Name: Shannon Sawyer
Date: 4/24/11
MAJOR WORKS STUDY FORM
Title: The Glass Menagerie
Author: Tennessee Williams
Date of Publication:1945
Provide information about the period (literary,
historical, philosophical, etc.)
Provide significant details about the author.
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Time Period the book took place- Late 1930’s
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The Great Depression was rearing an end.
Earhart’s plane crashed.
Popular Books at the time were—
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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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To Have and Have Not by Earnest
Hemingway
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Northwest Passage by Kenneth Robert
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
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(Three of these were mentioned
throughout his The Glass Menagerie)
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The return of the labor movement.
President- Franklin Roosevelt
St. Louis, MO
All in all, this time made conditions
miserable and hard to live in.
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Tennessee had a mentally ill sister, Rose who
inspired many of his books.
The Glass Menagerie is his own life. Tom the main
character is himself because his true name is
Thomas.
Tennessee mentions his favorite books and songs
throughout the book in stage settings.
As a small child Tennessee suffered from diphtheria
which almost ended his life.
Tennessee hid his heavy drinking even after he saw
what happened with his father who did the same
thing.
Tennessee struggles to have his pieces of work
accepted and published.
His whole life he was fearful to fall into insanity like
his sister, which led him into depression.
Tennessee accepted his homosexuality and joined a
gay writing circle where some of his pieces of work
had started.
Because of his heavy intake of alcohol and drugs he
choked to death.
He had a deep grudge for his parents after they put
her in surgery where she was left paralyzed. Many of
his plays, stories, and books were written in his
anger.
When his love Frank Merlo died from lung cancer he
went into a deep depression for about 8 years.
He produced 25 full-length plays as well as many
other short ones.
Identify the genre and specify how this work fits its
characteristics.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams would
fit into the genre of drama. I believe that this book
fits into this category because from the beginning
to the end of the book there are circumstances
that make the mood for the reader serious. In the
book there are many serious situations in the
family that need to be resolved. For the more
obvious reason, the book was written as a play
which is known as a drama.
Draw an image or write your impressions.
And I ate the last page… 
In my opinion the book was good literature. It was
easy to follow and had many things that I could
connect to throughout. For the first half of the
book, I was not as entertained by reading it but by
the end I used the symbols to really help me
Provide plot points (use bullets or graphic organizer)
 Tom is found to be an excessive drinker.
 Amanda wants to find Laura a man.
 Tom finds a gentlemen caller from work, that he
thinks will be good for Laura.
 Jim (gentlemen caller) meets at their house for
dinner.
 Laura remembers Jim from high school and feels
insecure. She hides.
 The lights go out after dinner because Tom didn’t
pay the bill.
 Jim goes up stairs with tea and candles in efforts to
talk to Laura.
 They talk about high school and how Jim used to call
Laura ‘Blue Roses’.
 Laura talks about her glass menagerie and how the
unicorn was her favorite one.
 Laura feels comfortable with Jim, and they dance
together. Laura takes it too fast, and has fallen for
him.
 Jim accidentally breaks the unicorn but surprisingly
Laura doesn’t mind. All she cares about for the time
being is Jim.
 Jim tells Laura that he can’t be with her, and kisses
her. (Laura’s first kiss.)
 He tells her that he is already engaged to a woman
named Betty.
 Jim leaves, and Amanda is upset with Tom for she
thinks she set this all up on purpose even with that
information. Even though he hasn’t.
 Tom is overwhelmed and says he is going to the
movies (drink) and eventually ends up leaving his
mother and sister because of it.
understand and become more interested in the
book. I suggest it to everyone!
Identify and explain the use and effect of three
literary techniques:
1. Dialogue
2. Dramatic Irony
3. Symbolism
Cite and quote three significant passages (use
ellipses to abbreviate and include page numbers)
Cite and quote one example of each:
1. Since my book is a play, everything that each
character says is written in dialogue. The characters
speak back and forth to each other as though it is a
normal conversation.
