Preview

The Glass Menagerie Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
413 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Glass Menagerie Analysis
The Glass Menagerie and A Doll House have connections, with how the writers utilized the characters, and the symbolism to illustrate key ideas of the female characters, and the direct connection that each character has with the symbols. In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams utilizes the characters in such a way, that Tom is not only a character, but he is also the narrator, the father is in the play but only figuratively, but his character can also be seen through Tom “ I’m like my father. The bastard son of a bastard! see how he grins and he’s been absent going on sixteen years!” ( Williams Pg. 483) . There is also another character and that is Jim, Jim is one of Tom’s friends and he is seen as a gentleman caller by Amanda, yet he engaged to his high school sweetheart he is also see as a very sweet person “people are not so dreadful when you get to know them. That’s what you have to remember and everybody has problems not just you, but practically everybody has got some problems, …show more content…
The symbolism of the glass menagerie is a figurative image of who Laura really is, which is fragile and delicate. The glass menagerie is another world for Laura “She lives in a world of her own- a world of little glass ornaments.” (Williams Pg. 472). A Doll House is plotted during the Christmas and New Year season, a symbol from A Doll House is the Christmas tree, which symbolizes family, unity and joy. “Hide the Tree well, Helen. The children mustn’t get a glimpse of it till this evening, after it’s trimmed.”(Ibsen Pg. 43). The macaroons show Nora’s inner passion which she needs to hide from her marriage. “Just now (putting the macaroon bag in her pocket and wiping her mouth.)” , yet she had to hide her passion for wanting to be with Trovald from her husband “you’re my secret draling young bride to be and that no one suspects there’s anything between us.” (Ibsen Pg.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Glass Menagerie Symbolism

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The glass menagerie symbolizes the life of Laura. Laura grew up with a medical problem that included wearing braces on her legs. Laura felt different and outside the norm for other children. Her fragile body made her to become shy and private. Her only solace would be the collection of fragile glass animals. The oldest of her collection was the unicorn. The unicorn a beautiful and majestic creature, still having the visible "deformity" of the horn. The unicorn just did not quite fit in with the other horses. As Laura had the "deformity" of the braces, she did not seem to fit in. The addition of the other glass animals would give the unicorn friends, as Laura hoped to have.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Glass Menagerie, by Williams, Tennessee is set in 1937 in the city of St Louis. The narrator is Tom Wingfield who supports his sister, Laura, and mother, Amanda. Tom acknowledges that he is the only man in the family and he strives to take care of the two women. Laura is a shy girl who drops out of school due to the challenges that she faces because of her shyness. The relevance of the narrative is deeply engraved in the use of the symbolism of the unicorn whose horn was later broken to resemble a normal horse due to its association with the conversion of the disillusioned Laura into a normal minded woman. Laura keeps the unicorn and other glass animals to be distracted from the normal daily activities that provoke her painful shyness. This paper analyses the use of symbolism in the play The Glass Menagerie.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Motifs are abundant throughout the world of literature. Many esteemed works of literature contain symbols in order to imbibe deeper meanings. Trifles’s canary and The Glass Menagerie’s glass animals both serve to further enhance the characterization of Mrs. Wright and Laura in each respective work.…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams there is a since of fantasy and escape among the characters. They all live in there own type of world. Tom Wingfield, our narrator’s sister Laura is in a crippled world of her own. She lives in a world where it consist of phonography records and her favorite glass animals, she lives in a world of confinement and dependency. Amanda Wingfield, Tom’s mother lives in a world of the past, she feels trapped by the life she was given. She did not choose to be left with her two children alone not being able to enjoy life. She escapes to her world of her gentlemen callers to forget about it all. Tom Wingfiled lives in a world of movies and writing, but among all these characters, there is one character who has managed to escape the desperate and…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, the literary element of symbolism is constantly presented in The Glass Menagerie. Tennessee William’s uses the fire escape, Laura’s pleurosis, and the actual glass assortment of animals to represent…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tennessee Williams uses many situations, characters and objects as symbols. Two of these objects are the glass menagerie and the glass unicorn. It can be said, because of the title of the play, that the glass menagerie is the central symbol and also due to its repeated appearance along the story. The collection of glass animals represents Laura’s nature because like the menagerie, Laura is delicate, unique and beautiful to those who know how to see her. As the menagerie, the unicorn has a lot of meaning because it particularly represents Laura due to its unusualness and loneliness and after it brakes, it shows how Laura changes.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tennessee Williams', The Glass Menagerie, is a play that evokes great sympathy and in some cases, empathy for a protagonist who struggles to overcome two opposing forces; his responsibilities and his desires. There are many symbols and non-liner references that contribute to the development of characterization, dramatic tensions and the narrative. This essay will examine in detail, the aspects of the play that contribute to the development of the above mentioned elements.…

