Self-Consciousness In Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

She felt like a loner. She was fighting her mum a lot, and said to her mother "maybe there's something else you'd like to find wrong with me while you're at it!" She didn't think about what other people felt. She was a

There is not one comic or movie, where Superman fails to save the day, where in the end he does not win. The Harry always defeats the Voldemort. This is because when a Christ figure is developed, there are certain expectations that go along with that. However, what happens when a Christ figure fails to fulfill their duty? In The Glass Menagerie, a play by Tennessee Williams, Laura’s mother Amanda wants Laura to have a suitor. Finally, Tom —Laura’s sister— invites Jim O’Connor, one of his friends from work over to have a meal. Amanda goes into a frenzy preparing for him, and when he arrives he appears like the perfect suitor. As the night goes on, Jim eventually seduces Laura and then leaves in a rush. In Tennessee Williams’s play, The Glass Menagerie, Williams uses a ironic Christ figure to demonstrate how illusions tear a family apart.

Laura will never be able have a successful relationship with any other human being because she has grown content with living in her own reality. Her reality is filled with loneliness and solitude, because she doesn’t believe she is good enough to interact with people in the real world. Her family has only helped her justify this idea

Laura Dewey Bridgman was born on December 21, 1829, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her parents were farmers in New England. According to an account by her mother, Laura began her life as “a lively, intelligent, extremely curious child who had at 18 months begun to ‘talk quite plain’ and learn a few letters of the alphabet” (Mahoney). At only two years old, however, Laura contracted scarlet fever for several weeks. During this illness, she lost her senses of, sight and hearing, and most of her senses of taste and smell. This severe loss of senses made it difficult for Laura to communicate with her family and she soon forgot how to speak.

One of the challenges of growing up is loneliness. As a small child living in Brooklyn Francie had no friends her age, the kids in her neighborhood that would have been candidates for friends either found her too quiet or shunned her for being different. "So

She isn't known by many people, and struggles with identity. I relate to this because when I moved to Charlotte, it was hard to integrate myself into a new place, where people have been all their lives. When I first moved here, I felt alone. I have no family or friends in North Carolina. Everyone

She had a low self-esteem and a negative view of her self. She tried to be like other

Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams, wrote The Glass Menagerie, a play which premiered in Chicago in 1944. This award winning play, autobiographical in nature, represented a time in which Williams felt the obligation of his responsibilities in regards to the care of his family. Robert DiYanni, Adjunct Professor of Humanities at New York University, rated it as, “One of his best-loved plays...a portrayal of loneliness among characters who confuse fantasy and reality” (DiYanni 1156). Alternatively, The Glass Menagerie, a play set in the era of the Great Depression and written from the narrator’s memory, was meant to teach us the how our relationships with one another can alter our futures, for better or worse. Everything about this particular play was a direct and clear symbolization of Williams ' life growing up. Williams uses characterization to depict several people from his real life in this play; his sister, himself, his overbearing mother, absent father, and a childhood best friend. Williams does a splendid job transforming his personal life into a working piece of art. In Tennessee Williams ' play, The Glass Menagerie, his character, Laura, is central to the structure and focus of the story due to her individual ties to all of the supporting characters throughout the seven scene play.

It is stated within the book the Laura drove Iris’s car off a cliff crashing into a raving and bursting into flames, only leaving ashes as remains (Atwood.) While some believe that Laura death was a suicide; Iris believes that that might be true, but there’s something deeper to the story that is unknown. Iris believes there was something else going on with Laura and that it couldn’t be suicide rather it was an accident. But Iris realizes deep down that there’s always been something off about Laura and it wasn’t that surprising. For example, Laura gets pregnant during the course of her life and winds up having an abortion. That could've easily been something that could have been weighing on her heart. A decision as big as that one can have a detrimental affect on the rest of your life which can lead to contemplating life or death. Iris deems it her duty as Laura’s sister to find out what truly happened to her; whether she killed herself, it was an accident, or she was murdered. Atwood changes between stories throughout The Blind Assassin. After the opening that reveals Laura’s death, she switches to story written with Laura’s scandalous novel. In Laura’s story, there is a man and woman who are clearly having an affair (Morey.) Laura could have prompted to

