An Analysis Of THE GLASS MENAGERIE By Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie is a modern drama about the Wingfield family. The overall play is a Non-­‐Linear construction consisting of a narrator in the "here and now" who tells a story that took place in the past through a series of flashbacks. The story has two major storylines: 1) that of the Narrator, Tom Wingfield, who speaks to us from the “here and now” of the stage, and 2) the story he tells, a “memory play” about his life with his mother and sister in St. Louis shortly before the outbreak of WWII. The “memory play” occupies most of the story and is a linear plot that unfolds chronologically. However, the “here and now” story of Tom telling the story, although told chronologically in parallel to the main plot with the narrator moving back-­‐and-­‐forth between the two, isn’t revealed as a fully developed story until very late in the play. For most of the play, Tom in the "here and now" appears to be only a narrator, a narrative device, used to guide us through the story of his past. However, we find out near the end that he tells us the story for a reason and there is a story in why he tells about what happened long ago in St. Louis. Technically, the "here and now" story is an in medias res plot with an inciting incident ("Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes…") that occurred prior to Tom's entrance. So, we have two stories: the "here and now" story of Tom telling the audience about what happened years earlier in St. Louis and the "there and then" story of what happened in his past. Consequently, the play is a Multiple Main Plot construction. At the end, the two stories intersect. The Point of Attack -­‐ the overall play begins with Tom as the narrator addressing the audience in the “here and now”: TOM enters dressed as a merchant sailor from alley, stage left, and strolls across the front of the stage to the fire-­‐escape. There he stops and lights a cigarette. He addresses the audience. TOM: Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. (and so on) This is also the Point of Attack of the "here and now" story about Tom telling us the story of what happened. The Point of Attack of the “memory play” that Tom tells takes us back to a dinner at the Wingfields many years earlier: 1 AMANDA’S voice becomes audible through the portieres…we see AMANDA and LAURA seated at the table in the upstage area. AMANDA (Calling): Tom? TOM: Yes, Mother. At which point, Tom leaves the "here and now" and enters the "there and then" story from his past. Exposition of the “here and now” story of TOM as the Narrator: • Obviously, everything that has happened in the “memory play” and all of the exposition attached to that story are part of the exposition of the “here and now” story. • A substantial amount of time has passed since the narrator left St. Louis. He says, “I didn’t go to the moon, I went much further – for time is the longest distance between two place.” • He has traveled and been to many cities. He says, “I traveled around a great deal” and “the cities swept about me like dead leaves.” • He is haunted by the memory of his sister, who he abandoned long ago. • The story he tells is from his memory -­‐ “Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic” and it is accompanied by music for “in memory everything seems to happen to music.” • Tom is the narrator of and also a character in the story he tells. The other characters are his mother, Amanda; his sister, Laura; and “a gentleman caller who appears in the final scenes.” Although he doesn’t appear, Tom’s father who left the family long ago is, as Tom says, “a fifth character” in the memory play. Exposition of the “Memory Play”: • The play takes place in “that quaint period, the thirties.” The time is not given with greater specificity than “the thirties” and references to historic events within the play are often contradictory…likely a matter of poetic license on the part of the playwright or the inconsistencies of the narrator’s memory. • The play takes place in the Wingfield apartment in St. Louis. The apartment is “in the rear of a building,” “faces an alley,” and “is entered by a fire escape.” “Across the alley” from the Wingfield apartment is “the Paradise Dance Hall.” • “Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic” and it is accompanied by music. 2 •
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Tom and Laura’s father and Amanda’s husband left the family long ago -­‐ “a telephone man who fell in love with long distance.” The last they heard from him “was a picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico.” Amanda is from Blue Mountain in the Mississippi Delta. It is near Moon Lake, Mississippi. “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain,” Amanda received “seventeen gentlemen callers.” Among her callers were “some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta – planters and sons of planters.” Now she takes care of Laura and solicits subscriptions for The Homemaker’s Companion on the telephone to make a little extra money to “properly feather the nest and plume the bird” for the arrival of a gentleman caller for Laura. According to the playwright, "There is much to admire in Amanda, a nd as much to love and pit y as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance