1. Begin a new bellringer page!
Thursday, January 12
Begin a new bellringer page!
Think about memories
Choose one vivid memory that comes to mind. What senses are most affected by this memory (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell)?  What/Who is the focus of this memory?  What part of this memory stands out the most in your mind?  How does your own perception of what happened influence the memory? (did it really happen exactly as you remember?)

2. Tennessee Williams
The Glass Menagerie

3. Background –
Thomas Lanier Williams, born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911.
His mother, Edwina, was the puritanical daughter of an Episcopal priest.
His father, Cornelius Coffin Williams, was a violent and aggressive traveling salesman.
He had an older sister, Rose, and a younger brother named Dakin.
He died in 1983 at the age of 71.

4. Background
While his father traveled, Tom was mostly brought up by his overprotective mother.
In 1929, he went to the University of Missouri to study journalism.
In a state of depression, Tom dropped out of school and, at his father's instigation, took a job as a clerk in a shoe company. It was, he recalled, “living death.'’
1937 – went to the University of Iowa in 1937, where he wrote a number of plays. He graduated in 1938.

5. Background
Was particularly close to sister Rose who was institutionalized and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals
The family allowed a prefrontal lobotomy to be performed. Afterwards, she was left with the mental capacity of a child.
Williams never forgave his parents for allowing the operation.
“Mad heroine” theme in many of his works.
Menagerie character of Laura is thought to be modeled on Rose.

6. Background
At 28, left home for New Orleans, where he changed his his name to “Tennessee,” a nickname given to him by college fraternity brothers.
He wrote a play titled The Gentleman Caller, which slowly evolved into The Glass Menagerie.
On March 31, 1945, it opened on Broadway.

7. Most Famous Works The Glass Menagerie
Streetcar Named Desire—won Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof—Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1955
The Night of the Iguana—New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award 1961
The Rose Tattoo—Tony Award for best play 1952

8. The Glass Menagerie It is a memory play (from Tom’s memory).
dimly lighted and sentimental; nonrealistic
screen—images or titles projected onto it for some scenes
lighting—reflects meaning of play
music—very nostalgic
Memory takes a lot of poetic license.
omits some details; others are exaggerated.

9. The Glass Menagerie
Set in 1930s St. Louis
Then and Now—told from Tom’s memory years later
It is not truly autobiographical, but it does draw on much of the author’s experience.
Play can be divided into two parts
Scenes 1-5: Preparing for a Gentleman Caller
Scenes 6-7: The Gentleman Calls

10. Characters
Tom—brother who wants to flee responsibility of taking care of mother and sister, narrator
Amanda—mother who lives in the past, remembers fondly her days of being a southern belle with a lot of gentleman callers
Laura—daughter and sister, shy and nervous young woman who panics when having to interact socially
has a lot of glass animals, a menagerie
the word menagerie means collection of animals
Jim—the gentleman caller