The Glass Menagerie was written by Tennessee Williams in 1944-45. it was a turning point in his life and calling as it was a major success and commercially and besides won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1947. The drama is alone because it is hard to sort it into a genre. It is a ‘memory play’ with a haunting. mystical and yet lyrical quality and provides penetration into the melodramatic quality of household life. With its autobiographical deductions. the drama acquires an even more bewitching position as all the characters are easy identifiable with Williams’ ain life.

A figure of critics have expressed their sentiment and apprehension of the drama. An incredible figure of articles and books have been written on it and yet it continues to be an mystery. Every facet of the drama is so intricate that there is evidently a difference of sentiment among the critics on a figure of issues. Each different unfavorable judgment lends its ain dimension to the drama.

The characters of the drama are a affair of huge guess. Tom. being the Centre of the drama as the storyteller. is evidently the mark of huge treatment. Even though all unfavorable judgments of Tom’s character are based on some common foundations. yet they diverge into immensely different waies and each way is a disclosure in its ain manner. Since the drama returns as Tom remembers it. Tom is arguably the most of import character. Thomas L. King in “Irony and distances in The Glass Menagerie” feels that Tom is in fact the lone character in the drama. The others are merely tom’s recollections and are shown to us through Tom’s point of position. His monologues are the kernel of the drama and the characters have no consciousness independent of Tom. King’s unfavorable judgment provides a really of import penetration into the cardinal message of the drama which possibly Williams sought to present. It is an penetration into an artist’s life which shows how art is created through an artist’s ain stuff life. Tom being an draw a bead oning poet portrays this message convincingly and efficaciously.

King’s reading of Tom’s character is furthered by critics who conform with King about Tom being the lone character and travel farther to ay that all the other characters are in fact different aspects of Tom’s ain personality. personified as characters. Amanda is Tom’s endurance and his infirmity and folly. Laura is Tom’s low ego regard and lower status composite. Jim O Connor is the ideal. immature adult male belonging to the existent universe which Tom would wish to be. His male parent is the escape in his personality taking consequence and he himself is the creative person who derives art through his ain life.

Harold Bloom in his book “Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie” asserts that though Tom is the cardinal character and the driving force of the drama. but the play’s cardinal subject is Tom’s relationship with his crippled sister Laura. Tom loves his sister and wishes the best for her. Even after he leaves place to prosecute his dreams. Laura’s memory does non go forth him and he is everlastingly clutched into th guilt syndrome. Laura besides seems to be the on- screen projection of Williams’s ain sister Rose. Thus the relationship between Tom and Laura. reminiscent of the relationship between Williams and Rose. is one of the most of import facets of the drama. The autobiographical deductions are farther given weight when we consider that even Amanda had certain blunt similarities with Williams own female parent and Tom is about indistinguishable to Williams himself. It is for this ground that the drama is even more interesting as the dramatist seems to hold a spot of himself in the drama and this strikes a chord with the audience.

There are several critics who approach the drama through Amanda or Laura. Those that assert that Laura is the chief supporter of the drama argue that Williams. who was really affected by his ain sister rose. integrated something crippled in his major characters and this fact entirely makes Laura the cardinal character of the drama. It is her life’s narrative. her pursuit for something more. her lower status composite at being crippled and in all her glass menagerie. Many critics even believe that Amanda. the female parent of Laura and Tom is the cardinal character in the drama. She makes things go on by invariably teasing Tom to better his life and that of his sister. She makes him convey Jim O Connor in their lives which consequences in bosom breakage for Laura and Tom go forthing place for good to prosecute his dreams. As the nagging yet concerned female parent. she is the cardinal character. These lines of idea. though hard to place with. exist and that entirely is the singularity of the drama. We can near it from so many different waies and happen something new. something beautiful and deserving memory.

Several critics believe that the characters of The Glass Menagerie have scriptural deductions. They believe that God and morality are the cardinal subjects of all dramas by Williams and The Glass Menagerie is no exclusion. All characters are in fact metaphorically represented scriptural characters. Judith J. Thompson points out in her book “Tennessee Williams: Memory. Myth and Symbols” that even though a spot hard to detect. yet the mentions to The Bible are surely at that place. The male parent. whose portrayal looms big over the house and who is omnipresent in all conversations and day-to-day activities. is in fact a mention to God himself. Tom Wingfield symbolizes both the priest and the Cain ( the Old Testament’s “wandering Jew” ) who wishes to follow in his father’s footfalls but can non cite up the bravery to make so until the terminal of the drama. Jim O Connor is a subtly represented Jesus Christ because of his position as the possible savior and Jesus for Laura who plays the hurt saint.

