Tennessee Williams
Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus, Mississippi
Tennessee-nickname from college because of southern accent
Father- salesman; drinker Mother- clergyman’s daughter; hysterical attacks
Siblings-Rose (older) extremely close; prefrontal lobotomy; Dakin (younger)
Moved a lot; 16 times/1 year
Williams-shy, fragile, taunted; worked in shoe factory (nervous breakdown); college,
lived Bohemian life; scriptwriter
1941 began work on The Glass Menagerie
1943 Rose underwent prefrontal lobotomy in St. Louis
1944 December 26 Playhouse Theatre Chicago, IL; 1945 March 31 NYC
1961 partner died
1967 entered psychiatric hospital
1983 died from choking in a drug-related incident
The Glass Menagerie
“…the saddest play I have ever written. It is full of pain. It’s painful for me to see it.”
-Tennessee Williams
Memory Play- “The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some
details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value
of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in
the heart. The interior is therefore rather dim and poetic.”
REMINISCENES/PARALLELS of his own family:
 Lived in St. Louis
 Inhabited a rather modest apartment
 Tennessee (Tom) worked at shoe factory
 Rose (Laura) was extremely troubled
 Edwina Williams (Amanda)
DEVIATIONS
 Brother Dakin lived with them
 Father was present after working hours
PRODUCTION NOTES
PLASTIC THEATER- applies expressionistically and symbolically such theatrical
techniques as special setting, lighting, costume, and sound, etc., to establish mood
and externalize the inner world of his characters.
THE SCREEN DEVICEImages and legends, projected from behind, cast on a section of wall between the front room and the din
to give ACCENT to certain VALUES in each scene. Primary point is made SIMPLY and LIGHTLY.
THE MUSIC“The Glass Menagerie” resembles CIRCUS MUSIC. Used to give
EMOTIONAL EMPHASIS to suitable passages. LIGHT, DELICATE, SAD.
Serves as a thread of connection and allusion between the narrator
With his separate time and space an the subject of his story.
Primarily Laura’s music (and the fragility of glass-her image).
THE LIGHTINGDIM, not realistic, keeping with atmosphere of memory.
Focus is on LAURA, pristine clarity, like early religious portraits of
female saints or madonnas.
ITMOTIF: an associated melodic phrase or figure that accompanies the reappearance of an idea, person, or situation
“structures the play; every character seeks flight,
if not literally, then through the imagination.”
Themes
Motifs
Symbols
1. Memory vs. Reality
2. Impossibility of True Escape 1. The Glass Menagerie 1. Words/Images on Screen
2. Music
3. Unrelenting Power of Memory 2. Unicorn
3. Fire Escape
4. Abandonment
4. Jim
Characters
AmandaTom and Laura’s mom
Proud, vicious, clings to memories of vanished, genteel past
Admirable, charming, pitiable, laughable
Faded Southern belle
Suffered reversal of economic and social fortune
Defends values of the past
FLAWS-tragic, comic, grotesque, extroverted, theatrical
Constant nag of Tom; refusal of Laura’s true self
BUT willingness to sacrifice for loved ones
LauraSelfless; Axis
SYMBOLS- blue roses, glass unico
Entire glass menagerie
Rare, delicate, peculiar
FOIL CHARACTER for Amanda
TomNarrator of the play; recollects and acts
Objective truth and memory’s distortion of the truth
Reads literature, writes poetry, dreams of escape and adventure BUT bound to the
Wingfield house
Loves Amanda and Laura BUT indifferent and cruel to them
LITERARY DEVICES
Annotations
1. Themes
2. Motifs
3. Symbols
4. Setting
5. Characterization
6. Irony
7. Mood/tone
8. Diction
9. Metaphors
10.Similes
11.Comparisons/contrasts