Introduction
Tennessee Williams was born in South Africa and later settled in America. He wrote stories based on his life and his family. In 1944, he wrote his first successful play, “The glass Menagerie”. During his later career days he was worried that he would not produce works that were as successful as his earlier days and took liquor and sleeping pills to put his mind to rest. His family situation gave him an insight to write about “The Glass Menagerie”. His mother represented the character Amanda in the story. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams uses the characters to tell and show the story. Characterization means the representation of characters and the nature the author achieves this through limitation of the reader’s observations, questions and response. The author can give a characterization through his speeches or gestures. Laura is unwed, and a cripple and after extensive investigation, there seemed to be some other serious issues. Williams indicates this in his notes as a “memory play”. The most exciting thing about the story dwells on how the audience’s memory is exposed to the characters. Since the audience has a complete trust in Tom’s memories, he becomes the protagonist of the story. Williams demonstrates how characters are reflected, and this gives the audiences a glimpse of each character and the issues surrounding them.
First Body paragraph
In “The Glass Menagerie” Williams conveys the idea of image versus reality. Amanda has an image of the world, but it is not a reality of St. Louis, which is more or less like a ghetto. Laura’s has a unique image of reality. The story also represents escape, when Tom manages to escape just like his father. Laura is not interested in escaping like Tom although it would be quite beneficial to her. Amanda represents the women who have turbulent relationships with their husbands and their families. She strongly defends her values in the family
