Abandonment In Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

Abandonment as a Familial Trait:
Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie In Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, a family setting is depicted where the son has taken on the role of father in the actual father’s absence which ultimately becomes too much for him to handle. As the drama concludes, Tom—who plays both the narrator and a main character—follows in his father’s footsteps by leaving his mother and sister after living his adulthood as the breadwinner for his abandoned mother. Though Tom does not leave the family until the final scene, the theme of abandonment is present throughout Williams’ drama’s entirety. The recurrence between father and son suggests a familial tendency for abandonment; however, this does not make Tom a bad
However, there is a possible difference between Tom and his father. As the drama is told by Tom playing the narrator, the audience only sees his perspective and is incapable of knowing whether or not Tom’s father regrets or thinks about leaving his family behind as Tom does at times. He expresses his inability to stop thinking of his family as he says, “It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass—Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city” (Williams, 975). Williams ends the scene and entire play with this soliloquy from Tom to portray this exact feeling of loss over his family. He did not leave them to forget about them. Rather, he left to make a life for himself pursuing what he had a passion for and excelled at doing. Despite his abandonment, he is still a good person due to the fact that he left for good and valid
The theme of abandonment is constant throughout the drama; first in the father, and then in Tom. Ultimately, it was the selfless support of his family and the accusation of being selfish from his mother that caused Tom to not be able to handle supporting his family any longer. This shows a trend of abandonment between father and son despite Tom’s best efforts to not end up like his father and be there for his family. However, pursuing his own dreams and happiness does not make Tom a bad person for committing one act of selfishness in account of his many years of