Important Symbols and Themes of The Glass Menagerie
Important Symbols and Themes of The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie is considered a memory play because it is told from the memory of the narrator. The narrator, who is also a character, is Tom Wingfield, the youngest member of the Wingfield family. The other characters are Amanda Wingfield, his mother; Laura Wingfield, his older sister; and Jim O'Connor the gentleman caller. A fifth character is represented by the photograph of Mr. Wingfield, who left the family a long time ago. It is this departure by Mr. Wingfield that represents the theme of escape throughout the play. The Glass Menagerie is set in the apartment of the Wingfield family during the mid 1930's. By description, it is a cramped, dinghy place, similar to a jail cell. Of the Wingfield family members, none of them want to live there. Poverty is what traps them to live within their present environment. Williams uses many symbols to help the Wingfield's escape their surroundings, and differentiate between reality and illusion. The first symbol, presented in the first scene, is the fire escape. This represents the "bridge" between the illusory world of the Wingfields and the world of reality. This "bridge" may be a one-way passage, but the direction varies for each character. For Tom, the fire escape is the way out of the world of Amanda and Laura, and an entrance into the
Relationships in The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams.
Throughout the Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams concentrates a lot on family relationships. There are the Wingfields at the start of the play and they experience different interactions with each other: Tom and Amanda (son and mother), Amanda and Laura (mother and sister) and Laura and Tom (sister and brother). At the sixth scene of the play appears Jim and we see him interacting mostly with Laura. I will try to show how Tennessee Williams develops these relationships throughout the play. Starting with Tom and Amanda, already at the first scene we see Amanda, Tom and Laura sitting at the dinner table, and Amanda is constantly annoying Tom with her nagging. She tells him off for the way he chews, the way he 'plays' with his fingers and basically for anything she finds 'weird'. At first we see that Tom is respectful towards her, remaining silent and standing her comments. At a certain point he just can't stand it anymore, and he tells her "I haven't enjoyed one bite of this dinner because of your constant directions on how to eat it." A few pages after that, Amanda is starting to bring up her past and the way she picked her gentleman callers as a young woman. Though apart from the memories she is bringing up, she is sending Tom a message in disguise ("...never anything coarse or common or vulgar!"), telling him her hopes are that he will come back down to earth,
Laura Ashley
Laura Ashley Global organisation Laura Ashley Holdings plc has suffered differing fortunes since it was founded in the 1950s by Bernard and Laura Ashley. It has been involved in the designing, manufacturing, distribution and selling of garments, accessories, perfume, gift items, fabric, wallcoverings, bedding, lighting, and furniture. Famed for its floral prints, the chain was highly successful during the early and mid 1980s but things changed in the early 1990s when various management and structural problems as well as those relating to growth, distribution, and various external influences such as global recession surfacedcogd gdr segdgdw orgd gdk ingd fogd gd. Laura Ashley herself died in 1985. There is a notable difference in the organisation up to and after this year. Up to 1985, it was a simply structured, steadily expanding organisation operating in a non-complex environment (complexity arises when there are numerous complicated environmental influences [Johnson and Scholes, 1989]). In the months and years after, many changes took place. Laura Ashley went public in flotation, acquired other companies involved in areas such as knitwear and perfume, made heavier investments in manufacturing and information technology (IT), moved towards segmentation with Mother and Child shops, exclusively home furnishing shops and unit shops (franchise operations). The organisation
The Glass menagerie - 'Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic'. To what degree is the play memory and to what degree is it realistic?
