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The Glass Menagerie

by Tennessee Williams

3.55 · rating details · 26,473 ratings · 669 reviews

Menagerie was Williams's first popular success and launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, the play has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in class...more

Paperback, 105 pages

Published June 17th 1999 by New Directions Publishing Corporation (first published 1945)

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Sep 04, 2010

K.D. rated it

· review of another edition

Early this month, my 15-y/o daughter, Jillian. who is studying in an all-girls school, asked me to write a monologue for the 7-y/o Noli Me Tangere character, Crispin. Each of them in the class was given a character in the novel with the objective of introducing all the characters to the class.

I used to write drama scripts in high school (Alamat ni Mariang Makiling) and college (The Silent Mourner) but those were a 2-3 decades ago. So, to help out, I read that chapter in Noli and wro...more

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May 09, 2011

Eric Sonnenschein rated it

The Glass Menagerie is a great domestic tragedy with three very distinctive characters--the strong, proud Amanda, the weak and innocent Laura, and the realistic dreamer, Tom. One finds in this play an elegiac portrait of misery, rather than a scalding enactment of taboo. There is no one tragic event here, but a general condition of pathos. Instead of a classic conflict, The Glass Managerie depicts a lack of cooperation. We find in the Wingfield home no crime, but a chronic, aching social and...moreThe Glass Menagerie is a great domestic tragedy with three very distinctive characters--the strong, proud Amanda, the weak and innocent Laura, and the realistic dreamer, Tom. One finds in this play an elegiac portrait of misery, rather than a scalding enactment of taboo. There is no one tragic event here, but a general condition of pathos. Instead of a classic conflict, The Glass Managerie depicts a lack of cooperation. We find in the Wingfield home no crime, but a chronic, aching social and economic woe.

This archetypal modern family, the single-parent, broken home, implodes under its own grief and slow-moving, yet inexorable catastrophe. The reader/audience has an impending sense that the situation can never improve nor the relationships grow. There is no break in the clouds, no sun on the horizon. These characters are locked into their fates. Any recognition, peripatea, must inevitably lead not to hope and acceptance, but abandonment and dissolution.

If tragedy always documents a change, the only changes that can occur in The Glass Menagerie are hard-wired and inevitable: the escape of the son (imitating the absent father), the insitutionalization of the mentally ill sister, and the death of the aging and increasingly delusional mother. This pervading and gnawing sense of the Wingfields' doom counters Mother Amanda's brave and delusional hopes and optimism. Perhaps this collision of Amanda's futile optimism and displaced gentility with the family's sordid present constitutes the primary conflict in the play.

I always admired The Glass Menagerie because it reinvented the tragic form for the modern condition and sensibility. This is the no-fault tragedy for a random, no-fault universe. There is no nemesis here and no unadulterated protagonist, unless Amanda, the matriarch, qualifies as one. Amanda is the one character who, like her or not, propels the family forward toward its reckoning. When she schemes to snare a beau for her disabled daughter, Amanda can seem desperate and disingenous to the point of being annoying. But as she makes her unsolicited telephone solicitations, using her southern belle gift for conversation, one aches for her and recognizes how courageous and determined she truly is.

The final message of the memory play, although never stated, is that there is a price for Amanda's brand of optimism. Living in one's dreams can be dangerous. Like all perishable things, optimism can rot. Hope degrades to delusion and bitterness. Denial of reality ultimately is a death factor like denial of air.

Glass Menagerie reads very well. It also can play well. I have seen it with different actors, including Jessica Lange, who seemed a bit too young and sexual to play Amanda. It is a difficult play to stage, demanding great concentration and energy. Ultimately it demands from actors and director a fidelity to the spirit of the play: it cannot withstand gimmickry. In fact, a beautiful set and great production values defeat this play.(less)

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Feb 15, 2009

Nancy rated it

A modern play, to me, about disillusionment. Main characters include Amanda (delusional, childish, dependent, desparate mother), Laura (inhibited, painfully shy daughter), Tom (restless, dreamer, poet, narrator/son), Jim (optimistic, hopeful, gentleman caller). A play about misdirected dreams and ambitions. Amanda places her dreams in her children. Tom places his dreams in adventure and traveling the world like his absentee father. Laura places her dreams of happiness in her glass menagerie...more

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Jan 19, 2009

Vanessa added it

A window into the delicate and often tragic complexity of family dynamics.

