"How does Tennessee Williams portray the theme of 'being trapped' in the opening three scenes of The Glass Menagerie?"

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Laura Brown 12GW

“How does Tennessee Williams portray the theme of ‘being trapped’ in the opening three scenes of The Glass Menagerie?”

Entrapment is an important theme of The Glass Menagerie, the play is of Tom’s memory living with his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura, in 1930’s America.  These were not particularly happy times for many people due to the oppression.  Tom, Laura and Amanda all appear trapped but not all by the same thing.  Tom is trapped by the thought of his future and the present, Amanda is trapped in the past in the days she was a young girl and Laura us trapped in her own self-consciousness and lack of confidence.  

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, so the characters are trapped within Tom’s memory.  Tom is showing the situation and personalities of his family, particularly his mother in ways that are emphasised in order to support his own feelings and justify why he left them.  In the first scene Tom acknowledges this fact by saying ‘it is sentimental, it is not realistic’.  In Scene 1 Tom introduces himself and the play.  First impressions of Amanda show her to be over motherly, she chides Tom for smoking too much and telling him ‘chew your food’.  Tom and Laura are not young, although they live with their mother they are old enough to know how to behave, Tom finds his mother’s company hard to get along with.  Amanda almost smothers her children, this pushes Tom further away from her when in reality she is probably trying to take extra care of them to ensure they don’t leave her like their father did.  The way Amanda acts could make Tom feel trapped in his family, she doesn’t let him grow up and do what he wants, instead he must work and pay their bills like a paternal figure would but he should also act like a son.  The effects Amanda has over Laura is also shown in Scene 1, Laura is put under pressure by her mother about gentleman callers.  Laura does not have a social life like her mother did when she was young.  Amanda is insensitive to her daughter’s feelings.  Amanda’s own reflections on her past in Blue Mountain show how she is stuck in the past, her children put up with her story, for Laura the story is depressing.

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The stage settings show that it is set in a run-down and depressing place to live.  The fire escape is an important detail to the play.  A fire escape is a method of escaping from a building, however the play takes place in the building, Laura is never shown as being outside the apartment, she is a recluse.  Laura is happier inside, in the refuge of her home she is scared by the world and protects herself by keeping it away from her.  In Scene 2 the audience discover that Laura has not been attending her course at Rubicam’s ...

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