An Introduction to The Glass Menagerie
“Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be”
- Tom Wingfield, scene seven
Dr. Michael Flachmann, Jo Ann Lawson, Daniel Aseltine
Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 23rd Camp Shakespeare
Summer, 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biographical Overview of Playwright Tom ‘Tennessee’ Williams
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Timeline of the Williams Family, Compared to U.S. History
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Plot Summary for The Glass Menagerie
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Brief Character Sketches
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History of the Play’s Early Productions
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Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie
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Jonquils in The Glass Menagerie
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Blue Mountain, Mississippi
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Mother Edwina, Sister Rose, and Tom Williams
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Sister Rose’s Lobotomy
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Tennessee Williams’s Father and Tom Wingfield’s Father
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Autobiographical Inferences Drawn from The Glass Menagerie
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Comments from His Theatrical Contemporaries about Tennessee Williams
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BIOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW OF THE PLAYWRIGHT
Thomas Lanier Williams, who adopted his college nickname “Tennessee,” was born in Mississippi,
the son of a traveling salesman. In 1918, the family moved to St. Louis because his father, C. C. Williams,
had been promoted to the role of assistant manager in his shoe company. The Williams couple stood in
sharp contrast to each other, which resulted in a rocky marriage: she was withdrawn and genteel, a pastor’s
daughter; he was domineering, womanizing, and an abusive drunkard. 1
Tom endured a difficult relationship with his father, who regularly referred to him as “Miss Nancy”
because of his weak physical characteristics and sensitive nature. 2 Tom, later Tennessee, experienced bouts
of depression as well as alcohol and drug abuse, which plagued him throughout his adult life.
Tom began his literary career as a writer in high school. In August 1928, at age 17, he published his
first short story, “The Vengeance of Nitocris” in Weird Tales. His education at the University of Missouri
was interrupted by his father’s financial difficulties. 3
C. C. Williams pulled his elder son out of college and obtained a job for him in the shoe company’s
warehouse – a job that Tom detested as a “living death.” Tom believed that this job contributed to his
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As Tom’s mother reflected on the tension with her husband, “Rose was the one who saw my husband abuse me and she lived in fear of him herself…Her father
was even abusive to her.” Edwina Dakin Williams, Remember Me to Tom (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963) 56-57.
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“Cornelius looked on Tom’s writing as effeminate and a waste of time. His tirades were often directed against it. When the electric bill rose a dollar, he
blamed this crime on Tom. ‘You’re just spoiling him,’ he accused me. ‘He sits writing all night and runs up the light bill.’” Edwina Dakin Williams, Remember
Me to Tom (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963) 50
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“This was the third year of the depression and Cornelius constantly felt the financial bottom dropping out of his world. The few stocks he owned had
depreciated considerably.” Edwina Dakin Williams, Remember Me to Tom (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963) 62.
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subsequent breakdown. 4 At age 27, he finally graduated from the University of Iowa in 1938 during the
Great Depression.
During his college years as a journalism, then drama, major Tennessee Williams continued to hone
his writing craft. His literary efforts did not obtain commercial success until The Glass Menagerie (1945)
won numerous awards, critical acclaim, and huge audiences. Subsequent works secured his reputation as
one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century: A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), The Rose
Tattoo (1950), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Suddenly Last Summer (1958), and Night of the Iguana
(1961).
Many of his plays exhibit characters who face lonely struggles in emotionally/financially-starved
contexts. Elia Kazan, who directed many of the dramas written by Williams that were turned into films,
wrote: “Everything in his life is in his plays.”
On February 24, 1983 Tennessee Williams choked to death on a bottle cap at his New York City
residence in the “Sunset Suite” at the Hotel Elysee, where he had lived for the previous 15 years.
Contributing to his death was his heavy use of alcohol and barbiturates. His gravesite, between that of his
mother and sister, is in a Catholic cemetery in St. Louis.
Williams wrote 25 full-length plays, dozens of screenplays, two novels, a novella, 60 short stories,
more than 100 poems, and an autobiography. He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes and four New York
Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. He is widely considered the equal of Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller in
the pantheon of 20th century American theater.
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“At this time of his life, it must have been extremely hard for Tom to find energy to create at night after having to put so much of it into absolutely useless work
during the day. Too, he must have been fighting deep anger at a father who forced him into what he called ‘a job designed for insanity’…Another time he
referred to his stint at the shoe company as a ‘season in hell.’” Edwina Dakin Williams, Remember Me to Tom (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963) 67.
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TIMELINE OF THE WILLIAMS FAMILY IN THE CONTEXT OF AMERICAN HISTORY 5
1884
August 19—Edwina Estelle Dakin born in Marysville, Ohio.
1895
Edwina’s father, Walter Dakin, becomes an Episcopalian minister.
1898
Cornelius Williams serves in the army.
