Glass Menagerie

A detailed Summary of Glass Menagerie


Illusions offer things that the real world cannot. The characters of "the glass menagerie," by Tennessee Williams, are attracted to what a world of illusions has to offer. Because they cannot accept reality, it offers them an escape from the cruel realities of their lives. However, this only distracts them from confronting the issues of reality, and their problems only continue to grow larger.

Tom, the only son and the oldest child, has his own ways of escaping reality. He goes off to the imaginary world of the movies every night where he can get the adventure that is absent in his life at home. He will also go out on to the fire escape for a moment of relive from what's going on inside the apt. He lives in the future, always dreaming of traveling and writing.

The crippled daughter, Laura, escapes the world by taking walks instead of facing the challenges of school. In his essay on the play, Bert Cardullo talks about Laura's means of escape,

"The physically as well as emotionally fragile Laura escapes from her mid-twentieth-century urban predicament in Stylus, to which her family has migrated from the rural-pastoral south through art and music--through the beauty of her glass menagerie and the records she plays on her vi


Memories can be a big part of life, however, the mother, Amanda, lives in the past so she doesn't have to face the realities of the present. Stories of all the gentlemen callers that she had were always being told in the apartment. She would also talk about her husband that ran away and left them. She doesn't accept what going on around her. She will never say that Laura is crippled and she expects that many gentlemen callers will come for her also, regardless of her leg. She is constantly hopeful of unexpected callers "resume your seat little sister- I want you to stay fresh and pretty for gentlemen callers"(Kirszner 1409. She also dreams that Tom will soon become a successful businessman and that he wont run away, like his father, and join the Merchant Seamen.

Amanda never faced that facts that Laura wasn't like her and that she wasn't going to get gentlemen callers. Tom never realized he wasn't going to get anywhere in life writing poetry, and Laura never learned how to face the outside world. Because they didn't solve their problems, in the end they couldn't escape the illusionary world they created for themselves.

Mostly she stays inside with her glass collection. The collection represent

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bert Cardullo, Similarly Laura, Tennessee Williams, Amanda Laura, Seamen Jim, , fire escape, gentlemen callers, rest world, illusionary world, laura escapes, glass menagerie, illusions offer,

Approximate Word count = 816
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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