Symbols of The Glass Menagerie.
Symbols of The Glass Menagerie. Symbolism plays the major aspect in Tennessee William's popular play, "The Glass Menagerie." On the surface, the short view in picture of life story seems to be simple. Cleverly, if the reader digs deeper they will find that there are several symbols that give the play a deeper meaning. Each character defines each symbol in a different way. Aside from character symbols, there is overall symbolism in this play. It is set in a memory, so it creates a soft, dream-like setting. This lends to the whole idea behind the play that the characters are unable to function in reality. "None of the characters are capable of living in the present. All of the characters retreat into their separate worlds to escape the brutalities of life." (Levy). There are some very noticeable symbols that have been analyzed many times since study has begun on "The Glass Menagerie." The first is the actual glass menagerie that represents the fragility of the Wingfield's dreamlike existence. The second is the fire escape, which reflects each character's tendency to escape from reality in their own ways. The third is the yellow dress, which represents youth and the past. "The gentleman caller, Jim O'Connor, represents change and also hopes for the future, as well as a reflection of Amanda's past" (Parker). Tom also has his own symbols of escape. He uses his poetry and the
Discuss the role of music and other sound effects in A Streetcar Named Desire
Discuss the role of music and other sound effects in 'A Streetcar Named Desire Often when in convocation with another person a generally meaningless comment can have a profound ability to offend someone more than a deliberately vulgar outburst; this is due to the tone in which the person delivers his remake. Tone as described in the "Oxford Dictionary" is 'the sound of a person's voice, expressing a feeling or mood,' and is an essential tool in the way people communicate with each other to express there feelings and experiences. In author "Tennessee Williams" 'A Street Car Named desire' a play about two sisters from the south living out there separate lives, meet again in New Orleans during a pivotal moment in each of there journeys; tone is a vital tool in expressing there emotional trials and tribulations within the book. As while reading the book it is not possible to hear the tones in which the characters use to express themselves, it is done through the stage directions. Thought the stage directions do not only evoke the tones of the play, they also foreshadow events ahead through describing symbolic happenings such as music and sound effects. 'Tennessee Williams' use of stage directions is one of the many keys to the great success of this play; even the first paragraph is a tribute to that. The first paragraph describes a peaceful image, "Two women, one white the other
'A Play Is Not Just Language...'
'A Play Is Not Just Language...' If The Glass Menagerie were performed without the effects Williams wrote into the script, then the play would barely have a plot. Williams' use of music, lighting and a television screen add depth and meaning to the play. He uses effects to portray the feelings of the characters, rather than their words or actions. In Tom's opening speech he states that 'The play is memory.' Because it is about his memories of his mother and her memories. They both spend the play living in the past. Tom is obviously living in the past because the play is based around 'post-war Tom's' memories of his life prior to the war when he was living with Amanda and Laura. Amanda seems to be divided between her world as an abandoned mother of two, and her youth back in Blue Mountain. When Amanda first appears in the play, so does the legend on the television screen 'Ou sont les neiges' and later, 'Ou sont les neiges d'antan?' which means 'where are the snows' and 'where are the snows of yesteryear?' this emphasises the idea that Amanda is longing for the past. She then begins to tell her children- and judging by Tom's reaction, for the hundredth time- of her youth and her many gentlemen callers and how wonderful her life was. The Glass Menagerie is a very static play, the audience do not leave the two rooms of their apartment and the characters lives are so
Passage Based Essay of the last page of Scene 7 in the play: The Glass Menagerie.
Passage Based Essay of the last page of Scene 7 in the play: The Glass Menagerie. The play The Glass Menagerie is a memory play. Tom Wingfield acts both as the narrator and a character within the play. The play uses a lot of imagery and symbols as the playwright Tennesse Williams wrote 'memory takes up a lot of poetic license' as it is 'seated predominantly in the heart'. Tim has been handled somewhat fluidly being a memory play. We see Tom as a character in his memory and at the end scene as he reviews his past and how is has shaped his present. Tom still feels attached to his sister a 'cripple' Laura, for his desertion. Laura's character is symbolised as 'pieces of coloured glass', she is fragile yet still delicately alluring. Tom's desertion is his ultimate betrayal to Laura, yet the key issue is his guilt, Tom is 'more faithful' than he ever intended to be'. While Tom left his 'two by four situation' behind physically, he never achieves true escape instead being 'swept about' like 'dead leaves'. The natural symbolism of being 'torn away from the branches' reinforces the idea that Tom no longer has roots or a stable family to turn to. Though Tom has travelled 'a great deal' like a leaf being blown in the wind, he is not settles and will soon root away from the tree. This creates sympathy for Tom as the audience realises he left to achieve his own goals yet is hindered
The Glass Menagerie - To what extent to you agree to the critic who claimed that "these are the most important speeches in the whole play"?
Remind yourself of Tom's short soliloquies at the beginning of scenes 1, 3, 5 and 6 and at the end of scene 7. To what extent to you agree to the critic who claimed that "these are the most important speeches in the whole play"? In his first speech, he compares himself to a magician who gives "truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion" and establishes himself as a poet and as the narrator of the play. He tells the audience that the play takes place in the thirties, when there was war in Spain and a different kind of turmoil here in America. He warns that the play is a work of memory, and therefore is not realistic. There will be music, unrealistic lighting, certain events amplified and emphasized. He describes the characters: Amanda, his mother; Laura, his sister; a gentleman caller who will appear later in the play; and Tom's and Laura's absent father, who never appears, but is nonetheless an important figure in the play. Their father occasionally sends the family postcards from all over the world; the last one contained a two-word message of "Hello! Goodbye!" He abandoned the family many years ago. Tom also tells us that he is going to give the audience truth disguised as illusion, making the audience conscious of the illusory quality of theatre. By playing with the theme of memory and its distortions, Williams is free to use music, monologues, and projected images to
The Glass Menagerie. How does Amanda's Southern Background affect her present life and her relationship with her children?
