Glass Menagerie

A detailed Summary of Glass Menagerie

The playwright, Tennessee Williams, allows the main characters in the plays A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie to live

miserable lives which they try to deny and later change. The downfall and denial of the Southern gentlewoman is a common theme in both plays.

The characters, Blanche from A.S.N.D. and Amanda from T.G.M., are prime examples of this concept. Both Blanche and Amanda have had many

struggles in their lives and go through even more through out the rest of the plays. The problem is that Williams never lets the two women work through and move on from these problems. The two ladies are allowed to destroy themselves and he invites us to watch them in the process (Stine and Marowski 474). The downfall, denial, and need to change of the two women is quite evident in these two plays.

First the troubles of Blanche and Amanda need to be recognized.

Blanche hides her drinking problem so well when she arrives and sneaks a shot of whiskey (William A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. Page 18.

Lines 12-17) that when she is later offered a drink, she acts as though she has no idea where they keep them (Williams, A.S.N.D. 1.19.12-15). Amanda cannot accept that no gentlemen call

Amanda also refers to her husband's leaving her and her children as, "he fell in love with long distances..." (Williams, T.G.M., 1.23.28). She cannot admit the truth that he just left them. She cannot even admit to herself that Laura is crippled, she only refers to her as different. Also, when Amanda looks back at her past, she tends to only remember the good things that happened. She has blocked out the things that she did not enjoy and has exaggerated the past to an extent. At one point in the play, she brags about her seventeen gentlemen callers Tom, her son, asked her how she entertained them in which she replies that they had very interesting conversations because in her day, they understood the art of conversation (Williams, T.G.M., 1.26.6-8). She thoughtlessly flaunts her teenage popularity in front of Laura who would be lucky to have one friend at all, let alone seventeen gentlemen callers in one evening. The conformity of the two women's similarities is uncanny. Both women have so many problems, yet they find ways to forget the real problems and gainsay their way into not dealing with them. As time in the plays progress they start to think more about them and realize what needs to be done.

past. Amanda on the other hand, just shrinks poor Laura's self-esteem and confidence more than it already is by bragging about how she had

someone home for dinner for Laura. He ends up bringing home Laura's

Both Blanche and Amanda's biggest problem is that they deny the

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Approximate Word count = 1390
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English