a nd a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person." Laura is likely twenty-­‐three or twenty-­‐four (two years older than Tom), walks with a brace on her leg, didn’t finish high school, and is terribly shy and withdrawn. She once enrolled in a course at Rubicam’s Business College, but only attended classes for a few days…and then deceived Amanda into believing she was still attending class by going alone to the park for six weeks. Other than that, she has only her collection of glass animals as a focus in her life. She once had a crush on a boy named Jim O’Conner in high school…a boy she had no more than a passing speaking relationship with in a music class. According to the playwright, "...she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf." Tom is likely twenty-­‐one or twenty-­‐two, two years younger than Laura, and is described by the playwright as “a poet with a job in a warehouse.” He is the sole support of the family and longs for adventure. He escapes to the movies and dreams of joining the Merchant Marines…and has joined the Union of Merchant Seamen shortly before Jim O’Conner comes to dinner. Jim is described by the playwright as a “nice, ordinary, young man.” In high school, Jim was “a star in basketball, captain of the debating team, president of the senior class and sang the male lead in the annual light operas.” In high school, Jim “seemed to move in a continual spotlight,” but “six years after he left high school he was holding a job that wasn’t much better” than Tom’s at the warehouse of the “Continental Shoemakers.” Unbeknownst to Tom, Jim is engaged to be married. Inciting Incident and Major Dramatic Question: The inciting incident of the “here and now” story is unknown, although one could reasonably say that whatever the specific incident may have been, it has happened recently and brought back the memory of his sister. This is something that we don't find out until the final scene in the play: 3 "I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass – Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with tiny pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes…" The “here and now” story appears to be something that has happened many times before and this time it prompts Tom to tell the story of his leaving St. Louis: “I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger – anything that can blow your candles out!” This time, the audience is that "nearest stranger." One could also reasonably say that the Major Dramatic Question of this storyline is focused on his sister “blowing out her candles,” something on the order of "Will she or won't she blow out her candles?" or, put another way, "Will the ghost of his sister leave him?" It is as if he tells the story as an act to exorcise the memory of his sister…but clearly that memory keeps returning and he has told – and perhaps will continue to tell – the story over and over again until the memory of his sister finally leaves him. The inciting incident of the “memory play” occurs rather late in the story. At the end of Scene IV, after being hounded by Amanda, Tom finally agrees to find a “gentleman caller” for Laura: Amanda: Down at the warehouse, aren’t there some – nice young men. Tom: No! Amanda: There must be – some Tom: Mother – (Gesture) Amanda: Find one that’s clean-­‐living – doesn’t drink and – ask him out for sister! Tom: What? Amanda: For sister! To meet! Get acquainted! Tom: Oh, my go-­‐osh! Amanda: Will you? Will you? Will you? Will you, dear? Tom: YES! The major dramatic question is “What will happen when the ‘gentleman caller’ finally comes?” 4 Scenes of Exposition and Rising Action The action of the “here and now” play parallels the action of the “memory play.” It builds as the story of the “memory play” builds. The first four scenes of the “memory play” are expositional – action that takes place prior to the inciting incident: Scene I – “Dinner at the Wingfields” (Unspecified time of year -­‐ dinnertime) A typical dinner at the Wingfields: Amanda corrects Tom’s table manners, Tom gets angry and leaves the table to smoke, and Amanda reminisces about her popularity as a girl in Blue Mountain. This is an expositional scene. Scene 2 – “Laura, haven’t you ever liked some boy?” (February, six weeks after Laura enrolled at Rubicam's Business College) Amanda comes home tells Laura that she has found out that Laura hasn’t been going to business school for six weeks and has been hiding that from Amanda. It is revealed that Laura is too shy to go to school and Amanda concludes that the only hope for Laura is marriage. This is an expositional scene. Scene 3, Part One – “After the fiasco at Rubicam’s Business College” (Sometime after February, “late that winter and in the early spring”) Amanda becomes obsessive about getting a “gentleman caller” for Laura. She begins to solicit subscriptions to The Homemaker’s Companion over the telephone. This is an expositional scene. Scene 3, Part Two – “You think I’m in love with the Continental Shoemakers?” (Sometime after Scene 3, Part One – the weather is still cold) Tom and Amanda have a terrible fight over Amanda’s intrusions into Tom’s personal life and space. The fight ends when Tom calls Amanda an “ugly babbling old witch” and then accidently breaks some of Laura’s glass animals as he leaves. This is an