The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams - Essay Example

1. The Character of the Female Gender, as Related in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Summary of the Play: Set in St. Louis in the mid-1930s, this play is described as a 'memory' play, that is, the writer has created the work from his own experiences and memories of his life; it is almost a complete replica in fact. There is no doubt as to its autobiographical nature, as the three main characters, Tom, Amanda and Laura Wingfield represent himself, his mother Edwina and his sister Rose, and the events in their lives. Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller, bears the same name as the young man who called on Rose Williams, before her descent into insanity. The action takes place in a small apartment in a poor district of the city, crowded outside and in, surrounded by many dark alleys and fire escapes. The Wingfield's fire escape takes on the symbolism of one of the main themes of the play, escape. Amanda is a brave but dominant woman, trapped in the past and her youth as a Southern Belle. Laura is trapped by her shyness, fragile sensitivity and disability, her 'reality' centering around her glass collection and old records. Tom is a poet, trapped by a boring job in a shoe factory, and the responsibility of providing for his mother and sister. The other themes explored include illusion, failure and disappointment. Nobody really wins, no dreams come true. Summary of Marxist Analysis: Marxist socialism seeks a classless society where everyone is equal, or has equality of opportunity. Tom Wingfield reflects Williams' circumstances, through which he became socially aware, being surrounded by the poor, the low-paid workers, the unemployed, bohemian writers, poets, artists and radical activists. In Glass Menagerie, when setting Scene One for us, describing the location, Williams displays his socialist, Marxist beliefs, or at the least, his sympathy towards that philosophy. He says: 2. '...one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units that flower as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers of lower-middle-class population and are symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass of automatism.' (Williams, 1936, p. 233) Note how he has told us of the class level involved, and the emotive use of the words 'fundamentally enslaved' in connection with the family and its living conditions. In this respect, he is showing us his disgust that people should have to live this way, and subscribing to the Marxist ideal. Again, there is a connection to socialist values when he has Tom pay his dues to the Union of Merchant Seamen, rather than the electric bill - thus highlighting a belief in the unions and socialism, as opposed to capitalism. In speaking about the impending war, Williams puts into the mouth of Tim Wingfield, some further indication of the belief that people are not getting what they are entitled to out of life. Tom: "Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a darkened room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses!....Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventure themselves-...." (Williams, 1936, Scene Six, p. 282) In using the word 'masses' the playwright makes us recall that this terminology is frequently associated with Marxism. As for coming out of the dark, it is symbolic, not just of Tom waking up to what he is being deprived of, but of all the people seemingly oppressed as he is. There is too, a cynical realization that in having 'adventure', those same masses will suffer. The play exposes, through Tom's narration, how that Capitalist dream has collapsed, it is an illusion. Williams is not unsympathetic, but in Tom's escape, is telling us that everybody deserves the opportunity for self realization, no matter what their position in society may be. This is a Marxist viewpoint. 3. Summary of Feminist Analysis: There is much of the feminist ethos in the independence and self-support which Amanda presents. A wife abandoned now for 16 years, who has provided for her children, she wants her daughter to be equipped with the skills for self support, and her son to make money and progress in a career. On the other hand, she expresses the belief that a woman needs a man to have a fulfilling life, continually harking back to her youth, with her '17 gentlemen callers', harassing and disturbing Laura, who has none and is happy as she is. Amanda is playing the role of both mother and father, head of the house. Many single mothers then and now have had to take on this role. Laura has none of the strength and drive of her mother and represents an almost Victorian view of young womanhood. In that era, girls might read uplifting books, work on their embroidery and water coloring, and wait for a nice young man to ask to marry them. In Laura's case, these activities may be translated into caring for