The Glass Menagerie

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Summary: Message for today's family survival
Review: Just finished watching The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theater Archive Directed by Anthony HArvey) on DVD with Katharyn Hepburn,Sam Waterston, Michael Moriarity and Joanna Mills. This powerful play has matured with age and the times to create a forceful message to all humanities psycologicaly challenged widows,living with a son and daughter who are suffering from a backgrouind of a family where ther farther deserted the family and the children are held in bondage by an overpowering mother whom you are not sure is more interested in bagering her children or really struggling with her own sad life. Amanda (Hepburn) can't stop talking and criticizing her children driving them to destracton. Son Tom (Sam Waterston) appears more able to defend himself but his sister (Joanna Miles) who has been handicapped with a leg brace is far gone introvered in her lass Menagerie world and totaly in her inability to relate to the world becase of her infirmaty. I had a problem with Hepburn's diction and shrill voice in additon to her non stop chipping away at her children. Amanda does display her motherly love at times as when she understands her daugher's problem in dropping out of the business school. She does the same when after the blow between Tom and Mother, the silence between them is broken by Tom who reallay is a very sensative and caring porson but is driven to his wits end by the constant cackling of his mother. The most poignant and beautiful scene for which I was glad that I didn't stop watching in disgust was the interlude of Laura and Mr. O'Connor in the living room where they demonstrate the greatness of Williams. One is brought to tears as O'Connor who is a sensaitive young man, reveals to Laura her inner and outer beauty shredding her inferiority complex and shyness because of her handicap. It isa ost senative scene as he explains that most people are handicapped in one way or another and that she is realy a beautiful person and that her beauty and senativity overcomes her physical challenge. When he teaches her how to dance, lifts her and twirls her around in spite of breaking the prized unicorn she has had an epiphiney strong enough to overcome the disclosure that O'Connor will not be calling again. This play offers a message to one and all which cautions parents from being too domineering over the lives of their adult childrren and for those with handicaps to realize that their inner soul and spirit can shine outwards if they only give themselves an opportunity to blosom. In addition the message for the adult children is to educate yourselves and to learn to listen to your parents but be independant, never forgetting the fact that hopefully parents want their children to succeed and to be happy

I was disappointed with the ending of the play. I wish there was a more satisfying resolutin. One of a happier emancipation of son and daugher with a continued affecton for the mother. You never know where the characters will end up. Maybe that's good writing where you think about the future of their lives knowing all the issues the characters are still facing.

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Summary: A Tragedy to Literature
Review: I don't care if this play was somehow a foil of Tennessee Williams life, it was the worst "work" of "literature" I have ever been forced to read for school. I must add that I did read the whole thing and understood it. I took a class on it in ninth grade and got a A on my paper. But this is a story of Tom's pathetically sad life that involves his taking care of his aging mother who can't give up her past and his disabled sister with an unusal attration to glass figurines of animals. This play is filled with symbols, metaphores, and all that jazz, expecting you to feel for the characters and Tom. No, his unenthusiastic approaches at life, and depressed facade turn down any simpathy you feel for him. Amanda the mother is obnoxious, end of story. And Laura the sister is SO helpless you can't help from stopping to want to end her life now. Don't buy the play DON'T DO NOT watch it and never think about it again. Horrible.

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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: "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: Glass Menagerie
Review: The Glass Menagerie is a play by Tenessee Williams. It stars out int he mid 1940's with a family of three. Amanda is the overbearing mother who wants nothing more than to see her children succeed. Her husband was always smoking and going out without her. He left the family about 5 years ago. The family is dependant only on Tom the oldest son for income. He is a rebellious kid in his mid 20's who works at a factory. He is much like his father, goes out all the time and smokes too much. He would rather write poetry than work. His sister Laura is very shy. She is younger than he is and Amanda wants nothing more than for her to have male suitors. With Laura being shy this is hard, not to mention the fact that Laura is slightly crippled. Amanda asks Tom to bring home a suitor for Laura. He brings home a friend named Jim. Jim went to high-school with Laura, and they are very attracted to each other. Tom also reveals to Jim that he is a member of The Union of Merchant Seaman, and is planning on running away. will Jim and laura follow what they feel, will Tom run away leaving his family without an income? The answers to these questions l within the pages of The Glass Menagerie.