expositional scene. Scene 4, Part One – “One crack – and it falls through!” (The early morning of the day after Scene 3, Part Two) According to the stage directions, Tom returns home at 5 o’clock in the morning the day after the fight in Scene 3. He is very drunk and Laura puts him to bed. This is an expositional scene. Scene 4, Part Two – “I’ll rise – but I won’t shine.” (An hour or two after Scene 4, Part One) 5 Laura begs Tom to apologize to Amanda, he does, and while Laura is away to pick up butter at Garfinkel’s Delicatessen, Amanda and Tom have a very serious talk about “plans and provisions” for Laura and, by extension, how Tom will be able to gain his freedom. The conversation between Amanda and Tom ends with the inciting incident: Tom agrees to find a “gentleman caller” for Laura. The Scene ends with Amanda calling and trying to convince Ella Cartwright to renew her subscription to The Homemaker’s Companion. This scene begins the rising action of the first build. Beginning with the telephone call at the end of Scene 4, Part Two, we are into rising action. Scene 5 – “The Annunciation -­‐ We’re going to have a gentleman caller.” (Spring – warm weather, a Thursday) Tom let’s Amanda know that he has asked Jim O’Conner to dinner and that he has accepted…for the next evening. Amanda immediately begins to make “plans and preparations” for the next night. She asks Tom about Jim, his character, his plans, etc. Tom cautions Amanda that he didn’t tell Jim about Laura and that Amanda “mustn’t expect too much of Laura.” He speaks plainly about Laura being “crippled” and “different from other girls.” It is one of the few times when Tom talks about Laura realistically (“Face the facts. She is.”). It seems that Amanda’s optimism concerning Laura is shaken by what Tom says and he leaves, as usual, for the movies. However, Amanda quickly regains her determination and optimistic attitude and the scene ends with Amanda asking Laura to make a wish on the moon for “Happiness. Good fortune.” This scene advances the rising action by setting the stage for Jim O'Conner's arrival for dinner the following evening. Scene 6 – “All pretty girls are a trap” (Spring – the next day after Scene 5, a Friday) Amanda readies Laura for he “gentleman caller.” Laura finds out that the “gentleman caller” may be the Jim O’Conner from high school and is gripped with terror. Amanda forces her to answer the door when Jim and Tom arrive and Laura awkwardly hides from Jim after meeting him. Tom and Jim go out on the fire escape where Jim tells Tom of his course in public speaking. In turn, Tom tells Jim of his plans to leave and join the Merchant Marines. Amanda calls them to the table and she tells Jim of Laura (“It’s rare for a girl so sweet an’ pretty as Laura to be domestic! But she is, thank heavens, not only pretty but also very domestic.”) and of her past in Blue Mountain and her marriage to “a telephone man who – fell in love with long distance.” Amanda insists on Laura joining them at the table and Laura nearly faints. They take Laura to the sofa to rest and the three sit to dinner. The scene ends as they say grace. This scene advances the rising action because Jim O'Conner arrives and we are headed towards finding out what will happen between Laura and Jim. However, Laura faints and, rather than taking us to what is going to happen between Laura and Jim, Amanda, Tom, and Jim begin 6 dinner alone. This build further suspense as we wonder what will finally happen between Laura and Jim. Scene Seven – “A Souvenir” (A half an hour after the end of Scene 6) Amanda, Tom, and Jim have just finished supper and Laura is still on the sofa when the lights go out (Tom hasn’t paid the electric bill.). Amanda thinks that a fuse may have burned out and she enlists Jim to check the fuse box. Amanda returns with a candelabra and takes Tom into the kitchen so Jim and Laura can be alone. Finally, we get to the scene between Laura and her Gentleman Caller. Jim and Laura sit on the floor and they talk. As the stage direction says, “Jim’s warmth overcomes her paralyzing shyness” and Laura eventually opens up to Jim’s charm and good humor. They talk about high school, about how he called her “Blue Roses,” and about how he isn’t seeing Emily Meisenbach anymore. Jim asks Laura, “What have you done since high school,” and she tells him of business school, which prompts him to suggest that all that is wrong is that she “lacks confidence” in herself and she should “Think of yourself as superior in some way.” Jim goes on to tell her of his plans for the future, “I believe in the future of television,” and how he is preparing himself by taking courses in night school and studying public speaking. Laura finally opens up and tells Jim of her glass collection (“her secret life”). Things continue to progress and they even dance to music from the Paradise Dance Hall from across the alley. Jim bumps into the glass menagerie and the unicorn falls, but, rather than a terrible disaster, Laura recovers and the scene continues to build – he tells her she’s different and pretty -­‐ until they kiss. Climax: the kiss (This is what the playwright refers to as “the climax of her (Laura’s) secret life.”) Denouement: Unfortunately, the story takes a downturn from the fantasy of Laura meeting “the man of her dreams” and shifts almost immediately