The Glass Menagerie

• Blog about the play: How do you feel about these characters? You may focus on one character or discuss more than one. Include quotations from the play to illustrate your points.

The Glass Menagerie. What is it about this play that reminds you of the every day life? It's the presented conflict, the unresolvable and consistent constant bickering between the mother and the son. The theme here is important to argue for. Many, I would think, would argue that the theme is centered around family and selfishness/selflessness. I would think that this, in an abstract concept, is a play more written about perspective. Each person has their own little world:

Amanda Wingfield is the formerly beautiful mother who does her best for the children, but she lives in her own world where she believes everything will go her way and there is no fault at hand within hers. One such occasion is where she would constantly berate her son for constantly going out to the movies or constantly talks at her son for nothing he did wrong, such as on page 1014 where she says: "Overcome selfishness! Self, self, self is all you ever think of!" (1014)

Tom Wingfield, however, lives in his adventurous world, and like his mother he sees ahead of him only what he desires; and while attempting to find a way out of his mother's world. For example, on page 1028, Tom mentions: "Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone's dish, not only Gable's! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventures themselves--goody, goody! It's our turn now, to go to the South Sea Island--to make a safari -- to be exotic, far-off--But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I am about to move!" (1028)

But Laura, Laura is perhaps the only one where all the characters in the story agree that she lives in her own little world, because she is the most obvious and out in front character that does so. She lives in her own imaginary world.

These characters see out of their perspectives and it seems that the two of main characters battle over who is more selfish of the pair. The truth of the matter is that each of these characters are fit to a bias, and because of this they will come together and clash, creating conflict, creating tension. This is what makes the play go round...