Spanish-American War
1901
Edwina’s family moves to Church Hill (near Natchez) Mississippi.
1902
Edwina’s family moves to Port Gibson, Mississippi.
1904
Edwina secretly changes her birthdate from 1884 to 1885.
1906
Edwina meets Cornelius Coffin Williams.
1907
Edwina and Cornelius marry.
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1909
Cornelius begins work as a traveling salesman for a men’s apparel company.
November 19—Rose is born.
1911
March 26—Tom “Tennessee” Williams born in Columbus, Mississippi.
1914
Cornelius begins work as a traveling salesman for the International Shoe Company.
World War I begins
1916
Tom almost dies from diphtheria.
1918
Family moves to St. Louis.
World War I ends
1919
February 21—Dakin born.
1926
Family moves to dismal apartment complex at 6554 Enright Way, which was to become the inspiration
for the Wingfield apartment.
Tennessee enrolls for one term at Soldan High School.
1927
First piece of published writing (“Can a Good Wife be a Good Sport?”) in Smart Set magazine.
First talking movie released
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1928
Rose starts to exhibit signs of depression.
Tom travels to Europe with his grandfather.
1929
Tom graduates from high school and enrolls at the University of Missouri. Sees a production of Ghosts
that inspires him to try playwriting.
Stock market crashes, Great Depression begins
1932
Cornelius withdraws Tom from school and forces him to work in a shoe factory.
Depression hits bottom: one quarter of US workforce unemployed during the winter of ‘33–‘34
1935
Tom suffers a nervous breakdown and is left with partial paralysis of his legs, which later subsides.
First play produced (Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!). Resigns from Continental Shoemakers.
1936
Tom enrolls at Washington University in St. Louis.
Edwina attends a DAR convention.
1937
Tom withdraws from Washington University and enrolls at University of Iowa.
Rose hospitalized for mental illness; receives insulin shock therapy.
Economic recession
1938
Tom graduates from the University of Iowa.
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town opens.
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1939
Tom moves to New Orleans. Changes his name from Tom to Tennessee.
World War II begins
1941
Writes Portrait of a Girl in Glass.
US enters World War II
1943
Hired as a writer for MGM Studios in LA. Writes screenplay The Gentleman Caller; it is rejected.
Rose’s lobotomy.
1944
Finishes writing The Glass Menagerie. The Glass Menagerie opens in Chicago.
1945
The Glass Menagerie premieres on Broadway. Wins the Drama Critics Circle Award.
WWII ends
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http://www.berkeleyrep.org/html/SchoolOfTheatre/matguide_GM.html#three accessed November 14, 2010
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"A little Prussian officer in drag"
is how Tennessee Williams described his mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, in his Memoirs.
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Birthplace of Tennessee Williams on Sunday, March 26, 1911
now the Columbus, Mississippi Welcome Center
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St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Columbus Mississippi
Thomas L. Williams was baptized here on June 11, 1911, by Reverend Walter Dakin, his grandfather.
In some ways, Grandfather Dakin substituted for Tom’s frequently-absent father, Cornelius Williams.
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PLOT SUMMARY: THE GLASS MENAGERIE6
This seven-scene play concentrates on four characters and contains multiple references to two unseen characters:
Tom Wingfield, the Narrator and Son/Brother; Amanda Wingfield, the Mother who lives in the past; Laura
Wingfield, the very fragile Sister/Daughter who lives inside her glass collection of animals, including her particular
favorite, a glass unicorn; Jim O’Connor, the Gentleman Caller who comes to dinner at Tom’s request; Mr.
Wingfield, who had abandoned his family fifteen years earlier; and Betty, Jim’s fiancée.
Narrator Tom is a device used by Tennessee Williams to become a part of the Wingfield family. The beginning of
the play shows the Wingfield family eating dinner in a rundown St. Louis apartment. Amanda insistently reminds
her adult son Tom to chew his food thoroughly, annoying Tom to the point that he leaves the table to smoke
outside on the fire escape. Amanda proceeds to tell her oft-repeated story of the seventeen gentlemen callers she
entertained on a Sunday afternoon at her girlhood home in a Mississippi mansion.
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According to Dakin Williams, younger brother of Tennessee, “The events of The Glass Menagerie are a virtually literal rendering of our family life … There
was a real Jim O’Connor, who was brought home for my sister. The Tom of the play is my brother Tom, and Amanda Wingfield is certainly Mother.” Donald
Spoto, The Kindness of Strangers: the Life of Tennessee Williams (Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1985) 114.
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The next scene finds Laura, nearly 24 years old, sitting at her desk in front of her typewriter chart, when a visibly
upset Amanda enters. She confronts Laura about Laura’s dropping out of a local business college. Laura
confesses to her mother that she could not cope with the demands of the class, and to disguise her absences took
long walks in the city, visiting museums and parks. Later, Amanda asks Laura about a boy she liked in high
school, and Laura points him out in her yearbook.
