Although The Glass Menagerie is a ‘memory play’, Tom’s memory of Amanda Wingfield is clearly based on reality. Amanda is also partly derived from Williams’ life, from his mother Edwina Dakin. Like Williams’ mother, Amanda sees herself as a Southern belle. Edwina Dakin, into her old age, dreamt fantastic dreams of a life in the Deep South that had never existed. Amanda also has ‘memories’ of her glamorous life at Blue Mountain, although it is unknown whether these are fabrications or not. Amanda has several other idiosyncrasies based on reality and Tom’s real experiences with her (although some of these characteristics may be exaggerated by memory), such as her constant domineering of her children and her inability to accept the truth about her situation (such as the fact that Laura is indeed ‘crippled’). Amanda, too, is a character based on reality rather than memory.
Laura Wingfield also has a basis of reality, as well as a connection to Tennessee Williams’ life. She
appears to be modeled upon Williams’ sister Rose. Laura’s nickname ‘Blue Roses’ is evidence of this connection. Laura is ‘crippled’ and has a brace on one leg, a fact clearly based on reality and not manufactured by Tom’s memory. This fact is also based on Rose, who was schizophrenic and had one of the first prefrontal lobotomies ever performed. The operation was unsuccessful and Rose did not fully recover, spending the rest of her life in a mental institution. The guilt felt by Tom when he abandoned Laura echoes that felt by Williams, as he was unable to help his sister. Many of Laura’s characteristics are also reflective of Rose, such as her gentle demeanor, shyness and inability to connect with those outside her family. Even the glass menagerie has roots in Williams’ life, as it was something that he and Rose had played with as children. Without a doubt, the character of Laura, like most of the characters in the ‘memory play’, is very realistic rather than derived from Tom’s memory, and strongly based on Williams’ sister Rose. The other two characters in The Glass Menagerie, although only having a very loose connection to the life of Tennessee Williams, (in contrast to Laura’s strong connection), have a very realistic basis in Tom’s life.
Tom’s father was quite obviously not conceived of his memory but very much a part of reality. Tom almost bitterly describes how his father was a ‘telephone man who fell in love with long distances’ and ‘skipped the light fantastic out of town’, abandoning his family. The character is not only a part of Tom’s own life but has a loose basis on Williams’ life as his father, Cornelius Coffin Williams, was a traveling salesman for a shoe company, whose long professional absences were a source of resentment for Williams. Tom’s father is clearly a very realistic character and of the little that is mentioned of him in the play, nothing of the character appears to be modified by Tom’s memory. Even more realistic than Tom’s father, however, is the character of Jim.
Amidst Tom’s description of The Glass Menagerie as a ‘memory play’, Jim O’Connor, the gentleman caller, is described as the ‘most realistic character in the play’ and an ‘emissary from a world of reality’. Tom clearly had not known him for long but his character is derived from Tom’s limited experience with him. He is outgoing, enthusiastic and believes in self-improvement, characteristics that Tom would not be very familiar with and therefore would be difficult for his memory to modify. These characteristics would therefore have to be quite realistic. The character is also connected to Williams’ own life (although this connection is obscure), being based on a disaster in his own household involving a gentleman caller. Clearly, each of the characters in the ‘memory play’ have a very realistic basis (although some of their characteristics may be exaggerated by memory), many of them having been inspired by Tennessee Williams’ own life. However, in assessing the degree to which The Glass Menagerie is realistic, we must examine the degree of realism in the very situation portrayed in the play.
The most realistic aspect of The Glass Menagerie is, without a doubt, the story told by the play. Although it may be altered frequently by the power of Tom’s memory, the basis of the story is truth. From the beginning of the play we are assured of its validity, as Tom ‘enters dressed as a merchant sailor’. Tom is wearing the attire of the Merchant Seamen, which we see, as the play draws to a close, is the profession which he was planning to take after he abandoned Amanda and Laura. We are further assured of the realistic basis of the play, as Tom tells us that he ‘gives us truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion’. Tom affirms that the play is indeed truth, although this truth may be presented in a manner which is altered by his memory. Quite obviously, there is a great degree of realism in the basis and content of The Glass Menagerie, especially in the characters, the social and historical background as well as the events themselves. In our evaluation of the play, however, we must also assess the degree to which the play is memory.
