The idea of accepting the reality was also evident in the opening of the play.
Tom spoke of gentleman caller who “is the most realistic character in the play” then explains further “being an emissary form a world of reality that we were somehow set apart from.” From this it was easy for the audience to interpret that the Wingfield’s were either denying the reality or insensitive to it. Amanda was the obvious case of denying it. When Laura told her “I don’t believe we’re going to receive any” gentleman callers she frantically yelled “not one gentleman caller? It can’t be true!”
Escaping was another main theme of the play which was introduced in the beginning. This theme was mostly related to Tom who always wanted to escape from Amanda and his hopeless, tedious and meaningless life. Tom addressed the audience in the beginning of the play standing near the fire-escape. The fire-escape was used to enter the apartment but to Tom, it was more than that. His frequent outing to the movies, which was his means of escaping from Amanda and his depressing life, was all done through the fire-escape. However, the audience were made aware of the fact that his escape in the end was not so delightful as the thought of leaving Laura haunted him after he left her. “Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be.” Maybe Williams was trying to say such thing, as a true escape did not exist in the first place.
Relationships between the main characters and the characteristics of them were established in the opening. The most prominent ones would be the relationship between Amanda and Tom and Amanda and Laura. These two were contrasting due to the contrasting characteristics of Laura and Tom. Laura did not like the idea of crossing Amanda or having an argument. She would do anything to avoid these but Tom could not tolerate Amanda and did not care much about making her angry. This was evident when Amanda started talking about her memory of “Blue Mountain”, Laura said “ let her tell it, she loves to tell it” however Tom commented “ I know what’s coming…again?”
At the dinner table, when Amanda annoyed him he made cutting remarks “your hawk-like attention spoils my appetite” without a hesitation. From that it was easily guessed that their relationship was tense and never harmonious.
Laura who overly lacks self-confidence and hope was a contrasting character to Amanda. She remarked, “I’m just not popular like you were in Blue mountain…” putting the blame on herself which Amanda would never do. Amanda even blamed his husband for “fooling her by smiling and being enchanting” later in the play, which made her, seem immature, selfish and silly. These characteristics of her were reinforced at the dinner table in the opening. So their relationship was more like that of a servant and a master rather than one of mother and daughter as fear and uneasiness was evidently present.
The relationship of gentleman callers and Amanda and with Laura was opposing as well. To Amanda they were means of entertainment and proofs of her jolly memories in the Blue Mountain. “knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers…”
But for Laura, they were things to be feared and avoided, and made it even more obvious that she was not popular and pretty. When she had one finally, he turned out to be the greatest disappointment and left her devastated in the end. So Amanda had to awkwardly sum the whole incident up by saying “things have a way of turning out so badly,” and blame it all on Tom.
The unusual dramatic conventions were set in the opening. The narrator, Tom directly addressed the audience, “I am the narrator of the play…” which was unusual. Also by using the screens to produce appropriate images and music frequently, the play was made more interesting and accessible to the audience.
The opening of the play was the key in establishing themes, characters and their relationships and dramatic conventions as it revealed them effectively to the audience.
So the audience could easily understand what was happening, guess what would happen and receive the message that was meant to be delivered.
