My impressions

The Glass Menagerie  - Tennessee Williams

 The Glass Menagerie is one of the finest plays by Tennessee Williams . The whole story revolves around the Wing field family. The three members of the Wing field family are all trapped (the mother by her past and the memory of her husband who left her; the daughter by her overwhelming shyness and lack of confidence; and the son by the overwhelming responsibility of caring for his family in a mind-numbing warehouse job

Tennessee Williams, through his narrator, Tom, explains to the audience that this is a memory play, and he emphasizes the irony that truth is often covered by illusion. One of the play’s primary interests lies in exploring illusion versus reality. Amanda is a very insecure parent; she expends her ingenuity in manipulating others to care for her. Instead of acknowledging her children as individuals both gifted and flawed, she subconsciously denies them their humanity by insisting on their perfection. Tom and Laura retreat—Tom to the movies and eventually to distant lands, and Laura to the world of her imagination and her glass animals. Tom and Laura react subconsciously to their mother’s demands by avoiding any possibility of success, a stance that ensures their psychological and social defeat. Overall, it was an emotional drama, full of emotions. I really like the character of Laura, who at first appears most divorced from reality, emerges as the only member of the family who is in touch with the truth about herself.

Rajni Yadav