Tenessee Williams: the Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie The glass menagerie is a superb work of art by Tennessee Williams. It is a play that highlights the various realities and desperations of its characters in their response to a confused society. Williams has an admirable talent for creating a play that’s genre is serious and has a tragic ending; yet he keeps the story interesting to the audience whether it be through reading it as a text or in the theater. The story of the Glass Menagerie is an emotional recount of memories that the narrator, Tom, recalls regarding the events leading to his tragic, and eventually regrettable, departure from his home. Tom comes from a dysfunctional family of which each member has their own fantasy world that they like to escape to from time to time. Tom is a twenty two year old factory worker that has been the man of the house for sixteen years but has been continuously annoyed by the circumstances in which he lives and is on the verge of leaving his family indefinitely with the hopes of finding adventures as a merchant sailor. The major dramatic question in the play is the one that Tom is faced with regarding whether or not he should leave his family that needs him to pursue his own dreams. He is afraid of following is father’s footsteps of abandonment but at the same time can no longer survive with the constant nagging of his mother and the world disillusion that his sister and mother live in. The dramatic question is solved when Tom tells his friend from work to come over for dinner because his mother asked him to. His mother’s intention was for Tom to bring home a friend for her daughter in hopes that she might find love and want to eventually get married. We later find out that the friend is engaged to be married and leads to a final confrontation between Tom and his mother. We also find out before the fiasco with the gentleman caller that Tom has not paid the bills for a while and will be leaving his family soon. When the final