Although the basis and content of The Glass Menagerie is realistic, it is essentially a ‘memory play’ and the way in which it is presented is ‘sentimental’ and ‘not realistic’. As stated by the opening stage directions, ‘memory takes a lot of poetic license’ and is ‘seated predominantly in the heart’. Therefore, ‘it omits some details, others are exaggerated’. The play is very much shaped by Tom’s sub-conscious, resulting in a number of peculiarities. Firstly, because the events of The Glass Menagerie are filtered through Tom’s perception, the audience feels as Tom would have felt and sees things as Tom would see them. Resultantly, certain attributes of other characters are exaggerated. This is most evident in the character of Amanda Wingfield. For example, from the beginning of the play, as the Wingfield family dines, Amanda’s irritating and meddlesome nature is amplified, as she complains that he shouldn’t ‘push with his fingers’, he does not chew enough and he ‘smokes too much’. It is difficult to determine whether she was really this unpleasant in actual fact, but in Tom’s perception she was and this is exaggerated in his memory. This is again exemplified strongly in the sixth scene as Amanda and Laura prepare for the gentleman caller’s coming. The conversation between Amanda and Laura is one which Tom would not have even witnessed (as he was not present), therefore the conversation would have been filled in by his own memory and Amanda’s aggravating nature would be clearly amplified. This is evident on a number of occasions throughout the conversation, especially when she tells Laura, her own daughter, ‘to be painfully honest, your chest is flat’. Evidently, having been filtered through Tom’s perception, the vexatious nature of Amanda Wingfield is exaggerated greatly throughout The Glass Menagerie. This emphasis on memory in the interpretation of characters serves to highlight these characters’ most important idiosyncrasies. However, the exaggeration of character’s attributes is not the only result of the events being interpreted by Tom’s memory.
As The Glass Menagerie is shaped by the memory of Tom Wingfield, who has a ‘poet’s weakness for symbols’, the ‘memory play’ exaggerates a number of symbolic events throughout. A strong example of this is in the fourth scene, when Laura slips at the fire escape as she leaves the apartment; an event which is symbolic of the fact that she cannot survive in the outside world. It is difficult to tell whether this event was fact or simply a symbol created by Tom’s sub-conscious. This emphasis on symbolism is again most evident when Tom is describing ‘Malvolio the Magician’ and exclaims ‘it don’t take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura, but who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?’ After this comment, the picture of his father’s grinning face lights up ‘as if in answer’; symbolic of his abandonment of the Wingfields ‘without removing one nail’ (because Tom was left to provide for them). Clearly, in reality, the picture would not light up, and this symbol is a fabrication of Tom’s memory. Quite obviously, the play is built on memory rather than reality to a great degree in emphasizing important symbols, in order to convey important values to the audience. There are a number of other aspects of the play that are also greatly modified, or even created, by Tom’s memory.
The most obvious peculiarity arising from the play’s modification by Tom’s memory is the fact that ‘eating is indicated by gestures without food or utensils’, an aspect of memory which is most certainly ‘not realistic’. Throughout this ‘memory play’, the audience will observe several oddities such as ‘Tom laying his imaginary fork down’ and ‘raising his imaginary cup in both hands to blow it’. This not only adds to the atmosphere of memory in the play, but also seems to draw attention away from what the characters are doing, so that the audience can focus on the dialogue and important events in the play. The absence of food and utensils, like several other peculiarities in The Glass Menagerie, adds a great deal to the memory aspects of the play.
Another major aspect of The Glass Menagerie which, for the most part, is a product of Tom’s memory, is the screen device in operation throughout the play (although some productions of the play omit the screen device). During the action throughout the play, a screen device, positioned on a section of wall between the front room and dining room areas on the set, displays various images and words, projected from behind, in order to highlight certain motifs and symbols. These images and words are simply creations of Tom’s sub-conscious, putting emphasis on important ideas as well as some of his thoughts at the time. For instance, when Amanda speaks of ‘one Sunday afternoon at Blue Mountain’ when she received ‘seventeen gentleman callers’, an image of ‘Amanda as a girl on a porch, greeting callers’ is displayed on the screen. The projected image gives force to Amanda’s words, showing the audience a visual representation alongside her speech and is symbolic of the fact that although she can remember this life at Blue Mountain, it is in the past, frozen and lifeless, and cannot help her in the present. Another important example of the use of the screen device is when Jim first meets Amanda and she begins to act quite flirtatious (as she would have in her youth). The projector displays the image of Amanda as a girl, signifying the fact that in her excitement she is reverting to her youthful self (in an inappropriate manner). The screen device definitely adds a great deal of impact to the play in conveying important ideas and is clearly derived from Tom’s memory rather than from reality (obviously there would not have been a screen device in reality).
One of the major effects of the events of The Glass Menagerie being interpreted by Tom’s memory is the unusual use of lighting throughout. The most notable use of lighting is the fact that the play is ‘dimly lit’. This appears to be due to the fact that dim lights prevent details from being seen and it is details, rather than significant objects and events, that fade from the memory first. Therefore the dim lighting serves to enhance the atmosphere of memory in the play, as well as to keep the audience focused on significant objects rather than details.
The unconventional use of lighting is again exemplified with the shafts of light which focus on selected areas or actors in order to signify the importance of their words or actions, which is quite obviously not realistic. What is curious about The Glass Menagerie, however, is that although in some scenes, such as in Tom’s speeches, the light is concentrated on the speaker, there are several occasions in which the focus of light is in contradistinction to what is the apparent centre. This is exemplified in the scene when Jim is at supper with the Wingfields and Laura lies on a couch. Although there is a conversation at the supper table, a ‘new floor lamp with its shade of rose-coloured silk gives a soft, becoming light to her (Laura’s) face, bringing out a fragile, unearthly prettiness which usually escapes attention’, thereby focusing the audience’s attention to Laura, whose feelings are clearly most important in the scene.