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May 13, 2009

Anca rated it

Shelves: 10, seen-on-stage

First, I've seen the play. That helped a lot in my figuring out Williams' detailed directions. I loved the play when I watched it, meaning I loved loved loved it. Although it added to the Tom-Amanda relationship a more ironical shade and left out the dramatic part in favor of the comic, it didn't (for me) left out possible mind-playing with the actors while reading (I'm probably not making much sense here). Anyway, I rarely meet a piece of writing whose characters' point of views I can totally u...more

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Aug 20, 2008

Núria rated it

Recommends it for: los que se sienten atrapados en una vida que no les gusta

Recommended to Núria by: Maria

Shelves: 2008, literatura-en-ingles, mios, teatro, 3-buenos, siglo-xx

Da toda la impresión que Tennessee Williams tenía que ser una persona muy pesada y muy cursi. Toda mi impresión proviene de las acotaciones de 'El zoo de cristal' que me han parecido las peores que he leído en mi vida, por plastas y por cursis. Yo estaba todo el rato en plan "¡Cállate ya y deja hablar a los personajes!" Si tantas ganas tienes de divagar, dedícate a la narrativa a tiempo completo (por cierto, después de esto no creo que nunca tenga ganas de acercarme a la narrativa del ...moreDa toda la impresión que Tennessee Williams tenía que ser una persona muy pesada y muy cursi. Toda mi impresión proviene de las acotaciones de 'El zoo de cristal' que me han parecido las peores que he leído en mi vida, por plastas y por cursis. Yo estaba todo el rato en plan "¡Cállate ya y deja hablar a los personajes!" Si tantas ganas tienes de divagar, dedícate a la narrativa a tiempo completo (por cierto, después de esto no creo que nunca tenga ganas de acercarme a la narrativa del bueno de Tennessee Williams). Y si tantas ganas tienes de dejarlo todo explicado de una forma irritantemente detallada dedícate a ser director teatral y/o escenógrafo. Las acotaciones cuando más breves, mejor. Creo que cuánto más margen de libertad se deja a los que tienen que montar la representación mejor.

Servidora no deja de ser algo friki, así que siempre que leo una obra de teatro me imagino como la montaría yo y si tuviera que montar 'El zoo de cristal' me olvidaría de todas las cursiladas de usar una pantalla, y de las birguerías con la música y la luz, y del recurso de tener un narrador que hable directamente al público, porque son detalles que no sirven para nada al texto, sólo sirvieron en su época para darle un aire moderno e innovador a la obrita. (Por supuesto siempre se podrá decir que lo que me pasa es que soy una naturalista retrógada.) Cuando en realidad si la obra es moderna e innovadora es por el texto, por el retrato que hace de una familia disfuncional regida sutilmente con mano de hierro por una madre dominante de una forma pasivo-agresiva, por el ambiente cerrado y claustrofóbico que recrea, y por el pesimismo y sentimiento de culpa que desprende. Con esto quiero decir que me ha gustado. No tanto como me esperaba, pero me ha gustado.

Como en todas las buenas obras de teatro da la sensación que no ha pasado nada. Los personajes son Amanda (la madre), Tom (el hijo), Laura (la hija) y el pretendiente. A Amanda su marido la dejó, vive en el pasado (un pasado que probablemente se ha ido inventando y se lo ha creído: ¡17 pretendientes dice que tuvo, anda ya!) y quiere que su hijo sea un hombre de provecho y que su hija encuentre un marido que la mantenga, sin tener en cuenta lo que quieren sus hijos o cómo son realmente. Tom es un aspirante a escritor que trabaja en un almacén de zapatos que se refugia en el alcohol y la evasión que le proporciona el cine. Laura es una chica patológicamente tímida e insegura que sólo quiere quedarse en casa cuidando de su colección de figuritas del cristal y aún sueña con el chico popular que le gustaba cuando iba en el instituto.

Laura y el pretendiente me han parecido demasiado Mary-Sues, demasiado buenos y demasiado perfectos y que cuando tienen defectos incluso se trata de defectos hechos para que los queramos o compadezcamos más. Demasiado planos. (Menos mal que al menos no ha habido happy end para estos dos.) Amanda es un personaje mucho más interesante, a veces parece una bruja y a veces una pobre mujer ridícula. Pero quién me ha gustado más ha sido Tom. Creía que me iba a identificar irremisiblemente con Laura, pero es con Tom con quien me siento más identificada, con Tom y su deseo de huir y su sentido de la responsabilidad y sobre todo su sentimiento de culpabilidad. Oh, Tom.

Y si yo montara esta obra también cambiaría el final. No haría que Tom huyera finalmente, dejaría a los espectadores que creyeran que viviría toda la vida amargado sin atreverse a hacer el paso. Este cambio es sólo porque me siento tan identificada con Tom y supongo que querría usar la obra de una forma catártica y expiatoria. Tennessee Williams hizo lo mismo pero a su manera. Él se sentía culpable por haber abandonado a su hermana a la que acabaron practicando una lobotomía cuando él no estaba en casa (y luego dicen que los personajes de Tennessee Williams sólo existen en las obras de Tennessee Williams...) Así que dejó que Tom cargara también con la culpa de abandonar a su hermana y la obra se convirtió en un acto de contricción público.
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Jul 04, 2007

Jennifer added it

Recommends it for: anyone without a lot of spare time

My life has been a bit frought recently and I've been wanting to sit down and read something but haven't had the inclination to dive into anything too big. The Glass Menagerie was on my shelf - it's a short play by Tennessee Williams - it couldn't be more than 100 pages in paperback.

Anyone who knows of Tennessee Williams from seeing his plays will really enjoy reading his work. I thought he was extremely tuned into the characters - and the stage direction was really comprehensive. I ...more

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Nov 08, 2008

Emily rated it

I read this play in high school, and now that I'm preparing to student teach English at a high school, I reread it to make plans. I enjoy the play and feel like we can learn a lot from it about illusion, living in the present - even while learning from the past and planning for the future, the American Dream, etc. It IS kind of depressing - but I want to analyze/ teach it in a positive light, even if that light is simply: how can we learn to avoid the sadness these characters choose? Or how ...more

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Mar 19, 2009

Shannon rated it

YOYA Code: 5Q 5P

A) Pre-Reading/Anticipatory Thoughts
Most teachers in the secondary English Language Arts classroom that I have observed do not teach plays. Rather, teachers tend to rely on the traditional novel and turn to Shakespeare when teaching a play. While I understand the benefits from reading a novel and teaching Shakespeare, I also notice the benefits from reading other genres from other authors. In fact, reading a play can be an easy way to bring the text to life...moreYOYA Code: 5Q 5P

A) Pre-Reading/Anticipatory Thoughts
Most teachers in the secondary English Language Arts classroom that I have observed do not teach plays. Rather, teachers tend to rely on the traditional novel and turn to Shakespeare when teaching a play. While I understand the benefits from reading a novel and teaching Shakespeare, I also notice the benefits from reading other genres from other authors. In fact, reading a play can be an easy way to bring the text to life and engage the students in the reading process. For this reason, I am going to read the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. I know it is a play about a dysfunctional family. I also am aware when this play was released (in New York, 1945) it received 25 curtain calls. I think it will be interesting to see how Williams incorporates and utilizes family dynamics throughout the play.

B) During Reading
This is hilarious. The mother, Amanda is a nagging control freak and completely over dramatic. Poor Tom. The first scene takes place at the dinner table. Laura, Amanda and Tom are eating dinner. Or at least Tom is trying to eat his dinner. However, he cannot eat in peace for his mother tells him to chew his food and give his “salivary glands a chance to function” (6). Because of this constant hovering over him and directing him of what and how he should eat he leaves to go smoke. His escape.
I found the beginning of the play interesting. It begins telling the reader that this is a play based on memory. This is something not normally done, at least back then. It’s like having an actor say there will be little scenery during my monologue. Then picking up a potted plant only to set in the front of the stage and continue on with his dialogue.

C) After Reading
I had to teach this play a week ago and it was my first time reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed. However, what made this play so special was when my students actually said they enjoyed reading it. WOW! Total shocker!! Since the feedback was positive without me even asking if they liked it or not, I will most definitely teach this if ever given the opportunity. With this said, if not able to teach this play I will venture out to find some play to teach them in the beginning of the semester. I believe teaching a play in the beginning will allow students to feel more comfortable with future readings and get them motivated. What makes it different from reading a novel? I would allow them to act out the parts while I narrator. They love this! It gets them involved and engaged in the material. It also makes my life easier to know I’m not lecturing to zombies in a desk.
The Glass Menagerie offers something to the students that sometimes other novels/plays cannot do. For instance, discussing the dynamics of a dysfunctional family, love, relationships, innocence, differences, the American Dream and responsibility. All of these elements are evident in the play. While these tend to be in some novels they are not displayed the same. For example, the ending is left open to interrupt Jim as a hero or villain. My students had a heated opinion about this topic and we actually had a great debate. Of course most of the boys thought he did Laura a favor, while the girls rolled their eyes when hearing this defense. It was amazing! Students can relate to the idea of “being a player” and that is what I played off of. Again, this is an awesome play to get the students involved in reading and class discussion.
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Jul 31, 2008

jamileh rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: play

سرشار از احساس و کاملا رئال در مورد زندگی و احساسات آدمها، حتی تفکرات شخصیتها بر روی پرده ای پشت سرشان عینیت پیدا می کند (از آنجا که برایم جدید بود خوشم آمد). نهایتا در رویارویی رویا با واقعیت، حقیقت تلخ غالب می شود. ویلیامز در انتهای نمایشنامه اوج تلخی واقعیت را به تصویر می کشد.

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Jan 20, 2012

Katie rated it

The Glass Menagerie is a very unique play in the way it was set up and meant to be presented. There are only four characters and one setting in the story; this made it feel like an exceptionally quick read. What I got from it was that the author was attacking the American Dream, which is portrayed in the play as being success and happiness.
Basically, the mother Amanda was deserted by her husband, and wishes for nothing more than marriage, happiness, and success for Tom and Laura. They're b...more

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Dec 04, 2011

Kitt rated it

With its miniscule cast and vague set, The Glass Menagerie doesn't seem like much at first. However, Tennessee Williams manages to transform this meager play into much more than just a story of a fragile girl and her first gentleman caller. With a little bit of background information, the purpose of the story is clear. Not only was Williams commenting on the themes apparent within the play, but he was also writing about his own youth in his own dysfunctional family in St. Louis.

...moreWith its miniscule cast and vague set, The Glass Menagerie doesn't seem like much at first. However, Tennessee Williams manages to transform this meager play into much more than just a story of a fragile girl and her first gentleman caller. With a little bit of background information, the purpose of the story is clear. Not only was Williams commenting on the themes apparent within the play, but he was also writing about his own youth in his own dysfunctional family in St. Louis.

The theme made apparent by Tom makes this clear. Tom, as a representative of Williams, finds true escape from the Wingfield home impossible, and, as a result, recollects the play as a memory of why he cannot find true escape. This ties in with what Williams probably felt upon leaving home, being in almost the exact same position as Tom. His family was also unable to accept realities. Amanada, symbolic of his mother, cannot accept her children or her circumstances for what they really are. She still clings to the days when heritage meant something and everything had to follow a certain etiquette even though that reality clashes with the one she exists in. Laura, on the other hand, exists in a world that is static and full of dangerous illusions - the world of her glass menagerie. The animals in this menagerie are full of fantasy and are appealing in every light that is thrown on them, but they are also dangerously fragile. Laura cannot accept that reality will not bend to her fragility, and even Tom cannot escape his own illusions which keep him complacent and inable to leave. These two themes of the dangers of rejecting reality and the absence of true escape are what define The Glass Menagerie.

The play is written as a memory of the narrator, Tom Wingfield, who is also a character within the memory. As a memory play, Williams makes it clear that certain things are distorted, just as they are within memories, to accent things held most important to the person remembering them. The perspective memory gives is distorted, but it also emphasizes those things which are most vital to understanding the importance of the memory.

While this distortion made it hard to understand, I loved the play. While the apparent fantasies of the characters made it a bit irritating to watch them continue to fail at living, it provides a valuable lesson to the audience about accepting the truth. I adore pieces that teach lessons in the end, and I also like the time period for which this was written. It was a play in an era which I enjoy that caused me to reflect on my own life, and those two things have put it in my favorites list.(less)

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Nov 05, 2011

Melissa Landy rated it

"The Glass Menagerie" is a memory play, as told by the character of Tom. Williams' story has become a studied classic due to its continuous conflict. Characters are always on their toes and therefore, so are readers. The reason for this is probably the matriarch of the story, Amanda. Her nagging at Tom and her constant attempts to find Laura a man occur in every scene. The fact that Tom and Laura will never be what Amanda wants them to be is what makes the play so tragic. Tom's a...more

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Oct 06, 2011

Marian rated it

I'm not certain that drama is really "my" genre, but I ended up enjoying this play a lot more than I thought I would.
The film version of A Streetcar Named Desire has been my only other exposure to Williams, and that, for me, was simply a bit too noisy and aggressive. Consequently, I wasn't sure how I'd like The Glass Menagerie.
One strength that struck me about the play is that each character is distinct and unfolds different aspects of his or her personality within a shor...more

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Sep 20, 2011

Erik rated it

Shelves: americana, plays, ♥girls

FUCK BOYS. Straight up.

Anyway, I remember in 9th grade English, my teacher told us to read this and I'm pretty sure not a single person did? So I decided to watch it tonight on Netflix. I think that watching plays counts? Learning stories, having insights, blah blah blah.

As for the play, it's sad. There's a shitton of daddy/mommy-issues, guilt, shame, some "you cheating bastard," and some "you broke my glass horse."

The glass menagerie was...more

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Aug 10, 2011

Reetta Saine rated it

Shelves: 2011

Toivoin salaa, että Tennessee Williams -kauteni olisi mennyt huomaamatta ohi, mutta turha toivo.

Nimenomaisesti Turha Toivo. Elämän raakuus, ihmissuhteiden toivottomuus, rakkauden naurettavuus ja kaiken suuren sortuminen pieniksi -triviaaleiksi mutta satuttaviksi - sirpaleiksi saa ahdistuksen tuntumaan lievältä reagointitavalta tekstiin.

Loisteliaassa menneisyydessä elävä äiti, elämän lannistama tytär ja velvollisuuden ja vapauden välissä kamppaileva poika ovat raastavia ha...more

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Mar 27, 2011

Valerie J K rated it

I read this play in high school and thought I'd give it another shot. It's a rather depressing play with only 4 characters. The Mother, Amanda, spends most of her time nagging her grown son and reliving memories of the 17 gentleman callers she had in her youth. She married a man who abandoned the family for travel. The daughter, Laura, has separated herself from human contact and spends her time focusing on her glass animal collection. Tom, the son, has been obligated to work in a warehouse...moreI read this play in high school and thought I'd give it another shot. It's a rather depressing play with only 4 characters. The Mother, Amanda, spends most of her time nagging her grown son and reliving memories of the 17 gentleman callers she had in her youth. She married a man who abandoned the family for travel. The daughter, Laura, has separated herself from human contact and spends her time focusing on her glass animal collection. Tom, the son, has been obligated to work in a warehouse, but dreams of travel, adventure, and escape from family obligations. When Tom invites his friend Jim home for dinner (at the insistance of his Mother), Amanda becomes even further detached from reality, reliving her past and matching this "Gentleman caller" with Laura. The evening is full of highs and lows, culminating in the shattering of Laura's favorite glass piece, which is obviously a metaphor for her fragile existance.

Far more interesting than the play is the author's essay, "The Catatstrophe of Success," in which he writes about the difficult time he had adjusting to what we consider success: "The sort of life I had had previous to this popular success was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer surface and holding tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock higher than the one caught hold of before, but it was a good life because it was the sort of life for which the human organism is created. I was not aware of how much vital energy had gone into this struggle until the struggle was removed...This was security at last. I sat down and looked about me and was suddenly very depressed." This led him to realize that "not privation but luxury is the wolf at the door and that the fangs of this wolf are all the little vanities and conceits and laxities that Success is heir to..." He further writes, "You know, then, that the public Somebody you are when you "have a name" is a fiction created with mirrors and that the only somebody worth being is the solitary and unseen you that existed from your first breath and which is the sum of your actions and so is constantly in a state of becoming under your own violation..." --Tennessee Williams(less)

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Mar 23, 2011

Mariel rated it

Recommends it for: savage night at the movies

Recommended to Mariel by: I was a late bloomer I moved in flourishes

Shelves: babywecouldbefamous, letsgotothemovies, malkovich, morrissey-readinglist

The Glass Menagerie is a weird one for me. There's a better word for it than weird. I'm a crap writer though. I'll leave it at that. There's no thesaurus/mindreader thing for what I'm feeling.

There are stories that we know every word of before we've ever read, seen or heard them. The Glass Menagerie is one of those for me. We'd act out scenes and make references like we actually knew what we were talking about. (My mom especially loved the "rise and shine" routine.) Remembe...moreThe Glass Menagerie is a weird one for me. There's a better word for it than weird. I'm a crap writer though. I'll leave it at that. There's no thesaurus/mindreader thing for what I'm feeling.

There are stories that we know every word of before we've ever read, seen or heard them. The Glass Menagerie is one of those for me. We'd act out scenes and make references like we actually knew what we were talking about. (My mom especially loved the "rise and shine" routine.) Remember that scene in Joe Versus the Volanoe when Tom Hanks didn't know it but he knew it that he couldn't possibly have a "brain cloud"? (He runs his hands back and forth over his head to gesticulate that he KNEW it.) [Once upon a time Tom Hanks was really cool. This was before anyone ever told him that he resembled Jimmy Stewart in bad lighting.] My mom bought us freaking glass figurines to encourage it. It was all part of her sick thing to encourage my social anxiety like how some moms encourage obesity by overfeeding and then afterwards picking on their fat kids. (The Brando Street Car was a frequent run in our house too. My brother was given ciggies and wife beater shirts. No lie!)

The times when I'd beg not to go to school 'cause I was being bullied during volleyball practice? A reference to Laura's embarrassment to arrive to school late and limp in front of everyone. I could go on and on. (My mom's sympathies were with the mom, Amanda.)

I felt like I already knew Laura's displacement.

If my twin were here right now I'd ask her if the Paul Newman directed version was one of those filmed from the stage John Malkovich movies like True West and The Death of a Salesman (both are superb if you've never seen 'em). I'm thinking it was filmed for tv. I'm probably wrong and Lauren will later tell me that I am soooo wrong. Anyway, I love this version.

Anyway, it was Tom who killed me when I watched the Newman version over and over again. It was his escape that I felt was being shown back to me. More than Laura's painstaking care of her self-built world I loved the one that Tom reached out to in outside sources like films. I love Killer Wingfield. Let's go to the movies, Shakespeare.

The weird thing is that I'm having difficulty coming up with a whole for this. I know how I feel about their day to day. How the hell did it end? I'm coming up with nothing. Should it feel like that? I KNEW it.

P.s. Youtube sucks. They don't have the skit from The State when they performed The Glass Menagerie in bikini thongs on rollerblades.(less)

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Feb 05, 2011

Mohammed Hussian rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was an exceptional and superb play. Williams did a wonderful job, portraying the lives of people during the great depression. The play takes place in St.Louis in 1937. In order to provide ends meat on the food table, the protagonist Tom Sawyer works in a ware house, to provide his mother Anna and his sister Laura with shelter and food. Sawyer is basically fully dependent on his own foot, because his dead left his family for good. Laura, mother of T...more

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Jan 18, 2011

Bruce rated it

First produced in 1945, this play features the Wingfields, a tenement family consisting of the mother Amanda, her daughter Laura, and her son Tom, who narrates the story. Amanda’s husband has long since abandoned the family. Laura is 24 and slightly crippled, painfully shy and reclusive, spending most of her time with her collection of small glass animal figurines. Tom, who aspires to be a poet, works in a warehouse, supporting the family. Amanda is intent on finding a match for Laura becaus...more

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Jan 17, 2011

Jim Leckband rated it

A small scale play, but it seems ambitious in what it tries to achieve. There are 4 very well delineated characters - Tom (narrator and one could see him as a doppelganger to the playwright), his shy sister, his overwhelming almost histrionic mother - and a guest who drops in later. Williams wrote that this was a memory-play and uses various devices to remove any naturalism from experiencing the play - music motifs, symbolism, a shadow play screen etc.

The memories being used in the pla...more

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Dec 25, 2010

Elliot rated it

Shelves: drama

It's been far too long since I've read anything by Tennessee Williams, especially considering that I go to his former high school! (Unfortunately, though he graduated from my high school, ths play references another St. Louis school which he attended briefly, so the connection is more tenuous for this work than I'd like to think.)

This is a play of misdirection, of consuming illusions, of the thin fabrications through which men and women delude themselves from reality. Each of the fou...more

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Sep 30, 2010

Laura rated it

The Glass Menagerie was all good and well and, I'm sure, as is written, a great play for the time. I don't know whether to feel upset or honored that he named his Rose character Laura. But what I loved was The Catastrophe of Success. Oh, The Catastrophe. Granted, I have never tasted such The Catastrophe. But I can taste his sentiment as my own: "...that with conflict removed, the man is a sword cutting daisies, that not privation but luxury is the wolf at the door and that the fangs o...more

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Sep 21, 2010

Danny Shelton rated it

Whenever I remark that I enjoyed this pretty wholeheartedly amongst my peers, I get funny looks. In high school advanced placement literature classes this seemed to be the book people spark noted and passed with, never actually delving in to see how good it actually was. I think its the way the characters are developed through their connections that I enjoy the most. Amanda's connection is the modern southern belle, a useless title in an industrialized city with no flowing dresses, fields of flo...more

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Jun 18, 2010

John rated it

Shelves: plays

Williams play is the tragedy of the Wingfields; a feckless son, an overbearing mother, and a shy cloistered daughter who is ill-prepared to meet the world. Apart from these three, there is but one other character a gentleman caller, O'Connor. A poignant piece of work this play focuses on the three family members all of whom are trapped by one another. The mother, penniless after her husband left her relies on her son for income. Her son frequents the movies each night as an escape from hi...more

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May 26, 2010

aL rated it

Shelves: plays

I love this play, but I hate it because I was that painfully shy girl who lived in her own world and it just felt like I was reading about myself that existed a few years ago, luckily I'm not like that anymore. The characters were great for the story Amanda, Laura and Tom don't seem like people who would come from the same family, but then you see how they interact and see why there is tension. The thing that I didn't like was how over the top descriptive Williams made it, sure it's great for vi...more

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Feb 10, 2010

Erik Simon rated it

A friend of mine is currently studying under Wynn Handman, the legendary acting coach. During class, someone did a monologue from this play, and Handman was enthralled, as he has been for over six decades, by the poetry of Williams. Handman knew Williams quite well, so he regaled the class with stories. He told of how the two attended a party in the Village that was so crowded that Tennessee was pressed against the wall while Handman was across the room. "I'm immobile, Wynn," Tennessee...more

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Dec 26, 2011

Jay rated it

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Shelves: books-i-own, classic, historical-recent, plays