ENGLISH LITERATURE LONG ESSAY MEMORY AND REALITY (IN TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' THE GLASS MENAGERIE) 'Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic'. To what degree is the play memory and to what degree is it realistic? "When a play employs unconventional techniques, it is not trying to escape its responsibility of dealing with reality, or interpreting experience, but is actually attempting to find a closer approach, a more penetrating and vivid expression of things as they are" (Tennessee Williams). The Glass Menagerie is one of Tennessee Williams' most eminent works and no doubt qualifies as a classic of the modern theater. Often referred to as a 'memory play', both the style and content of The Glass Menagerie are shaped and inspired by the memory of the play's narrator, Tom Wingfield. According to Tom, due to the play's origins in memory, 'it is sentimental, it is not realistic' and may be presented with unusual freedom from convention. Consequently, the play is subject to numerous peculiarities, such as dim lighting, frequent use of music and overblown, almost 'too-perfect' symbolism. Most fictional works are products of the imagination, which attempt to convince the audience of its realism, through realistic conflict, drama and setting. The Glass Menagerie, however, although drawn from memory, is not 'attempting to escape its responsibility
What kind of Play is The Glass Menagerie?
What kind of Play is The Glass Menagerie? There are three basic ways in which we can look at plays: tragedy, comedy and social commentary. Tragedy * Comes from the Greek tragos meaning goat sacrificed to give thanks for the harvest and expel any evil in the community; hence the term scapegoat * The ingredients of Greek tragedy were the scapegoat, that is the person who had brought evil to the community who must therefore be sacrificed or expelled, Oedipus and Agamemnon. family strife, (Oedipus, The Oresteia); the high status of the hero, the fatal flaw, and the role of the Gods * Aristotle said that 'a perfect tragedy should imitate actions which excite pity and fear' and these emotions are exorcised in the denouement of the play in a process more commonly referred to as catharsis. Tragedy and The Glass Menagerie * Although Tom and his father before him sacrifice others for their own ambitions we cannot say that the play contains a sacrifice in the sense I spoke of above consequently we cannot say that there are any scapegoats in the play. * We are on slightly stronger ground with family strife. Amanda constantly tries to force Laura to do things Rubicam's business school to learn typing, or to marry and she criticises Tom's eating habits, (1: 6), she censors his reading matter (3: 21) and demands to know where he goes every evening (3: 23 & 4: 33). However, this
Discuss the extent to which language creativity can be identified in everyday interaction in English, with reference to an extract of authentic language data that you have collected from everyday conversation, or dialogue between children, or computer-med
The art of English E301 TMA 02 Discuss the extent to which language creativity can be identified in everyday interaction in English, with reference to an extract of authentic language data that you have collected from everyday conversation, or dialogue between children, or computer-mediated conversation. Alternatively you may use an extract from CD-ROM 1, Band 6 (Sample stories) or Band 12 (Pretend Play). In this assignment the aim is to demonstrate to what extent language creativity is present in everyday language. The main discussion will evolve around a transcript from CD-ROM Band 12 from this course. This will be concluded with specific references to strengths and limitation features of studies into language creativity. Language creativity can be found in a wide variety of different language practices. One comes across it in anything from advertisements or banners to literature. For example, small children are also able to tell and receive a joke which means that they are capable of recognising creative play through the semantics of words. Children also like using their minds productively for instance either by making up their own stories or by re-telling a fairy tale. Moreover, it is particularly in early childhood that is the period of life and mode of being in which linguistic creativity occurs in interesting ways. Language play especially amongst children
Laura Ashley Holdings plc - company overview
Laura Ashley Global organisation Laura Ashley Holdings plc has suffered differing fortunes since it was founded in the 1950s by Bernard and Laura Ashley. It has been involved in the designing, manufacturing, distribution and selling of garments, accessories, perfume, gift items, fabric, wallcoverings, bedding, lighting, and furniture. Famed for its floral prints, the chain was highly successful during the early and mid 1980s but things changed in the early 1990s when various management and structural problems as well as those relating to growth, distribution, and various external influences such as global recession surfaced Laura Ashley herself died in 1985. There is a notable difference in the organisation up to and after this year. Up to 1985, it was a simply structured, steadily expanding organisation operating in a non-complex environment (complexity arises when there are numerous complicated environmental influences [Johnson and Scholes, 1989]). In the months and years after, many changes took place. Laura Ashley went public in flotation, acquired other companies involved in areas such as knitwear and perfume, made heavier investments in manufacturing and information technology (IT), moved towards segmentation with Mother and Child shops, exclusively home furnishing shops and unit shops (franchise operations). The organisation moved gradually away from vertical
Global organisation Laura Ashley Holdings plc has suffered differing fortunes since it was founded in the 1950s by Bernard and Laura Ashley.