back to reality. Jim tells her that it was wrong to kiss her and that he “can’t take down her number and say I’ll phone. I can’t call up next week and – ask for a date.” He’s engaged to be married to a girl named Betty in June. She gives Jim the broken unicorn…as a souvenir. Amanda enters, not knowing what has happened, and Jim says he has to leave. As he and Amanda talk, Jim reveals that he is “going steady” with Betty and that they are to be married “the second Sunday in June.” 7 Amanda believes Tom has “played a joke” on them by inviting an engaged man to be the gentleman caller. And that “Things have a way of turning out so badly. Now, a new story – a second build in the "there and then" story – begins After the collapse of Amanda’s and Laura’s hopes, a story that has always been bubbling just below the surface, but has taken a backseat to the gentleman caller story, now emerges. Amanda calls Tom into the living room and accuses Tom of playing “a wonderful joke” on her and Laura by bringing an engaged man home as the “gentleman caller.” Tom says he simply didn’t know and the confrontation that has been brewing throughout the play – the confrontation over whether Tom is to give up all of his hopes and dreams and stay in St. Louis or leave like his father – finally comes to a head. In order to avoid an argument that could lead to that final confrontation, Tom says that he’s going to the movies, which turns out to be the inciting incident of that confrontation. This time, Amanda doesn’t let him go until she’s finished with her condemnation of his selfishness. It is a step that she has avoided taking and Tom has forestalled by leaving – to smoke or go to the movies – because it may lead to a conclusion that neither of them want to face or can take back once it arrives. The major dramatic question, of course, is: “Will he stay or will he go?” Rising Action of the Second Build The confrontation moves very quickly to its climax. Amanda reveals the ultimate secret – the secret never before spoken until now – that Tom is tied to Amanda and Laura as they really are: “a mother deserted” and “an unmarried sister who’s crippled and has no job.” And, of course, they are talking about much more than going to the movies. Tom responds with the ultimate threat “The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I’ll go, and I won’t go to the movies!” Amanda responds to that threat, in her anger, which proves to be the final turning point: “Go then! Then go to the moon – you selfish dreamer!” Tom “smashes his glass on the floor,” Laura screams (she knows this is the end), and we reach the climax of the "there and then" story: Tom leaves. However, when Tom leaves he enters the “here and now” where the play began and we find out why he has told his story to us. Now the two stories intersect. 8 The final denouement of the “then and there” story of the past and the build to the climax of the “here and now” story of Tom as the narrator occur simultaneously. Amanda leaves and Laura is left alone with her candles. Tom tells us what happened after that night in St. Louis and how he is haunted by his sister’s memory. At the end, he begs his sister to “Blow out your candles, Laura – and so good bye…” And she does. Laura's blowing out her candles ends the denouement of the "there and then" story" and, simultaneously, it is the climax of Tom's "here and now" story. Dramatic Relief There are only a few identifiable scenes of comic relief in the play: Amanda's phone solicitation scenes and Tom's coming home drunk are meant to provide comic relief. However, the play is typically presented as a sad story headed for a tragic ending, which I think is a mistake. The story could just as easily be headed for a "happy ending" and "telegraphing" the ending tends to diminish the potential drama of the story. Consequently, I think that it is important to find the humor in the play and treat the arguments between Amanda and Tom with some restraint until that final argument when Tom leaves. I think Williams wants us to believe that things might work out between Laura and Jim, which would make the fact that they don't more painful. The Central Character and his or her Opposition Since there are two stories -­‐ a "here and now" story and a "there and then" story, it is logical to see them focused on different central characters. Tome is clearly the central character in the "here and now" story and we find out that his "opposition" is the memory of his sister, which, in a sense, means that it is his own guilt that pursues him. The "there and then" story is actually focused on Laura and her Gentleman Caller, even though he doesn't appear until very late in the story action. In The Glass Menagerie, as in most ironies or dramas, things are by their nature somewhat ambiguous. Unlike a romance where there are identifiable heroes and villains, stories of "they way things are" tend to be messier. In a sense all of the characters are antagonists to one another, all love and wish only the best for one another, and all are equally saints and sinners in bringing the story to its unhappy ending...except for Laura who is guiltless and a victim of things over which she has no control. I think that Williams has sympathy for all of them and wants the audience to understand them and feel for them rather than assign blame. 9