Sunil Kesur 6T
02/05/07
The Glass Menagerie: What Sort Of Atmosphere Is Created and How Is It Achieved In The Opening Three Scenes
There are many factors which can contribute to the pervading atmosphere of any play. But in this play there are peculiar, original ways in which Williams’s goes about this. The Glass Menagerie would seem like a harder play to create a dense atmosphere for because of the small amount of characters and the only one setting.
A major difference in this play is evident directly from the beginning. This is the narration that the audience is given by one of the main characters, Tom. It is strange because once his narration is given, Tom jumps directly into the dialogue. This resembles very much a film, because with camera and voice over techniques the narration is made a lot easier. We also know that Williams started by writing screenplays and so this use of Tom would have come from his Hollywood experiences. The mood created by Tom is ambiguous and it depends on the reader. The social history which is described by Tom, “…the huge matriculating in a school for the blind…” is in the negative while the vivid description of the play is written in a very melancholy but interesting tone, “…it is sentimental…”