Yet another unrealistic effect of lighting in the play is the constant use of the rainbow effect of separated light, such as when Tom arrives from the movies with a rainbow-coloured scarf and rainbow colours are emitted by the dance hall into the dusk. Tom recognizes the illusory quality of rainbows as he claims the pleasures offered by the Paradise Dance Hall were ‘like a chandelier which flooded the world with brief deceptive rainbows’. Consequently, a number of rainbows are incorporated into the play by his sub-conscious, symbolic of his false hopes for escape. Clearly, the lighting in the play is ‘not realistic’ and even ‘sentimental’ and is used by Tom’s memory to increase the atmosphere of memory, put emphasis on certain areas and actors, and as a symbol. Just as important as the utilization of lighting in this ‘memory play’, however, is the music which pervades each scene.
According to Tom Wingfield at the beginning of the play, ‘in memory, everything seems to happen to music’. Due to the play’s origins in memory, music is utilized throughout the play, and is most certainly a peculiarity arising from memory rather than reality (as common sense will tell us that people do not enter a room to theme music). Most importantly, a single recurring tune, ‘The Glass Menagerie’, is often used at points of high drama, usually in scenes involving Laura, adding to the ‘sentimental’ atmosphere of the play. An excellent example of the use of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ theme music is when Amanda inquires on how many gentleman callers Laura will be receiving, to which Laura reveals that she is expecting none. Amanda is startled, exclaiming ‘you must be joking’ and “it can’t be true!’, as Laura, whose feelings are obviously hurt, ‘nervously echoes her laugh’. The ‘Glass Menagerie’ tune plays ‘faintly’, adding to the emotional significance of the scene and increasing the reader’s sympathy for Laura. This use of music is also exemplified in the scene in which Jim kisses Laura as the ‘music swells tumultuously’. A product of Tom’s poetic sub-conscious, the music intensifies the drama, thereby increasing the shock of Jim’s revelation that he is already going steady with another woman. Without a doubt, one of the distinctive features of The Glass Menagerie’s origins in memory is the incorporation of music in order to heighten drama and convey feelings.
One of the most important peculiarities arising from the play being drawn from memory, is that time loses its usual sequence and structure. The first four scenes of The Glass Menagerie occur over the space of a few days in the winter season, while the following three take place on two successive evenings during the following spring. The audience, however, does not receive a sense of the time that passes. In memory, time has little meaning as our minds race between the recent and distant past. For example, Tom exists in the ‘present’ in the play while the events taking place occurred in the past. The focus of the play continuously alternates between the two. Our sense of time is clouded even further as Amanda constantly reminisces of the past. Clearly, time loses meaning in this ‘memory play’. This implication of memory seems to draw away attention from the time and sequence of the events unfolding in the play, thereby increasing the focus on the events themselves.
Perhaps the most important symbol in determining the degree to which the play is memory, as well as the purpose of these memory aspects in ‘dealing with reality’ and ‘interpreting experience’ in The Glass Menagerie, is Tom’s final speech. During the speech, the descending fourth wall puts a powerful but permeable barrier between Tom and his family. Amanda and Laura Wingfield are behind Tom in the physical space of the stage as well as in time. However, Tom cannot escape the memory of his family and they are clearly visible to the audience. This scene, while conveying the idea of Tom’s inability to truly escape his family, is also symbolic of just how integral the memory aspects are in The Glass Menagerie. It is only in memory that such a juxtaposition, of Tom’s final speech with the inaudible scene in which Amanda speaks to her daughter, is possible. A play constrained by the conventions of realism would not be able to present such an effective juxtaposition. This is indicative of the essentiality of memory in the play’s production. The memory aspects of the play, although ‘sentimental’ and ‘not realistic’, do not compromise the realism or truth being conveyed by the production itself, but simply provides a creative and often exaggerative method of imparting this truth.
Ultimately, in order to evaluate the degree to which The Glass Menagerie is memory and the degree to which it is reality, we must determine how the two interact in the distinct aim of finding ‘a more penetrating and vivid expression of things as they are’. It is impossible to dispute that the very core of the play is realism, in its characters, in the social and historical background and in the situation portrayed, while the presentation of the play is ‘sentimental’ and ‘not realistic’ through dim lighting, exaggerated symbolism, and other memory aspects. The play is quite obviously constructed, to a great degree, of both memory and reality. However, the various unrealistic features of memory in no way compromise the truth of the play, but simply work towards intensifying the focus on the important aspects of reality. Essentially, the main effect of memory in the play is to enhance the sense of reality surrounding its content. After all, The Glass Menagerie, as Tom says, is committed to giving its audience ‘truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion’.
By Vinay Menon