her glass animals and playing old records on the victrola; they are her security. Laura cannot be seen to conform to any feminist ideal, she does not have the strength or qualities required. No education, no job, and no self-determination, she is a lost soul. There is no doubt that Amanda Wingfield is a powerful force to be reckoned with, a woman whose behavior moves from girlish, charming femininity to the masterful, almost male head of the family. She is especially charming with Jim O'Connor, Amanda: "Good for something! [her tone is rhapsodic] You Why, Mr. O'Connor, nobody, nobody's given me this much entertainment in years - as you have!" (Williams, 1936, Scene 7, p. 290) Since the disappearance of her husband 16 years earlier, she has worked and provided, been both mother and father to her two children. As such, she has assumed the dominant male position in the household, while never ceasing to behave as though she were still a charming and vivacious Southern Belle, with little to do but meet eligible young men. In the society of the mid-1930s in America, the breadwinner would naturally possess the status of head of the household. Yet now 4. Tom is the main economic provider, an adult male, he is denied that status, simply by how his mother perceives things should be, rather than what they are, and by her demands on him to be that provider until another appears (a husband for Laura). The life she has led up to the time the play takes place, would suggest she is indeed conforming to both the Marxist ideal of self-determination and freedom from the oppressive role of the 'little woman' who needs taking care of, and the feminist view of a self supporting, self governing, independent woman. Her actions in life have so far confirmed this view to be actual; what she says and tries to do to her son and daughter are in contrast to this. All the time, Amanda is pushing Laura to conform to a state of dependency on a man, while trying to make her equip herself with the skills to enable her to work until a husband comes along. When her attempts fail, and she discovers Laura has not been attending her stenography classes, she berates her in the brilliant "Crust of Humility" speech. Amanda: "...What is there left but dependency all our lives I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position. I've seen such pitiful cases in the South - barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife!...little birdlike women without any nest - eating the crust of humility all their life." (Williams, 1936, Scene 2, p. 245) In her dissertation on gender portrayal in American plays, B. B. Copenhaver states that: ' Amanda becomes focused on finding a husband for Laura so as to secure not only Laura's future, but her own as well.' (Copenhaver, 2002, p. 127) She also makes the valid point that Amanda's planning and plotting to achieve this demonstrate the "male characteristics of logic and planning." (Copenhaver, 2002, p. 126) Laura's character is more suited to that quiet, spinsterish role which Amanda fears her daughter would adopt and which she is striving so hard to prevent. Laura utters the dreaded words: Laura: " I'm crippled,' (Williams, 1936, Scene 2, p. 246) 5. in response to her mother's pronouncement that if she cannot have a business career, then she must marry some 'nice man.' Amanda will not let that word be used, reverting back to the need for other things to compensate, such as charm and vivacity. Laura never gets much opportunity to communicate her real feelings and desires to her mother, and when matters upset her, turns for comfort to her glass animals or old records. In fact, most of the dialog in the play is between Tom and Amanda, and it is only when Jim O'Connor spends a little time alone with her, that she blooms momentarily and we get a glimpse of the fragile, sensitive nature of Laura. Because he portrays the dominant male, a man with plans, a hard worker bent on self improvement, his talk is mostly about himself and Laura is subservient to him. Yet she relaxes enough to actually tell him about her menagerie. He is the American Dream, possibly the future, as he sees it, and she is the Victorian spinster of the past. Nevertheless, there is a poignant pathos in their exchanges regarding the little unicorn, soon to become broken. Does it signify Laura as an unusual anachronism when whole, and Jim, one of the herd when it loses its horn Laura: "I shouldn't be partial, but he is my favorite one." Jim: "What kind of a thing is this one supposed to be" Laura: "Haven't you noticed the single horn on his forehead" Jim: "A unicorn, huh" Laura: "Mmmm - humm!" Jim: "Unicorns, aren't they extinct in the modern world" Laura: "I know!" (Williams, 1936, Scene 7, p. 301) With this little passage in the play, Williams has told us what Laura thinks of herself, the differences between her and other people, her distance from the reality of life and the futility of trying to change her. It seems inevitable and tragic that she is driven even further from reality, into her lonely self, after her hopes are raised by a dance and a kiss, and dashed by Jim's admission to his engagement to Betty. 