The Glass Characters
The modern drama, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) has seven-acts and five characters. The prominent characters in the play include Tom Wingfield (the son and the central protagonist), Amanda Wingfield (the mother), Laura Wingfield (the disabled daughter), Tom’s friend Jim, and the father (who does not make an actual appearance in the play). The Wingfield family lives in a small, rental apartment- with a fire escape- that is surrounded by other neighboring cellular living-units. All of three characters are not in touch with the real world, and though the family lives together, each member is distant from each other and the world as a whole. Through various trials, the harsh fate- and the simultaneous impossibility of changing that fate- of the Wingfield family is shown. Generally, this drama illustrates humanity’s struggle in discerning reality from illusion, the loneliness it feels in the midst of that struggle, and its attempts to escape from it. In The Glass Menagerie, Williams explores the theme of escape to show how sometimes individuals deny the reality of their current life and instead choose to succumb to escapism to cope- wherein the fear of failure inevitably prevents these characters from changing their lives.
Initially, Amanda dwells on her past life by frequent reminiscence in order to escape her miserable life, and to forget her disappointment in her future. She is obsessed with her past in Blue Mountain as a Southern belle when she was a young girl. Once a while, she repeats her memories to her children Tom and Laura, “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain -your mother received-seventeen! -gentlemen callers” (Williams 680). Among these rich and prominent gentlemen callers, she marries Mr. Wingfield who was very handsome and worked for a telephone company. Years later, when the children are still too young, he leaves Amanda who is financially dependent on him- and later transfers this dependency to her son. Through the years, Amanda does not face the harshness of her present as a single mother and escapes to the gentility of the past, effectively harming her children in the process. “In her failed adjustment to her new position as a single parent, she has victimized both of her children in different ways” (Single 159). She does not accept the disability of her daughter, often reprimanding both of her children for acknowledging Laura’s state, “Nonsense! Laura, I’ve told you never, never to use that word. Why, you’re not crippled, you just have a little defect …” (Williams 684), “Don’t say crippled! You know that I never allow that word to be used” (Williams 697). Furthermore, in a rare situation where they can talk and not argue, Tom attempts to tell her that Laura is peculiar in the eyes of the others and she has to face the issue. He tells her mother, “Face the facts” (Williams 697). In fact, Amanda’s illogical way to face her present circumstances has affected Tom and Laura greatly; Laura does not have enough confidence to have a social life, and Tom is tired and disappointed of his responsibilities. Amanda’s dual behavior creates a juxtaposing character combination a simultaneous distracted and domineering parent. When Amanda’s silliness is shown in her antics, the audience laughs. When she ignores the state of her broken wings (the same wings she attempts to provide her children shelter with), the audience empathizes.
Additionally, the origins of Tom’s various escapes are due to his fear of accepting the role of becoming breadwinner in the household, as well as, his inability to succeed. As a twenty-two-year-old aspiring poet, Tom regularly works in a warehouse to support his family. This is a role that Amanda perpetuates and exhausts, probably when her husband left the family sixteen years prior: “She victimizes Tom by assigning him the inappropriate role of parent/partner” (Single 159). Moreover, Amanda inhibits Tom from following his goals, denies him of basic privacy and individualism. This micromanaging relationship also pressures Tom to accept the traditional responsibility to find a gentleman caller for his sister. Tom copes with this mounting pressure by habitually becoming drunk, and distancing himself from his unhappy home, and hiding (i.e., keeping his poetry in the warehouse and not communicating his decision to join the Union of Merchant Seamen to his family. The set of these factors causes him to escape from this horrible struggle because it is impossible for him to improve any part of this awful life, such a tragic hero. “Because the play is about familial dysfunction, there are no heroes or villains in The Glass Menagerie” (Single 152). In fact, in the play, there are anti-heroes or modern tragic heroes. Tom’s last escape is in the last scene when he finally leaves home- an act reminiscent of his father’s actions. The fire escape becomes the way to exit his struggle forever. He cannot stand in the death-home where his mother becomes more hysterical day to day. He wants to stay true to himself, a poet who travels the world. In the end, his physical escape becomes the object of Tom’s guilt for abandoning Laura.
Next, from societal pressures and her mother reminiscing about her own many admirers, Laura, who is physically and emotionally disabled, is unsuccessful in attaining her mother’s expectations and uses her glass collection to take refuge from her reality. Thus, from an early age, Laura becomes incredibly shy and self-critical. She confesses to Jim: “… it was so hard for me, getting upstairs. I had that brace on my leg- it clumped so loud”, and when Jim says “I never heard any clumping” (708), she emphasizes “To me it sounded like- thunder” (Williams 708). To her, every step and sound in her braces is a reminder of her shortcomings. Moreover, in the hidden layers of the play, it seems that she had been humiliated in the school by classmates. According to Jim’s analysis on Laura, her “Inferiority complex” (Williams 710) is so deep that she cannot be present in her typing course at business college six years later, wherein she throws in the towel “… threw up- on the floor” (Williams 683). After this event, she becomes nervous and drops out of Rubicam’s Business College. Unable to keep up with social standards and her mother’s expectations, Laura eventually uses her glass collection to seek refuge from her reality. To Laura, the safest place is at the apartment with her glass menagerie, where she is free from judgment and humility. This collection of “the tiniest little animals in the world…” (Williams 711), symbolically shows Laura’s fragile character. In a dialogue with Jim, she points to one of the figures and says “This is one of the oldest. It’s nearly thirteen” (Williams 711) meaning that she approximately was eleven years old when her separation from the reality begins to increase, and she becomes fragile like a piece of glass animal figure. In her private world with these little ornaments, Laura has something she doesn’t normally own in reality: confidence. In fact, among the little glass animals, she reflects, sense of humor, vitality, individuality, and beauty. Apart from this world, she is fragile, unsuccessful, and lonely. This false sense of identity perpetuates her loneliness.
In conclusion, Williams’s play The Glass Menagerie is a tragic drama with characters who cannot be considered a hero. The individuals desire to escape from their brutal lives, but it is impossible for them to be free from their doomed fate. In an effort to change their circumstances, these tragic characters deny, ignore, and escape only to perpetuate their sorrows. What the results are futile attempts, defunct lives, and damaged relationships. The Glass Menagerie is the ideal image of individuals who constantly disappointed with their identity, their home, and their society. These modern tragic heroes, the victims with no fruitful future, and unbound to the environment.
Works Cited
Single, Lori Leathers. “Flying the Jolly Roger: Images of Escape and Selfhood Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.” Critical Insights: Tennessee Williams, Book Chapter, Salem Press, Oct. 2010, pp. 148-170. Date Accessed 21 April 2018.
Tennessee, Williams. “The Glass Menagerie.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth
McMahan et al. 11th ed. Pearson, 2018. Print. PP, 677-717.
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