Even if she did, she loses touch with reality by refusing to let go of her early adulthood.  She has repeated these stories so much that she finds them to be completely true.  Its almost like she refused to grow up with the times, especially once things got harder.       Although Amanda appears to often be stuck in the past, without any idea of reality, she bounces back and forth.  She first says to Laura, "I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position.  I've seen such pitiful cases in the South-- barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife. . . encouraged by one in-law to visit another"  (1871).  When discussing the future, she seems to be very inept, clear, and very much realistic.  However, next she completely falls back into illusion when talking about Laura's gentleman caller.  She unrealistically reminds Laura that her 'defect' can overshadowed by simple charm.  She refuses to let Laura refer to herself as crippled (1872).  Not only is Amanda refusing to live in the reality, she is denying Laura the opportunity to be realistic about her disability.

She spends time with her glass menagerie. “ What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position. I've seen such pitiful cases in the South-barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother’s wife! (Williams 42-43)”. Laura drops out of school because she is terribly shy and now Laura and her mother have to figure out a way to make a living when Tom gets married. Also, because of this Laura did not get the chance to meet any boys and therefore she has no gentlemen

Memory and Reality in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie 'Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic'. To what degree is the play memory and to what degree is it realistic? "When a play employs unconventional techniques, it is not trying to escape its responsibility of dealing with reality, or interpreting experience, but is actually attempting to find a closer approach, a more penetrating and vivid expression of things as they are" (Tennessee Williams). The Glass Menagerie is one of Tennessee Williams' most eminent works and no doubt qualifies as a classic of the modern theater. Often referred to as a 'memory play', both the style and content of

Amanda belittles Laura’s self-ownership which makes Laura immature and helpless as an adult. When the subject of gentleman callers comes up, Amanda addresses Laura, saying, “How many do you suppose we’re going to entertain this afternoon? [...] [reappearing, airily] What? No one — not one? You must be joking! [Laura nervously echoes her laugh]” (Williams 18). Amanda is caught up in her dreams of marriage for Laura, made clear by her enthusiastic tone and body language, but Laura’s uncomfortable laugh shows how she is not amused by her mother’s aspirations. Amanda is only focused on what she wants for Laura, but she should really be concerned with what Laura wants for herself. In addition, Amanda cannot accept the fact that her daughter is not going to have any suitors; she denies reality and tries to bring Laura into her world of illusions. This irresponsible parenting causes Laura to become the childish adult that she is. When Amanda questions where Laura was going instead of business college, Laura explains that, “I went in the art museum and the bird houses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins every day! [...] Lately I’ve been spending most of my afternoons in the Jewel Box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers” (21). Laura is twenty-three years old and she is getting excited about visiting attractions meant for kids. She would rather explore the Zoo, an art museum, or a greenhouse than attend college, exhibiting her immature and irresponsible mindset. This juvenile behavior is what leads to Laura’s helplessness. While on the fire escape, Amanda tells Laura to make a

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the main topic of discussion is trying to find Laura a suitable gentleman caller that Amanda, her mother, would approve; however the overall theme is much deeper than that. Laura lives at home with both her mom and brother Tom. What 's special about these 3 is that they lost their father to the world of adventure; he left them without even the blink of an eye because he wanted more than what their little

Set in St. Louis Missouri prior to World War II, Tennessee Williams reflects back on his deeply tragic and dysfunctional familial experiences in, “The Glass Menagerie”. Williams brilliantly incorporates real aspects of society to reveal how they contributed to the nonreal aspects and the conflicts which affected his family. The real aspects of the play which had a significant impact on the lower middle-class families such as the Wingfields included, the economic hardships surrounding the Great Depression, the fall of the American south, society’s intolerance towards homosexuality, and many threats abroad. Although Williams play was merely a series of hazy memories, the nonreal aspects combined with the major societal conflicts contribute