"The Glass Menagerie" - Tennessee Williams (Scenes 1 & 2)

When I first read this play through, I had a hard time imagining what we'd discuss in class. At face value, it seems to be just a story about the every-day life of a family - nothing extraordinary happens. However, it is in the daily happenings of this family that Williams weaves a story which compels us to keep reading, (or watching). We see that, in these seemingly normal family relationships and happenings, there are multiple things we can learn - about ourselves, and about how we can allow our circumstances to shape our lives.


1. His opening speech gives us the social setting, and an impression of the bleak hopelessness that the people of that time were thinking. We also get the idea that the enter play will be very unrealistic and dream-like, and he describes the gentleman caller as the "reality" or normal one in the play.
2. Tension seems to be caused by Amanda's constant nagging, and Tom's need to defend himself.
3. Amanda finds out that Laura dropped out of school, and this launches her on a campaign to find Laura another means of supporting herself, namely a husband.
4. She declares herself to be crippled, although the stage directions tell us that her handicap should be hardly noticeable. We also hear of her intense shyness, her inability to attend school, and her frequent visits to various places in St. Louis, for hours and hours on end.
5. They indicate the nickname from highschool that Jim, the guy she had a crush on, gave her.
6. I think that she tries to come across as strong, and we do see that she has kept the family together since their father left. Her domination of the lives of her children however, makes us think that she is actually weak, but tries to exert power over them so that she can feel strong.
7. Because we are reading the play, the only thing that shows us his importance to Laura is the fact that she said she liked him in highschool, and that he had a nickname for her. Amanda isn't interested because Jim seems to be in the past - he was engaged, and Laura says that she suspects he's probably married by now. Amanda doesn't care for Laura to dwell on someone who isn't a "prospect," although she herself constantly lives in the past.
8. I honestly didn't really understand the use of transparencies and images, etc. I suppose that might be the type of thing you'd have to actually see to visualize properly. However, I did find that reading a play, with the stage directions and various descriptions of the set, costuming, etc., makes things really interesting, and helps the reader to visualize almost better than if they were watching the play. It's as if reading the words forces you to actually think about the implications and reasons behind things.
9. Yes - although Laura's handicap may be unique, the results of it are not. Everyone has some insecurity that they hide behind, whether it is visible (as was Laura's limp) or not.