Glass Menagerie
When reality does not prove to be satisfying to an individual, they create a fantasy world in which to live. In The Glass Menagerie and A Street Car Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, the characters generate stories to make their world more pleasing to them. The Glass Menagerie presents a desperate mother of two grown children, who wants the best for them so badly that when her dreams do not come true, she makes up stories to hide her own reality. A Street Car Named Desire, introduces a lonely hopeless woman, who because of negative things she has done in the past, now, to cover them up, lies so much that she actually believes herself. Tennessee Williams substantiates the theory that if a person's real life proves unbearable then they might exchange their reality for a creation of lies that their mind has manufactured. The Glass Menagerie, begins with Amanda Wingfield, being overly optimistic about the possible occurrence of gentleman callers, for her shy, partially crippled daughter, Laura. This wishful thinking turns into a story about how many gentlemen callers she received as a young woman, which Tom, her son who yearns for adventure, hates. Early on, Amanda finds out that Laura has secretly dropped out of Business
suicide (Streetcar 96). Blanche then looks for love in a young school boy, which turns into another desperate, unsuccessful attempt to hide from the reality that she caused her husband's death, which ends up causing her to lose her teaching job. At the end of the play, Blanche proves that she lies so much she believes herself by trying to convince everyone, including herself that a rich entrepreneur plans to take her on a cruise. All of these attempts to escape, just create a worse situation for her and add to the lies, which ultimately lead to her being sent to an insane asylum. Stanley, after being rejected by Blanche when attempting to "interfere with" her, proceeds to escape the reality of rejection by raping her (Streetcar 129). Blanche and Stanley both try to pull the veil over reality by consuming alcohol, which ultimately makes circumstances worse for each of them. The alcohol causes Stanley and Stella to get in numerous fights. It also creates more things for Blanche to tell lies about. ringing Jim home, Amanda automatically starts to think that Jim and Laura will be married. She continues this thinking through out dinner, even though Jim and Laura hadn't even said a word to each other yet. Many people attempt to plan the future out in their heads, a future so outrageous that even they know deep down that it won't happen, but refuse to believe the truth. "Laura lives in a world of her own" (Glass 521) which consists of glass animals, playing "old phonograph records - and - that's about all" (Glass 521). She turns to her glass animals and records to escape the probability of her "going to be an old maid" (Glass 508). Tom escapes his reality by going to watch movies and going out to drink. People sometimes choose drinking as a way they don't have to deal with reality, because when people reach a drunken state, life goes to a place so out of focus that it actually doesn't seem like reality. Blanche tries to flee from reality many times throughout her life. She thinks that she can get away from her past and generate a new one by going to live with Stella. Earlier in her life, after finding her late husband and another man in bed together, Blanche, in an attempt to hide from reality, tries "to pretend that nothing had been
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Approximate Word count = 1525
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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