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Summary: ...
Review: if you think this is too boring, then you are too dumb

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Summary: Fabulous Play!
Review: I am very impressed with this play and Tennessee Williams in general. His plays are filled with emotion, depth, and integrity while at the same time the play is not cryptic, but easy to understand. His characters are complex and compelling, especially Amanda and Laura in this play. Also, the play is set in my hometown of St. Louis, and thus I have a personal appeal for the novel. In terms of the book itself, the text is nice and big and the characters' lines, stage directions, and descriptions are easily distinguished from one another. There is also a nicely written introduction and a bonus essay by Mr. Williams himself entitled "The Catastrophe of Success." Also included are passages preceeding the play that describe the characters and location.

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Summary: Heartbreaking Autobiography
Review: Tennessee Williams very thinly masks his own family in this heartbreaking play. Amanda Wingfield is the mother of Laura and Tom - they have been abandoned by their father and, after a few short scenes with Amanda, you can see what drove him away.
This awful woman lives in her imagined past of gentility and gentleman callers. One doubts her memories even closly mirror the reality of her past.
Laura, her daughter, has been so brow beaten by Amanda that she has retreated into an imaginery world where her glass animals are her only friends. She is painfully shy, has a slight limp and has been made to feel horribly handicapped and unattractive by Amanda. Tennessee Williams mother actually had a lobotamy performed on his beloved sister and it is not a stretch to see the similarities.
Tom, Laura's brother supports the family and dreams of leaving it all behind. He would except for his love for and loyalty to his sister.
Although the story elevates the dysfunctional family to an entirely new level, the writing is beautiful and each character is memorable. The frustration and sadness are palatable. The writing is marvelous and the characters will stay with you forever.

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Summary: Ranks as One of the Finest
Review: There are few American playwrights who rank as highly in the Pantheon as Tennessee Williams. He is up there with O'Neill, Miller and Albee as amongst the quintessential dramatists of the 20th century. This is one of his earliest, and in some respects his most timeless, of his scripts. No one can argue that it his most autobiographical, as it portrays a cloyingly suffocating matriarch, Amanda, and a younger sister, Laura, who are both interchangable characters for Williams' own little St Louis family. Actually, in real life, the outcome was much more tragic, as Williams' mother had a frontal lobotomy performed on his actual sister. One can see how Williams may have harbored some deep resentments towards his mother, and he spends most of his time getting even with her in this Euripidean play.
Though recent adaptations of this play have emphasized the "touchy-feely" aspects of the relationship between brother and sister (Why does Treat Williams come to mind?), the actual script lends itself to a much darker, Medea-like interpretation, which I believe Williams originally intended. This is Williams way of getting back at the evil Witch of the West who dominated his youth and who would exert her influence upon him for the rest of his life. It doesn't take a Freud to untangle this thread.

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Summary: A great modern drama
Review: Amanda Wingfield always tells her daughter, Laura, she should look nice and pretty for gentleman callers, even though Laura has never had any callers at their St. Louis apartment. Laura, who limps because of a slight physical deformity, would rather spend her time playing with the animals in her glass menagerie and listening to old phonograph records instead of learning shorthand and typing so she can be employable. When she learns Laura has only been pretending to go to secretarial school, Amanda decides Laura must have a real gentleman caller and insists her son Tom, who works at a shoe factory, find one immediately. After a few days, Tom tells Amanda he has invited a young man named Jim O'Connor home for dinner.

The night of the dinner Amanda takes charge personally to make sure Laura looks more attractive. However when Laura realizes that the Jim O'Connor who is visiting is possibly the same Jim on whom she had a crush in high school, she does not want to go through with the dinner. Although she has to be excused from the dinner because she has made herself physically ill, Laura is able to impress Jim with her quiet charm when the two of them keep company in the living room and she finally loses some of her shyness. When Jim gives Laura her first kiss, it looks as if Amanda's plans for Laura's happiness might actually come true.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE is the first big success in the long and storied career of playwright Tennessee Williams. This "memory" play tells of a family trapped in destructive patterns. After being abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield has become trapped between worlds of illusion and reality. She says she wants what is best for her children, but seems incapable of acknowledging what that would be or actually providing it for them. Tom, tired of only watching adventure at the movies, is determined to break away from his dominating mother, but stays only for the sake of his sister. Laura may not be the dominating belle of the ball her mothers wants, but she has her own inner charm and when confronted with Jim, a visitor from the normal world, there is the chance that she will finally claim her life as her own. A poignant drama on the importance of love.