The Glass Menagerie a play by Tennessee Williams menagerie: a collection of animals

Tennessee Williams Born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911 His family moved frequently but most of his school years were spent in Missouri near St. Louis Williams did not get along with his father, a traveling salesman His mother was overbearing and somewhat hysterical, but supported Williams’ desire to write

Rose Williams Williams had a younger brother, Dakin, but it was his older sister, Rose, that he was close to Rose was beautiful, sweet and intelligent, but suffered from schizophrenia which worsened as she got older In 1937, a devastating event occurred. Tennessee Williams’ parents authorized a prefrontal lobotomy for Rose, who was growing more troubled and paranoid

Rose Williams -Continued A prefrontal lobotomy is a procedure that involved inserting an ice pick through the patient’s eye socket to sever nerves that joined the prefrontal cortex to the rest of the brain-it was suppose to relieve psychiatric strain This procedure completely destroyed Rose mentally and she was never able to care for herself again. This broke Williams' heart and caused him to suffer his own mental collapse

Williams-The Glass Menagerie To deal with his fragile mental state Tennessee Williams would write He turned Rose’s suffering into a short story and then a play, The Glass Menagerie Laura=Rose The Glass Menagerie made Williams famous! It premiered in 1944 and received excellent reviews and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award

Williams -continued He had difficulty dealing with his success and moved to Mexico to escape the spotlight and to write In the 1960s, Williams suffered a mental breakdown Few of his later works received critical praise, nevertheless he continued to write Tennessee Williams died in New York City in 1983

The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams called The Glass Menagerie a “memory play.” It is a dramatic rendering of the memories of the narrator, Tom Wingfield. He is not an objective director or narrator, thus the play unfolds in an impressionistic, highly symbolic fashion. Though not autobiographical, the play contains characters drawn from his own life. Williams seeks to show how any artist can engage mental and emotional pain through the process of art itself

The Glass Menagerie- continued Social and Historical Background ◦ Play takes place in 1937 ◦ The Great Depression-The New Deal-Labor Disputes-the plight of workers and the trend towards unionism ◦ The Little Steel Strike –May 30,1937-protesting steelworkers marched in Chicago and were fired upon by police. Ten of them were killed.

continued The Flint Sit-Down Strike-1936 & 1937-The General Motors Corporation was crippled by the strike, which was orchestrated by the United Auto Workers (UAW) The bombing of Guernica in Spain-April 26, 1937-bombed by German and Spanish forces during the Spanish Civil War. Revolutionaries were trying to overthrow the leftist coalition that had won the 1936 elections (leftist groups generally support worker’s rights and the organization of labor)

Themes and Motifs Theme- a central idea or main themes of a work Motif- a reoccurring theme, element, or dramatic situation The Absent Father The Artistic Temperament The Decline of the Old South The Importance of Words, Books, and Art Magic and Illusions Difficulty of Accepting Reality The Power of Memory Abandonment

Symbolism and Imagery Symbolism-an object, person, or event that represents something beyond itself such as an idea, belief, or value Imagery-the use of figures of speech to create vivid images that appeal to one of the senses The Glass Menagerie Religious Imagery The Victrola (Music) The Fire Escape Flowers The Glass Unicorn

The Glass Menagerie Characters Amanda Wingfield ◦ the mother ◦ clings to another time and place ◦ part tenderness, part cruelty

Characters Continued Laura Wingfield daughter, sister childhood illness left her crippled, one leg slightly shorter than the other, and held in a brace lives in a world of illusions

Characters Continued Tom Wingfield son, brother narrator of the play poet that works in a warehouse desire to escape his reality

Characters continued Jim O’Connor (the gentleman caller) a nice, ordinary, young man coworker of Tom went to high school with Laura