Laura Ashley Global organisation Laura Ashley Holdings plc has suffered differing fortunes since it was founded in the 1950s by Bernard and Laura Ashley. It has been involved in the designing, manufacturing, distribution and selling of garments, accessories, perfume, gift items, fabric, wallcoverings, bedding, lighting, and furniture. Famed for its floral prints, the chain was highly successful during the early and mid 1980s but things changed in the early 1990s when various management and structural problems as well as those relating to growth, distribution, and various external influences such as global recession surfaced Laura Ashley herself died in 1985. There is a notable difference in the organisation up to and after this year. Up to 1985, it was a simply structured, steadily expanding organisation operating in a non-complex environment (complexity arises when there are numerous complicated environmental influences [Johnson and Scholes, 1989]). In the months and years after, many changes took place. Laura Ashley went public in flotation, acquired other companies involved in areas such as knitwear and perfume, made heavier investments in manufacturing and information technology (IT), moved towards segmentation with Mother and Child shops, exclusively home furnishing shops and unit shops (franchise operations). The organisation moved gradually away from vertical
How does Tennessee Williams create sympathy for Tom, both as an individual, and as a representative of his milieu? To what extent does Williams' creation of suspense help to convey this sympathy for his audience?
How does Tennessee Williams create sympathy for Tom, both as an individual, and as a representative of his milieu? To what extent does Williams' creation of suspense help to convey this sympathy for his audience? 'The Glass Menagerie' was originally named 'Portrait of a girl in glass'. Tennessee Williams wrote the play. The play is very convincing because Williams uses many symbols, which represent many different things. Many of the symbols used in the play symbolize some form of escape or difference between reality and illusion. The play is written in the point of view of the character Tom. Tennessee Williams was born as Thomas Lamier Williams in 1911. Tom is a symbol of Williams in his early life. The play is clearly autobiographical; it reflects the life of Tennessee Williams. Tom Wingfield lives with his Pressurising mother who is trapped in the past, which effects both Tom and Laura. Amanda reflects Williams' mother 'Miss Edwina' and Laura reflects Williams' sister 'Rose'. Tom, Laura and Amanda live on there own in a house, which symbolises a trap. Its trapping all of them especially Tom. Tom and Laura's father deserted the family and went away to another place. The audience may feel that the father moving away from the family was more of an escape. The only image the audience has of Tom's father is a picture hanging on the wall in the living room. The picture takes
"Brief Encounter" dealt with the issues of sexuality and desire by using a lot of different techniques.
Brief Encounter Question 1 "Brief Encounter" dealt with the issues of sexuality and desire by using a lot of different techniques. Some of the main ones included the lighting that was used, which would always heighten the facial expressions of the characters that were in the scene (inevitably it was Laura and Alec). This then led to the viewers noticing how the lead characters dressed and talked. Although the lighting emphasised their expressions, this led to Laura's clothes being less noticeable. The way that Laura talked was with a first person narrative, like it was her conscience speaking, but to her husband Fred. The director David Lean has used the music to try and emphasise the moment in the film, for example when at the beginning of the film Laura is in the lounge area with her husband Fred, the music is calm, soothing, and slow, to match Laura's mood and feelings at the time. Also throughout the film, there are lots of examples of symbolism, which adds to or dramatically heightens the growing love affair between Laura and Alec Harvey. For example when Laura and Alec first meet at the café, she has a small piece of grit in her eye, and along comes Alec and helps to get rid of it for Laura. I read this as symbolising, that there was a small love beginning to materialise itself between Laura and Alec (a doctor who just happens to be in the right place at