and Tom allow themselves to be whisked away into her world and they become stranded on their own island of fantasy in her fantasy world. Tom walks away leaving the entire situation behind him, but is never really able to forgive himself for not finding a way to save his sister.
Overall, the play is engaging and fun to read and even more interesting to see on stage. I would recommend it whether you've never read a play or read one hundred plays ,it will definitely keep your attention.

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Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Review: Tennesse Williams struggled for years to get his break as a writer and more specifically as a playwright. Williams finally got his break and came into his own when THE GLASS MENAGERIE was performed at the Civic Theatre in Chicago in 1944. The show was an instant success and finally brought Williams the fame and recognition he had been seeking most of his life. Though there are several differences (for instance, Williams' father never left his family--in fact the family wished he was absent more than he was) the play is a somewhat autobiographical play. The play has just four characters: Amanda Wingfield, the devoted and loving mother; Laura Wingfield, the fragile as glass daughter; Tom Wingfield, the supportive and oppressed son; and Jim O'Connor, Tom's friend and the "gentleman caller" who's visit brings about the play's climax. Williams called the play a "memory play" and that is exactly what it is--a look at time and family and the search for one's identity all through the lens of memory. Even though audiences have changed a great deal over the years, the play still resonates, almost as strong as it did when it was first written. Williams was a playwright, but he wrote almost everything in pure poetry and every line of THE GLASS MENAGERIE is filled with his poetic imagination and genius. As a side note, the play is usually interpreted as a straight drama. However, performed as a comedy, the play works just as well with very little substance getting lost. After all, it's all about memory and sometimes we need to look at something in a different way to remember it a little better.

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Summary: Overview of The Glass Menagerie
Review: The Glass Menagerie, by Tennesse Williams is a tale of desperation and a longing for something more. The characters within this incredible stories pages yearn for more than the mundane facts of life. Amanda, who plays the mother, grew up a pure southern belle. As she describes it, men practically kissed the ground she walked on. Wouldn't you think her daughter Laura would be the same? The answers no. Laura is a shy, crippled girl who is forced to wear braces on her legs. Unlike her mother, Laura rarely has gentlman callers and this bothers Amanda. Her mother, not knowing what to do with Laura, signs her up for business classes which Laura secretly skips. Her brother Tom is an aspiring poet who is forced to work in a shoe warehouse so he can support his family. Their father ran out on them at an early age and the only thing they have recieved from him in years is a single postcard.
The Glass Menagerie is one of the few books that has ever caught me by surprise. You can't help but feel the agony of repression these three main characters feel. The novel, which was originally written for the stage, only takes place over a very short period of time in late 1930's. It was a time of change and growth of the human spirit. The beliefs of youth and age clashed and no matter who you were you longed for something different. But as our character Tom figures out at the end, change isn't always what you need.
I feel the most interesting quality this novel contained was it's use of symbolism. The fire escape had so much meaning behind it, it was practically impossible to miss. It was their only way of escaping the pain that was inside the walls of their home. The music that was often cued in the play took a major part in creating the essense behind the story. Music relates to memory and that is what this play comes down to, memories of how it should be, or should I say, the delusions the Wingfield family created.
Overall this book impressed me. It had all the elements a good story should have,(pain, pleasure, humor, distruction and healing). I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to sit down and sink into a well written story. After all, everyone lives within their own glass menagerie.

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Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Review: The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams has many things I found you can relate to your own life. Even if you don't have an annoying mother crippled sister or lives in St. Louis. There are three main characters. Amanda, Laura and Tom and they all have problems that they are trying to escape. I first found their problems made the book more realistic but as the book progressed they were, at times, nearly oblivious to reality.
Williams also uses some symbolism, which emphasizes the themes. The music played at the end of each scene and at random times show drama. The blue rose symbolizes Laura's uniqueness, and it represents her appeal to Jim, a guy form high school. The fire escape symbolizes the characters trying to escape from their lives. I like when writers use symbolism especially with a short book because you can pick up on the meanings and the point of the book better. 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 you shouldn't dwell on them or you may be missing something better that is right in front of you.
Getting enthralled in what has happened in the past and staying in the past had happened to too many people in their lives. I think Williams brought this to our attention in a good way. The novel is a fast paced book and it kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I didn't like the fact that it was set up as a play though. I don't like reading plays but if you do I recommend this novel.