    • 1848 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Laura’s collection of glass animals is also a major symbol in the play. Laura Wingfield keeps a collection of tiny glass animals that she cares for as if they were her pets. She takes care of this glass menagerie, (which the play is named after) frequently, polishing them, rearranging them, and playing with them on a regular basis. But this tiny glass animal collection is more than just a…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Glass Menagerie” by the famous American playwright Tennessee Williams is well-known for its lyrical tone and poetic power. The play is about love and understanding, inner isolation and desire to escape, when the main characters have their own paths to follow. Tennessee Williams depicts a true-to-life picture of the family survival with their mutual care and tenderness, but at the same time pressure and home violence. The events are presented by one of the main characters, Tom Wingfield, who lives with his mother and a crippled sister, and because of their father’s financial problems it is Tom who has to take care of others. In fact, he dreams to quit his tiring job at a shoe warehouse and become a poet, but being unable to do it, he starts…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism plays a fundamental part in Tennessee Williams’s play, “The Glass Menagerie”. Examples of the use of symbolism include the fire escape, as an escape from the family, the phonograph, as an escape from reality, the unicorn, as a symbol for Laura's uniqueness and the father’s photograph, representing something different to each character. Through recognition of these symbols, a greater understanding of the play’s theme is achieved.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Glass Menagerie

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages

    (Tischler 33). The menagerie really symbolizes Laura herself, and the many facets of the glass…

    • 1987 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Glass Menagerie

    • 1131 Words
    • 4 Pages

    "The Glass Menagerie" is a play written by Tennessee Williams. The play is semi-autobiographical, told from the point of view of the writer. It is a memory play set in the home the Wingfield family. The play is about a young man, Tom, who lives with his mother, Amanda and his sister, Laura. The play explores the various struggles of each individual during the great depression. The characters all have their flaws and motives which help us to understand them and sympathise or agree with them. All the characters in the play behave in some sort of obsessive manner; however, Amanda behaves most strongly this way.…

    • 1131 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Glass Menagerie

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The female voice in “The glass menagerie” is highlighted essentially through the character of Amanda and her nostalgia towards her past life. In the play Amanda uses speech when she talks about her past life she maintains that she had a lot of gentlemen callers “seventeen! –Gentlemen callers!” she explains, a day that has been recounted so many times. The use of speech demonstrates to the responders Amanda’s voice through her evocative attitude about her past. As the play continues Amanda’s voice and her nostalgia towards her past life is demonstrated through music. The stage directions She stops in front of the picture. Music plays this is used to enhance the feelings of regret that Amanda’s voice shows. Amanda’s feelings towards her past are linked with the theme of the play, appearance and reality. Amanda fluctuates between illusion and reality, recalling days of her youth, as it is her only defence against the boredom and emptiness of living. Through Amanda’s voice it is indicated that she hasn’t accepted her reality and clings to her views from the past. Williams uses Irony when Amanda accuses Tom of living in a dream ‘you live in a dream; you manufacture illusions’. The use of Irony demonstrates that Amanda is the one who is living in the dream since she can’t move on from her past ways and life. Williams uses Amanda and her nostalgic feelings towards her past life to identify how the…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main themes in The Glass Menagerie is the pursuit of happiness. Throughout the book/playwright, the characters are constantly trying to make their life more enjoyable. The Screen images and phrases I have chosen reveal the theme of “pursuit of happiness”. When the screen legend displays the phrase “Ou sont les neiges d’antan” a sense of pursuit is created. Meaning “Where does the snow fall?”, the characters are looking for this hope, where snow resembles rebirth and a new hope. This search expresses the pursuit of happiness. As this screen legend is more symbolic, the screen image “A swarm of typewrites” is slightly more literal. This “swarm of typewriters” acts as a evil swarm of bees raining down on Laura just like Amanda. Amanda’s expectations act as if they were a “swarm”, chasing and forcing Laura to achieve success.(pursuit of happiness). The screen image of “The cover of a glamour magazine” also symbolizes this pursuit of happiness. It’s kind of ironic that the name of the magazine is Glamour, however Amanda is desperately selling the magazine to achieve her own “Glamour”. I also chose the screen legend of “You think I’m in love with Continental Shoemakers?”. This screen legend expresses the fact that Tom is going against his desires to achieve a greater happiness. He does not like his job, but it brings in the money which in Amanda’s eyes is a form of happiness. Tom however dreams of doing his own thing, so therefore I chose the screen image of “A sailing vessel with Jolly Roger”. In Tom’s perspective he sees adventure and freedom as a his form of happiness. One day, Tom wants to be this adventurous and this screen image is what Tom desires or pursuits to be.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Individuals in our society have dreams and places in their imagination where they go to escape from the real world. People dream about being rich and living extravagant lives, like the protagonist Tom Wingfield. Other individuals try to live their fantasies through other people because they never had the chance to live them while they still could, like Tom’s mother Amanda Wingfield. Then there are human beings who enjoy keeping to themselves and quite frankly do not have dreams, just like Tom’s sister Laura Wingfield. In Williams’…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays