The first masterpiece of Tennessee Williams

The glass menagerie is considered to be the first masterpiece by Tennessee Williams. This semi-autobiographical play produced in Chicago in 1994 had great success among the critics and was adapted to cinema in 1950, 1973 and 1987. Also, it was called ‘the memory play’ because the narrator, Tom, told the story through his observations and understanding as an old man looking back to his past. 

Its main characters are: Amanda Wingfield, a faded Southern belle abandoned for her husband. She tries to give direction to her life and to her grown-up children’s by imposing her rules. Her son Tom is a professional accountant and a frustrated writer who is tired of the pressure his mother puts on him, that is why he looks for escape in alcohol.  Tom feels deep love for his sister Laura, an introverted, extremely sensitive and somewhat crippled girl who suffers from pleurosis and must wear a brace on her leg. She almost always refuges from the entire world, especially from her mother, by collecting glass figures which are as fragile as Laura is. 

                    

  One day, Amanda becomes obsessed with the idea that Laura should have a gentleman who takes care of her and her family, so Amada urged Tom bring someone from the warehouse. Jim O’Connor is an old high school classmate of Laura who is seen as the perfect suitor by Amanda. The climax comes when Jim admits he is engaged to another woman and Laura’s heart is broken and so her favorite glass figure, a unicorn, is. After that, bored of his Tom goes away from home and leaves his mother and sister. Eventually, after many years Tom realizes he made a huge mistake leaving home without having expressed his love for Laura.

As all Williams’s plays The glass menagerie is full of symbols. Being the title the central symbol of this play, the collection of glass animal figures symbolizes aspects of Laura’s personality. She is delicate, imaginative and a little old-fashioned. Glass is transparent and if you have not noticed, when you light it, it refracts a whole rainbow of colors, which is a momentary phenomenon. Although Laura is shy and reserved most of the time, she is a source of enjoyment to those who see her in the correct light. The menagerie also represents the particular world Laura is devoted to, a colorful world based on delicate illusions. 

Laura’s favorite animal figure is a unicorn, which is not a coincidence. It is also a representation of her peculiarity. When Laura shows Jim the glass unicorn, he says to her that unicorns are “extinct” in modern times and are felt alone because they are different from horses.  As unicorns, she is rare and lonely to exist in this world. The metaphor Williams uses to represent Laura’s destiny is the same destiny the unicorn has in scene seven. When Jim dances with Laura, they kiss and the unicorn’s horn breaks off, so it becomes another horse.

In the case of Laura, she became just another girl, went Jim says he is engaged to another woman.  Finally, she gives him the unicorn as a “souvenir” now looking as a horse. That horse represents what he made to her. 

Let me ask you: In which world do you live in? Others' or yours? Do you pay attention to others feelings when acting?