The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

BACKGROUND

Tennessee Williams wrote this as a play, though it has also been made into a movie. This play is based a little on the author’s life. A famous American playwright, Williams also wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." A menagerie is a collection of animals. The girl in this play has a collection of little glass animals, hence the name "The Glass Menagerie."

MAIN CHARACTERS

Tom Wingfield: Tom is the narrator and main dude of the story. The whole play is basically Tom telling the audience about his family. Tom is always in a bad mood. He is depressed and sometimes gets bitter. He loves to write poetry.

Amanda Wingfield: Amanda is Tom’s mom. All she does is nag Tom. She’s an annoying woman who lives in a fantasyland, and thinks that her kids (Tom/Laura) are gonna do something great in life. She also tells stories that aren’t true.

Laura Wingfield: Laura is disabled and weak. She has a brace on her leg. She loves her glass animals (especially the unicorn). She is always in fantasyland and shuts out the outside world. Laura is very shy.

Jim O’Connor: Jim is an average nice guy. He works hard, and is a cool dude. He comes to Tom’s house to meet Laura. Jim kinda feels bad about his life because he’s such a great guy, but he’s still working a crappy job. Jim is engaged but meets Laura and sweeps her off her feet anyway just to boost his ego.

PLOT

This story takes place in St. Louis. The story starts out with Tom looking back in the past. Now in the Marines, the play is a flashback that tells the story about why he left home. Tom talks about his mom and what a jerk she is. He says she was always nagging him. Then he talks about his dad. His dad left the family a long time ago. After he left, it was just Tom, Amanda (mom) and Tom’s sister, Laura.

Then the story goes back to before Tom left. Amanda starts to see that Tom and his father are similar. She notices that he hates his life, and all he does is slack off at work and go to movies. She begs him not to leave the family until his sister has a good husband. Then the play talks about Laura (Tom’s sister). She is a disabled girl, who really doesn’t do anything. All she does is sit at home and listen to records and play with her glass animals (the collection is called a "glass menagerie"). Amanda asks Tom to bring home some guy from work, so Laura can get married. So Tom brings home this dude named Jim O’Connor. Jim is a really nice guy. He acts like such a gentleman when he meets Laura. Laura remembers him from high school, and she used to have a big crush on him. So Jim is there and he talks to her. Then they dance. When they dance, Jim accidentally breaks the horn of Laura’s glass unicorn. Laura is really happy because she meets Jim and Jim is such a nice guy. But then she finds out that he isn’t coming back because he is engaged to some other chick. Then her mom finds out and gets mad at Tom for bringing some engaged guy home to meet Laura. The mom yells at him and accuses him of trying to make her look stupid. Then Tom gets fed up with the whole house, and leaves for the marines.

SCENE BY SCENE

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