6. While the relationship between Tom and Laura is close, a brother protective of his sensitive, unworldly sister, he and Amanda are in constant conflict. The gender role she has adopted prevents Tom from taking on the position he deserves as breadwinner and support of his womenfolk. To return to the point made in the Topic Summary as to how the play reflects the playwright's own experiences, it would seem that his mother Edwina had to take on this dominant male role, his father being often away, due to his work. Tom Wingfield's father is gone, but remains an overbearing presence in their lives in a similar fashion; his portrait always overlooks the action. As for Laura, she replicates the sadness, guilt and loss Williams felt about Rose, suffering a lobotomy and finally being locked away in a mental institution. He says himself: 'I have exposed a good many human weaknesses and brutalities and consequently I have them....Guilt is universal. I mean a strong sense of guilt. If there exists any area in which a man can rise above his moral condition, imposed upon him at birth, and long before birth, by the nature of his breed, then I think it is only a willingness to know it, to face its existence in him, and I think that, at least below the conscious level, we all face it. Hence guilty feelings, and hence defiant aggressions, and hence the deep dark of despair that haunts our dreams,..." (Williams, 1959, New York Times, foreword to plays ) More devastating to Tom's personal development is Amanda's attitude to his poetry, reading and movie-going - his escape mechanisms and driving forces. It is this domineering, yet needy, persistent harassment which finally drives him away, Amanda: "What's the matter with you, you - big - big IDIOT!" Tom: "Look! - I've to no thing, no single thing - Amanda: "Lower your voice!" Tom: "Yesterday you confiscated my books! You had the nerve to -.." (Williams, 1936, Scene 3, p. 250) and again, in the final row in Scene 7: 7. Amanda: "Just go, go, go - to the movies!" Tom: "All right, I will! The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I'll go, and I won't go to the movies!" Amanda: "Go, then! Then go to the moon - you selfish dreamer!" (Williams, 1936, Scene 7, p. 312) And he leaves. Tom, as narrator, provides a marvelous poetic insight into his mother and sister. Amanda has deprived him of his traditionally rightful place in the family, but is unable to prevent his escape. Yet the guilt at leaving Laura haunts him, as we have seen earlier, in the same way as Williams was haunted, and this is powerfully expressed in the poignant, almost regretful final speech. Tom: " I didn't go to the moon, I went much further - for time is the longest distance between two places...Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions, I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of shattered rainbow. Then all at once, my sister touches my shoulder, I turn around and look into her eyes....." (Williams, 1936, Scene 7, p. 313) No matter what roles people find themselves having to adopt, through the circumstances good or bad in their lives, Williams is telling us we are all only human beings, reaching for a dream of fulfillment. The Glass Menagerie may show how illusive that dream may be, but in doing so, presents us with the universal truths of the human condition in an unforgettable dramatic masterpiece. Works Cited Copenhaver, B. B., 2002. The Portrayal of Gender Roles in Selected American Modern and Post- modern Plays. 18 May 2006 http://etd-submit.etsu-edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0212102- 095131/unrestricted/copenhaver Hale, A. 1998., Tom Williams, Proletarian Playwright. The Tennessee Williams Annual Review 1998. 20 May 2006. http://www.tennesseewilliamstudies.org/archives/contributors.htm Moschovakis, N., 2003. Taking the Personal Politically. Theater Review: A Review of, and Response to, Michael Wilson's ' 8 by Tenn' Hartford Stage 2003. 20 May 2006 http://www.tennesseewilliamstudies.org/archives/2003/8moschovakis.htm Stylistics of Drama (n.d.), TS4203 Session 3. Section 1 - Activity: Stylistics within a range of other approaches. 18 May 2006. http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/theatre/week3.htm Suarez-Galban, E., 2004. The Minimal magnified: Spain in the Glass Menagerie - Menagerie's Spain as support of Williams as a social writer - Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense Vol 12, p. 173-176. 19 May 2006. http://66-249.93.104/search=cache:p9oTXMjhPN8J:www.ucm.es/BUCM/revistas/fll/1133 Williams, T, 1936. A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays, The Glass Menagerie, p.228 - 313 Published by Penguin Classics, London, England, 2000. Read More