"The Glass Menagerie" - Remind yourself of Scene 6 and consider to what extent you feel this is a key scene.

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Glass Menagerie Easter Work  

Remind yourself of Scene 6 and consider to what extent you feel this is a key scene.  

Scene 6 and 7 are both key scenes in the Glass Menagerie as they undoubtedly unearth the character’s true personalities, but it is Scene 6 which lays the foundations for the twist in the play.

The scene starts with Tom leaning against the grill outside the apartment smoking, which to me seems quite dramatic and movie like – and he describes his strong feelings for adventure in films later on in the scene to Jim. I believe Williams may have placed this at the start as a foreboding almost to what will happen later on in play where Tom finally escapes to his dream world or at least describes his intentions of escaping to a ‘dream world’. He then introduces his friend Jim, who to the audience is conveyed as the ideal boy, ‘Irish good nature, vitality…star in basketball, captain of the debating club….’ And it is clear that Williams’ intention is to present an almost seemingly perfect character but that is not the complete picture. The relationship between these two characters is equally beneficial and not so one sided as one would expect due to Tom being quite a loner and extraordinary character. Due to the relationship between the two men, Tom is protected from the ‘other boys in the warehouse’ who ‘regarded me with suspicious hostility’ and Jim simply enjoys the fact that Tom is an eyewitness to his glorious high school days which do not hold as much fun and popularity as the present does.  

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 Jim’s place in the whole play, despite featuring in only two scenes provides the most entertainment or action. He gives a focus for Amanda, who uses Jim as a way of reliving her past with the gentleman callers. This is despite the fact that it was Amanda’s original intentions to involve her daughter, Laura into the situation more and finally accomplish her task of making Laura find and marry a gentleman caller which she talked about at the end of Scene 1 in her renditions of her trademark ‘blue mountain’ stories.

Williams again delivers another ominous remark before ...

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