Ex.
Tom: “How did you entertain those gentlemen
callers?”
Amanda: “I understood the art of conversation.”
Tom: “I bet you could talk.”
2. Towards the end of the book Amanda and Laura
have both found out that Jim is engaged and that the
set up was a waste of time. Amanda went to Tom
thinking that he had already known, but in actuality
he didn’t. As the reader we knew about it but Tom
had not known yet.
3. Laura’s glass menagerie is a set symbolism of Laura’s
life. He life is based off of a fragile illusion just as the
glass. Her glass animals are frozen and cut off from
the real world, and she has been distracted from the
real world prior to the play. As her favorite glass
animal is dropped and broken, it almost as though
Laura is breaking out of her cage and allowing
herself to become more social to the real world.
Explain the significance of each passage or explain how it
relates to the work as a whole.
1. This passage is significant because it gives advice to
1. "I know, but it’s not good for you. We have to do
the readers. That during tough times people should
all that we can build ourselves up. In these trying
stick together and not do stupid acts. Its relates to
times we live in, all that we have to cling to is—
the work as a whole because the family is going into
each other…spoken to you.” (page 31)
rough times, and it shows how Tom should deal with
it rather than with alcohol.
2. LAURA: Little articles of [glass], they’re
2. This is when Laura explains her collection of glass
ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals
animals to Jim- her gentleman caller. She says that
made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the
most of her time is taken up by this collection. It is
world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie!
almost that since Laura has not been leading on a
Here’s an example of one, if you’d like to see it! . . .
normal life because of her insecurities she has
Oh, be careful—if you breathe, it breaks! . . . You
see how the light shines through him? (page 82)
3. Tom: “ I didn’t go to the moon, I went much
further—for time is the longest distance between
two places. Not long after that I was fired for
writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box…then all at
once my sister touches my shoulder.” (page 97)
Name of each
significant
character
Relationship to other
characters
1. Tom
1. Son to Amanda,
Brother to Laura
2. Amanda
2. Mother to Tom and
Laura
turned into a piece of her collection. She is a fragile
piece of glass with no emotion of sincerity. She can
be broken easily and has the tendency to give up.
3. Tom says this as one of his last lines. Its shows that
Tom was fed up with everything he had to put up
with, and the ways he handles it. He drinks
constantly to relieve himself from all the stress his
mother puts him under. It also shows the way the
author wanted to portray Laura, as glass.
Three adjectives that
Purpose/function in story
describe character
(specify round or flat)
1. Uncertain
Patient
Trapped
1. Not only the
narrator of the play
but also the son of
Amanda. He is a
poet and works in a
warehouse. All he
dreams of is to
escape his trapped
life. Before he is to
do so though, he
must find a
gentleman caller for
his sister, Laura.
Tom started off as a
non-caring guy who
just wanted to
escape from his life
but by the end I
think he was more
towards the point
where he needed to
escape so as the
story progressed he
became a round
character.
2. Emotional
Worried
Over-Protective
2. A mother of two
who is clinging to
another time and
place. She is just
looking for the best
in her children, but
is also trying to live
through them. She
is quite controlling
but is only trying to
help. She didn’t
seem to change
much throughout
the book. She was
controlling and
wanted what was
best for her
children the whole
story.
3. Laura
3. Daughter to Amanda,
Sister to Tom
3. Crippled
Torn
Trapped
3. Amanda is Laura’s
mother in which
she tries to live
through. She was
born crippled and
her selfconsciousness led
her to an
uncomfortable
world. She is now
being found
gentlemen. Laura
started off as a shy
uncomfortable girl,
but after Jim talked
to her she was
more confident
women so she was
a round character.
4. Jim
4. Friend to Tom,
gentleman caller to
Laura, acquaintance
to Amanda
4. Engaged
Sensitive
Comforting
4. A co-worker with
Tom and was asked
to have dinner with
the family,
hopefully to
become close with
Laura. He did
happen to be
engaged though so
he couldn’t get
close. He was very
sweet and made
Laura comfortable
from the beginning
and never seemed
to change so he was
a flat character.