Tom gets into yet another argument with his mother. She cannot understand why he goes to the movies nearly
every night. Tom responds that he cannot tolerate his soul-draining job at the shoe warehouse. He feeds
Amanda’s inner turmoil by claiming he will become an assassin and storms out to the movies once again. He
returns to the family apartment much later that night, but cannot find his key to enter because of his drunken
condition. Laura, his sister, quietly opens the door from within, and Tom tells her about the adventurous movie
and the magic show he saw. Tom concludes the scene by giving Laura a scarf from the magic show.
Very early the next morning, Amanda wakens Tom to prepare him for yet another day at his miserable job. She
repeats her request to bring home a gentleman caller for Laura. That night, Tom announces to his mother than Jim
O’Connor will be coming to dinner the next evening. Amanda and Laura make elaborate preparations for the big
dinner.
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Tom arrives with Jim, and Laura soon recognizes Jim as her former high school “crush.” While the four are eating
dinner, the lights go out – Tom has “forgotten” to pay the electric bill! In reality, Tom has used the money to buy a
membership in the Merchant Marine, signaling his intent to leave the family as his father did so long ago. Amanda
brings out candles, and Laura sits alone with Jim. They intimately talk of her physical handicap, her shyness, Jim’s
plans for the future, her collection of glass animals, and Jim’s diagnosis that Laura has an inferiority complex. Jim
gently kisses Laura, but almost immediately regrets his action, and explains to Laura that he is engaged to be married.
Jim convinces Laura to dance with him in the living room. Laura feels loved and transported, albeit momentarily, into
the real world. While dancing, Jim bumps into Laura’s glass figurines, breaking the horn off the unicorn. Laura quiets
his concerns, telling Jim that now the unicorn is no longer different from the other animals, but just like them.
Jim must leave the Wingfield apartment rather abruptly, for he has promised his fiancée that he will meet her later that
evening. After his departure, Amanda bitterly reproaches Tom for bringing Jim to dinner as the gentleman caller for
his sister because Jim is not an eligible bachelor. In his defense, Tom responds that he did not know Jim was engaged.
Tom disappears from home the next day, never to return. For the rest of his life, he carries his sister Laura (and his
mother Amanda) in his heart.
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BRIEF CHARACTER SKETCHES
Amanda Wingfield
Much of her life revolves around the past, particularly her time as a privileged debutante
in the Mississippi Delta. She is the quintessential Southern Belle and a proud member of the Daughters of the
American Revolution. She has only momentary flashes of confronting reality in the present, particularly in terms
of her daughter and son. She attempts to control both her children’s lives and experiences almost no success in this
endeavor with respect to her son Tom. She was abandoned by her husband 15 years ago and has struggled to keep
her family together ever since. She comforts herself with the memories of the numerous gentlemen callers she
entertained as a young lady. She is terrified by the fact that her children are not strong enough to navigate a
Darwinian world.
Tom Wingfield
A poet trapped by lower-middle class family circumstances and tethered to a job that
offers no creative or emotional outlet. He struggles with his duty to support his mother and sister and yearns for
the day that he can be free of the constraints they represent. At work, he is nicknamed “Shakespeare” because of
his ambition to become a successful writer. One of his few acquaintances on the job is Jim O’Connor. Tom is also
the narrator of this “memory” play, through which he intends to memorialize Laura.
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Laura Wingfield
Tom’s older sister, nearly 24, who wears a brace on her foot due to a childhood illness.
She is physically and emotionally frail, painfully shy, insecure, and isolated. Laura sympathizes with Tom’s
dreams, but attempts to keep peace in the family by placating her mother. She has suffered a great deal throughout
her life and constitutes a powerful effect upon Tom. As a romantic, she seeks escape in nature, art and music.
Laura dropped out from high school, in part due to her shyness, and later struggles with classes at Rubicam’s
Business College.
James Delaney O’Connor, “Jim”
Tom’s colleague at the shoe warehouse, and the gentleman caller for
Laura whom Tom persuades to come to dinner. As an ambitious “self-starter,” he is strongly grounded in reality,
though not necessarily as a sympathetic character.
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Mr. Wingfield
His picture is displayed prominently in the Wingfield apartment, despite the fact that he
abandoned his family fifteen years before the play begins. Served in World War I as a military officer. Described
as a particularly handsome and romantic man who stole Amanda’s heart from her multiple gentlemen callers.
Later, “a telephone man who fell in love with long distances.” Though Mr. Wingfield never appears in the play,
and the audience never learns his first name, his presence is deeply felt. 7
Betty
Jim’s fiancée, who never appears in the play. She and Jim are to be married in June, just
a few months after the night of the climactic dinner.
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“Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only basis for family life.” --Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband, 1895