Keeping in sync with the symbology. legion symbols have been used throughout The Glass Menagerie. Since it is a memory drama. thaumaturgy and symbolism play a really of import function in making the right aura and scene for the drama. Critics are about unequivocal when it comes to construing these symbols as they are rather noticeable and easy to understand. There are two mentions to Shakespeare. Tom’s function as the storyteller seems to be inspired from Propero who was the storyteller in Shakespeare’sThe Tempest.The gap and shutting monologues by Tom stand testimony to the above fact. Malvolio. the prestidigitator who inspires and impresses Tom by his fast ones. is a character inThe Twelfth Night.The other symbols. abounding as they are in The Glass Menagerie. are easy to detect and construe.

The Glass Menagerie is a symbol of Laura’s ain private universe which she has created to get away from the rough worlds. The unicorn which breaks in the Sixth Scene is a symbol of Laura herself who is shattered on detecting that Jim was engaged to another adult female. The blue rose is besides a symbol for Laura’s beauty every bit good as her singularity and unreality. Jim O Connor. as pointed out by Tom himself in the beginning. is a symbol of the exterior. existent universe. The fire flight is a agency of flight from the human despair in the house. The magician’s impressive fast one symbolizes all that Tom wished for in his life- to get away from the house without aching or harming his sister and female parent.

The thought conveyed throughout the drama. is hence of image as opposed to realty. All the characters. except Jim. look to be populating in their ain private universe to get away the world of their state of affairs. These private universes are contrasting and that is the ground for strife among the members of the Wingfield household. Amanda is invariably in her memory of being the Southern belle and that flushing when 17 ‘gentlemen callers’ came to her. She wishes to seek a similar universe for her girl and in the procedure forgets that her girl is an person in her ain rights and wants for something else. She besides keeps on supercharging Tom to procure some soft work forces companies for her girl and irritates him to no terminal. In short. she is the pecking female parent to flawlessness.

Laura on the other manus is the image of self consciousness and lower status composite and wants to stay captive in her ain private universe symbolized by the glass menagerie. All efforts to pull her out are ineffectual and when her does come out in the unfastened with Jim. it turns out to be all the more annihilating for her and possibly she curls up even more and refuses to confront the universe. Tom is caught up in the barbarous web of his fondness for his sister on the one manus and his ain dreams on the other. Throughout the drama. we can see him fighting to make a determination and eventually when he does so in the terminal. it is more out of defeat than anything else. He is haunted by the memory of his sister wherever he goes on his travels and can non come above the guilt of go forthing his sister.

The stoping of the drama is merely that. It is non a decision. things do non unbend themselves out and there is no solution presented to the jobs of the Wingfield household. It ends all of a sudden and that excessively on a tragic note and even the calamity leaves behind inquiries as to who is the calamity directed. Some critics believe that it is Laura’s calamity as she closets herself even more in her private universe after the annihilating incident with Jim. She is left with no hpes for betterment in her status and with Tom gone. she can no longer trust for any sudden alteration. It may be Amanda’s calamity as she is unable to run into the ends that she had made for her kids peculiarly her girl. With Tom gone. there is no hope of any betterment in their fiscal status as good. it may every bit good be Tom’s calamity as even after go forthing place to prosecute his dreams. he is non able to seek his pleasances with a free head. He is ever weighed down by Laura’s memory and caught in guilt for non making anything for his sister whom he loved a batch.

Therefore. the drama. though problematic. is a joy to read and a luxury to watch. It opens up many issues and leaves them to the reading by the audience and each on can make so in conformity with his/ her ideas. This is the ultimate beauty of the drama and that is why it continues to pull readers and supporters even after many decennaries of its construct.

Mentions

Bloom Harold.Introduction Tennessee WilliamsEd. Harold Bloom. New York. Chelsea House. 1987. 1-8.

King. Thomas L.Irony and Distances in The Glass MenagerieIn Tennessee Williams. Harold Bloom. New York. Chelsea House. 1987. 85- 94

Thompson Judith J.Tennessee Williams’s Plays: Memory. Myth and SymbolsNew York. Peter Lang. 1989.

Contemporary Writers. New Revision Series.Vol 31. Detroit. Gale.

Cardullo Bert.Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.The Explicator. Spring 97. Vol 55. Issue 3. 161.