BG Steyr

The Glass Menagerie

Outline:

Title:

The Glass Menagerie

Author: Tennesse Williams
Other information:

edition for the Vienna English Theatre

Type of book:

It´s a realistic drama.

Subject:

The play is about a family consisting of mother, son and daughter, who

are - each in a special way - not able to cope with reality.

Setting: The story takes place in the thirties in America
Characters:

There are four characters in the play:

Amanda: Amanda Wingfield the mother of Tom and Laura. It is a woman who lives in the
past, when she was young and admired, but she is of great ambition concerning her children
without really understanding their needs.
Her daughter is Laura, a very shy girl, because she is crippled and suffering from an
infariority complex. She lives in her own world, „The Glass Menagerie“, and shuts out
everything that might give her troubles.
Tom is working in a warehous to support the family. He secretly writes poems and is hungry
for adventures, which he finds in the movies. Finally he escapes the dull atmosphere of his
home by enrolling in the Merchandise Army.
The last character is Jim O´Conner, Laura´s gentleman caller. He is the typical American, a
former High-school darling, a good sportsman and very ambitious to get along.

Events/Plot:

The main problem is, that Laura is too shy to face reality. She also

stopped to going to school, because of being too nervous. So her mother worries about the
future of her daughter and presses Tom, who wants toleave the family to invite a gentle man
caller for Laura. So Tom invites Jim, a friend from High-school and the Ware-house for
dinner, which turns out to be a desaster.
Ideas:

It is a presentation of the pre-war American society, where all people

lived in a kind of dream world waiting for the bombs to fall.
Oppinions/Comment: I liked the book because for me it was something new, I also enjoyed
Tennesse William´s language and style. I can recommend this book to everybody who is
interested in reading or listening to good English.

BG Steyr

Characterisation of Laura

Laura is the daughter of Amanda Wingfield. She has an elder brother called Tom. Laura is
crippled because of a childhood illnes. One leg is shorter, but it is hardly noticeable. Perhaps
as a consequence of this Laura is terribly shy and isn´t able to speak to others without
stammering. So she wasn´t very popular during college time and boys didn´t even notice her.
She dropped out of commercial school because she wa so nervous that she vomited before her
first test. Having nothing to do she spends most of her time listening to old records or playing
with her glass animals. Her isolation makes makes her lose any contact to reality. She lives in
a dream world hiding from her problems. Her only link to reality is her brother, tom. He is the
only person Laura can talk to. Things seem to change, when Tom invites a friend. Jim
O´Conner turns out to be the only boy Laura was ever interested in during her high school
years. Jim manages to break Laura´s isolation and she again falls in love with him - and even
minding that he breaks her favourite glassanimal when dancing with her. The greater the
shock when Jim has to tell her that he is engaged and that there is no hope for calling on her.
She retreats in her dream world