Significant Quotations
Quotation
Situation
Importance
Amanda: “No, I don’t have
secrets. I’ll tell you what I
wished for on the moon.
Success and happiness for
my precious children! I wish
for that whenever there’s a
moon, and when there isn’t
a moon, I wish for it, too.”
Tom and Amanda both
wish upon the moon.
Amanda only wishes for
success and happiness
for her and her children.
She said she has never
wished for anything else,
and that is all she ever
wanted.
Amanda is trying to show Tom
that she would never keep
something from him or lie, so
she doesn’t want him to do
that either. She also is
showing how much she cares
for her children and that all
she has every wanted was
them to be successful and
happy. This is important
because it shows that even
though she tries to live
through her children and
tends to control and trap
them, she also loves them and
cares for them.
Page 40
Tom: “Yes, I have tricks in my
pocket; I have things up my
sleeve. But I am the opposite
of a stage magician. He gives
you illusion that has the
appearance of truth. I give
you truth in the pleasant
disguise of illusion.”
This is the first line of the
play and Tom is showing
or telling the audience
how he is going to
provide the information
of the book or play to
you.
This line is important because
Tom is revealing that the play
is going to been seen more
than just by the human eye.
You are going to have to go
deeper and examine all of the
situations more to get the real
picture. After reading this I
knew that I was going to have
to pay more attention to
details I would normally pass
by.
Page 4
This is when Laura and
Jim were dancing in the
dark in her room. Before
this Laura was saying
how important the glass
unicorn was to her and
how she treats it very
well. As they were
dancing the unicorn fell
over and lost its horn,
Laura was not very upset
This shows that Laura became
really comfortable around Jim,
and saw potential for their
future, so there was no point
in being mad about something
so little. Her glass collection
meant so much to her and the
break of her favorite one
seemed to be no big deal. It
shows that Laura started to
grow out of her fragile states
Page 86
JIM: Aw, aw, aw. Is it
broken?
LAURA: Now it is just like all
the other horses.
JIM: It’s lost its—
LAURA: Horn! It doesn’t
matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just
imagine he had an
operation. The horn was
removed to make him feel
Page(s)
less—freakish!
over the matter.
of life and grow to be more
accepting and learn to love.
"A blown-up photograph of
the father hangs on the wall
of the living room, to the left
of the archway. It is the face
of a very handsome young
man in a doughboy's First
World War cap. He is
gallant...”
This was stated in the
beginning and in the
setting adjustments. It
just tell us how the
father is painted and is
hanging on the wall,
seems to look very
successful. It tells us a
reader that the father in
not there anymore but
doesn’t state why.
This quote tells us that Tom
and Laura’s father was very
happy and successful, but for
some reason he is not there. It
could have meant that he
died, or abandoned them.
Later in the story we find out
the father was became an
alcoholic and abandoned them
as a family. Amanda
disapproved of it all, and never
wanted Tom to become a man
like his father. In the end we
find out that he really did
though.
Amanda: “Why you're not
crippled, you just have a
little defect — hardly
noticeable, even! When
people have some slight
disadvantage like that, they
cultivate other things to
make up for it — develop
charm — and vivacity — and
— charm!” (Scene 2)
This is Amanda telling
her daughter, Laura that
she is not crippled. (Even
though she really is) She
is trying to uplift her
daughter’s spirits!
This quote is important
Page 15
because it shows that Amanda
does not want her daughter to
give up even though she is
crippled. Leaving it at that she
doesn’t want her to slow
down either because she
doesn’t believe she has any
problems. This may cause
Laura to be forced to do more
than she actually can. To
follow up with that though she
says that if she does slow
down she will be able to make
up for it with her charm which
should relieve Laura’s
pressure. This is another quote
that is showing that Amanda
wants nothing but good for
her children.
Page 4