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Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Review: The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, is a good book to read. The plot of the story is set around a mother and her two children; Laura and Tom. The mother, Amanda, is a very proud woman and wishes the best for her children. The only problem is that her daughter, Laura, is crippled with a bad leg and extreme shyness, which keeps her from interacting with the outside world. Her brother, Tom, has stepped in to take the role of the father in the family. He works to support the family but often find himself bored with his job. To fix this problem, he does whatever he can to take his mind off his life.

There are a couple things I do not like about this book. I think that the main reason I did not like this book is because it was so short. Because it was so short, the book did not have a very interesting plot. It also lacked very much emotion and thoughts from the characters, which made it hard to see the world from their shoes.

But there were also a few things that I did like that made the book easier to read. First, the book was in the form of a play. This showed you exactly who was talking. There were also very few characters with each of them having distinctly different personalities. This kept the story from getting confusing like Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," which has like five characters with names that sound alike .The ending of the book was decent but it could have been better if it did not leave the reader with so many questions.

Overall the book was a good read. I would suggest it to everyone even though it has some flaws and dull points.

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Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Review: The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, is truely a book you can't put down. Each charachter is so different from another, and somehow you connect with each one, whether you like their actions or not. Amanda, the mother, and your two kids, Tom and Laura, live a depressing life starting from when their father left years ago.
I for one, really enjoyed reading this book. I liked that it was in play format, making it an extremly easy read, not to mention it was not very long. I found myself finishing the play in one day because I couldn't put it down, I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. My favorite character was the mother. I thought she was a riot because of how she was always on her kids for something, whether it was Tom, and how he was always out late at the movies; or Laura, and how she never had gentleman callers. Although, she did annoy me at times when she would speak of old memories when her gentleman callers would be lined up for her each week. She reminded me of someone that did not have a lot of money, but loved pretending like she lived some other life to show the gentleman callers how good the family had it. I also like Tom's character a lot. I thought it was really easy for people to relate to him. He was an average man working at a shoe warehouse to support his mother and sister. I really connected with Tom because I could feel for how truely frustrated with his life he was. I felt bad for the numbing routine of his job, and then coming home to his nagging mother. Although I do not agree with how he choose to deal with it(movies and excessive drinking), that is how he escaped the reality of his life. The only thing I did not really like about this book was Laura. I think is was because we are such different people. It annoyed me how shy she was, and quick to give up on things because she was nervous. I felt that if I was actually in a room with her, her nervousness would just fill the room immeadiatly and I would become uncomfortable. Her whole presence just annoyed me. I didn't like the fact that she gave up on her schooling, and pretended as if she was still going. It bothered me that she was okay not doing anything with her life. All that mattered to her was her "glass menagerie".
After many of countless nights of Amanda begging for a gentleman caller, Tom finally brought one home for Laura. Ironically, it was Laura's highschool crush, Jim O'Connor. She was so nervous, she couldn't even open the door until forced to by Amanda. She was so sick to her stomach that she didn't even show up to dinner, which again annoyed me. When Amanda was cleaning the kitchen, Jim went for Laura. The two of them talked, danced and even kissed. Jim really got to Laura and opened her up. At this point I was really happy, because for the first time I wasn't annoyed by Laura, but I was thrilled for her. By the way things were going, I thought Laura was going to find someone. That is until Jim apologized for the kiss and explained to her that he was in a serious relationship, and actually engaged. I was really sympathetic towards Laura now, and I felt bad that her heart was broken by Jim. I thought the ending of the play was good. The only thing that bothered my is that I didn't get to see what happened to the characters. I was left wanting to know more, like if Laura ever got married, or if Tom ever found a job that would make him happy.

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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