The Glass Menagerie. How does Amanda's Southern Background affect her present life and her relationship with her children? In the play 'The Glass Menagerie' written by Tenessee Williams there are four characters that appear onstage. Amanda a single mother of two children Tom and Laura and A gentleman caller called Jim O'Conner. I will firstly look at how Amanda's traditional Southern background affects her present life. You first get the impression that Amanda is a traditionalist of the Deep South of America when she refers to Laura as sister 'No sister, no sister - you be the lady this time and I'll be the darkey'. This was a common word traditionally for females to call each other and was popular in the very South of America. Another cultural difference shown in the quotation is the term 'darkey'. This was one of the common slang words used by Southerners refering to their black servants. 'Gentleman Caller' is another Southern term used by Amanda throughout the play. It was a phrased used for a courting man visiting an unmarried woman. In the play Amanda often boasts about how many gentleman callers she recieved. Amanda also refers to herself as a Southern Belle. This was the old fashioned term for the higher class woman in the South of America. She is also a member of D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Republic) which are a group of Southern
The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
The character of Laura Wingfield definitely showed an obvious increase of maturity level in the play, The Glass Menagerie. Laura was an extremely shy girl, it was a kind of sickness she had. Her mother sent her to Rubicam's Business College in hopes that Laura would be able to hold a job and not have to depend on a husband. The class terrified her to the point of making her physically ill so Laura stopped going to the class. She did not have the maturity level of an adult and was not able to handle a simple situation such as that one. Another sign of a low maturity level was Laura's collection of "glass menagerie". A girl in her late 20's owning a collection of glass menagerie is quite particular, and not very common, but Laura had one! Laura found out that there was to be a gentleman caller one night and she became extremely nervous, but when she then found out this gentleman caller was Jim O'Connor and old high-school crush she couldn't handle it. She could barely even open the door for Jim and Tom when they were trying to enter the house. While Tom, Jim, and Amanda ate dinner together, Laura laid on the couch because seeing her old crush made her feel ill. Soon, after dinner, Jim joined Laura for a little conversation and which in the beginning she was incredibly quiet but then loosened up to him. She began talking and soon enough they kissed! Laura
Discuss the importance of the past in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Discuss the importance of the past in A Streetcar Named Desire. Our lives are consumed by the past. The past of what we once did and what we once accomplished. As we look back on these past memories we hardly realise the impact these events have on our present lives. The loss of a past love affects our future relationships, the loss of our family influences the choices we make today, and the loss of our dignity can confuse the life we live in the present. These losses or deaths require healing from which you need to recover. The past is very important when it comes to the characters in Streetcar, especially with Blanche. As the play develops, the reader learns more about her vulnerable and weak personality. Clearly Blanche wasn't as frail before Stella 'abandoned' Belle Reve; she may psychologically feel distressed. Blanche says in scene one 'all the burden descended on my shoulders'. Therefore she may be bringing this upon herself, giving her an excuse to be the way she acts as the play develops i.e. turning to alcoholism. However, there are strong reasons why Blanche is mentally disturbed; she experienced witnessing the deaths of every member in Belle Reve, as well as her husband committing suicide. These issues led to mixing up with strangers in Laurel, even having an affair with a student in the high school she used to teach at. Eventually she was told to get out of town
Analyse the relationship between Blanche and Stanley in Scene 2-A Streetcar Named Desire.
Analyse the relationship between Blanche and Stanley in Scene 2- A Streetcar Named Desire. In this play there are three main characters - Blanche, Stanley and Stella. The play is set in New Orleans in a place named Elysian Fields which runs between L & N tracks and the river. Stella and Stanley are married and living together as man and wife in their little apartment. Blanche is Stella's sister. Blanche and Stella both used to live in Belle Reve. Blanche turns up on Stella's door step having lost Belle Reve and her job as a teacher. She has no money and no place to go. She is relying on her sister and her husband to support her. On her arrival she insulted Stella's husband and Stella herself but still expects them to look after her as if it were their duty. Blanche takes them both for granted and in scene one says "I'm not going to be put up at a hotel. I want to be near you". As soon as Blanche sees Stanley she finds something strangely attractive, she doesn't know why or what it is, he is distant towards her, does not pay her compliments like she is used to and she finds this attractive, he is quite a challenge to her even if he is her brother in law but there is something there that she finds irresistible, the first time they meet he is very blunt in the way he talks and brash, he has no respect for women of any kind, he does what he wants,
Explain how Williams creates our awareness of Blanche's increasing anxiety in scene 5.
Explain how Williams creates our awareness of Blanche's increasing anxiety in scene 5 The audience is aware of the tension building between the characters from the onset of Scene 5 through the loud argument between Steve and Eunice. Williams continues to build up the tension throughout the scene using several techniques, emphasising in particular Blanche's mood. Blanche who suddenly bursts into a peal of laughter makes the first sound; not only does laughter represent nervousness but also the spontaneity of the laughter begins to suggest how unstable Blanche has become already during her stay. Williams gives clear directions as to the noises and actions Blanche should be making throughout the scene; this makes the audience aware that this scene relies on the way in which characters say things rather then what they are saying, especially when Blanche and Stanley are interacting. The main indicator of Blanche's increasing anxiety is her continual laughter, Williams gives several different directions as to how she should laugh. (For example, shrilly, sharply, breathlessly, nervously.) The audience is aware that Blanche is on edge throughout the scene, this is emphasised by her visible wincing at each noise that Stanley creates. He jerks open the bureau drawer, slams it shut, and throws shoes in a corner. At each noise BLANCHE winces slightly. Not only does this