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Jul 17, 2011

Duffy Pratt rated it

Shelves: play

This was part of our required reading in high school, so I never read it. I had a little game then: the challenge was to continue to be a straight A student in English without ever reading any of the assigned work. I got caught only once. We were doing A Separate Peace. After one exam, the teacher was very disappointed with how the class had done as a whole. The day she handed back the exams, she also gave us a pop quiz: 20 multiple choice questions about events in the books. I got an A ...moreThis was part of our required reading in high school, so I never read it. I had a little game then: the challenge was to continue to be a straight A student in English without ever reading any of the assigned work. I got caught only once. We were doing A Separate Peace. After one exam, the teacher was very disappointed with how the class had done as a whole. The day she handed back the exams, she also gave us a pop quiz: 20 multiple choice questions about events in the books. I got an A on the exam but failed the little pop quiz. When she saw this, she was dumbfounded

- Duffy, how could you have failed the little quiz?
- I never read the book.
- What do you mean? You did so well on the exam.
- I listen in class, and pretty much repeat what you have to say on the exam. It's not that hard.
- But why didn't you read the book?
- I saw the movie a couple of years ago, when my sisters were studying the book, and I hated it.
- Don't let it happen again.

I didn't answer the last part. Even then I hated lying. As a result, during that time I missed out on reading lots of great books -- Grapes of Wrath, Catcher in the Rye, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Everything That Rises Must Converge, Lord of the Flies... And over the years, I've gone back and read almost all of them. I still haven't read A Separate Peace, and don't think I ever will. I hated that movie, and it's rare that I hated any movie, especially back then.

I put off The Glass Menagerie for the longest time. That same teacher was totally smitten with symbolism. For her, a good book was one where the author deliberately hid things. And to her way of thinking, a symbol was a simple one to one correspondence. I didn't know much about great literature then (and probably still don't), but if that's what it was I didn't want to have anything to do with it. Thus, all I remember about those dreary classes were discussions of Laura and the symbolism of the animals and the broken animals.

Imagine my surprise then at finally reading this play. I had no idea from my cloudy recollection that it was Tom's play, and not Laura's. It's a brilliant confession. There was more depth to it than I thought there would be. And I came away from the reading wishing that I could see it, and regretting that I haven't had the chance. Like so many of the other books I passed over in high school, this play deserves its reputation.(less)

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Jun 13, 2010

jim rated it

The Glass Menagerie is a play about the dysfunctional Wingfield family who all live in their separate fantasy worlds. The book takes you on a journey through the lives of Tom Wingfield, a frustrated, aspiring poet who is miserable working at the local shoe warehouse. Tom tries escaping his real life by excessively drinking and watching movies. Laura Wingfield, is Tom's sister. She has a disabliity in her leg and is very self conscious about her appearance. She turns to her glass figurines for co...more

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About Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot...moreThomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo (dedicated to his lover, Frank Merlo), received the Tony Award for best play.

Characters in his plays are often seen as representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was understood to be modeled on Rose. Some biographers believed that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is also based on her.

Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was generally seen to represent Williams' mother, Edwina. Characters such as Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer were understood to represent Williams himself. In addition, he used a lobotomy operation as a motif in Suddenly, Last Summer.

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. These two plays were later filmed, with great success, by noted directors Elia Kazan (Streetcar) with whom Williams developed a very close artistic relationship, and Richard Brooks (Cat). Both plays included references to elements of Williams' life such as homosexuality, mental instability, and alcoholism. Although The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets was the preferred choice of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1955 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was at first considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., chairman of the Board, had seen Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and thought it worthy of the drama prize. The Board went along with him after considerable discussion.[18]

Williams wrote The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer when he was 29 and worked on it sporadically throughout his life. A semi-autobiographical depiction of his 1940 romance with Kip Kiernan in Provincetown, Massachusetts, it was produced for the first time on October 1, 2006 in Provincetown by the Shakespeare on the Cape production company, as part of the First Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival.

Other works by Williams include Camino Real and Sweet Bird of Youth.

His last play went through many drafts as he was trying to reconcile what would be the end of his life.[14] There are many versions of it, but it is referred to as In Masks Outrageous and Austere.(less)

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Trivia About The Glass Menagerie

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Quotes from The Glass Menagerie

“Time is the longest distance between two places.” — 1,373 people liked it

“How beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken.” — 121 people liked it

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