Written by Thomas Lanier Williams, the play, The Glass Menagerie, was published in 1945. It is set in St. Louis in the 1930s when the American working class was still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression. There are four main characters- the mother, Amanda Wingfield, her son and daughter, Tom and Laura and Jim O’Connor, Tom’s co-worker. There is also a mention of Tom’s father, whose smiling portrait hangs on the wall throughout the play.
America in the 1930s
In 1929, the stock market crashed. In 1939, World War 2 began. So Williams in his life had seen some of the worst phases of loss, poverty and suffering that America ever witnessed. People lost their jobs and their savings and were unable to afford even food and water. People began to realise the illusion of the American Dream. A concept that told you that if you worked hard, you could rise the ladder of success. This dream had led to the generation of a problematic system of capitalism and excessive belief in the free market. A dream that ultimately became a nightmare.
The Significance of the title
Jim: You’re going to be out of a job if you don’t wake up.
Tom: I am waking up-
Jim: You show no signs.
Tom: The signs are interior
The symbol of the Glass Menagerie looms over the entire play. The term itself ‘menagerie’ refers to “a collection of wild animals in cages”. For Tom, he is like an animal stuck in the cage. He is forced to work at a shoe warehouse when he truly wants to become a poet. He is forced to get up each day and repeat the routine set for him because of the same illusion that hard work ultimately means economic prosperity.
Amanda Wingfield continues to believe in the notions of the American Dream. She wakes Tom up each morning chanting the slogan “Rise and Shine”.
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Tom hates being woken up to this. As Payal Nagpal states in her introduction to the novel, the slogan is “an echo of the capitalist rhetoric of productivity that values time as a marketable resource which should not be wasted”. Because of this, he seeks solace by going to the movies, representing his creative side, which is unable to cope with the mechanical world he is being forced into.
Tom ultimately gets fired from his job for writing a poem on a shoebox and at the end, runs away like his father. He escapes from the captivity, the cage within which he could not escape the bourgeois capitalistic expectations.
Autobiographical elements
There are multiple elements in this play that make it different from an ordinary play.
The first is Williams use of Tom as the narrator and the role of memory in the play. Through ‘The Glass Menagerie’, Williams coined the term ‘memory play’. In this, the narrator, who is also the protagonist, narrates the play from memory. This allows the play to move away from traditional realism. It also allows Williams to portray parts of his own life from his memory. His younger brother Dakin recalled that “the events of The Glass Menagerie are a …literal rendering of our family at 6254 Enright Avenue”.
It is this that also allows him to use several Brechtian techniques. He repeatedly breaks the fourth wall and uses several non-realist devices like legends on-screen to remind the audience that this is just a play. Brecht, in his writing, aimed at social emancipation. His use of Chinese theatre techniques removed the element of catharsis so the audience was compelled to think about the play after it was over. They were also compelled to question society and social structures of oppression.
Similarly, Tom in the play, leaves Laura without any proper discussion. There is no element of catharsis or resolution allowing the play to properly be concluded. Instead, the audience is left with a series of questions about the capitalistic world we live in and the image of even the audience, like Tom, being stuck in a glass menagerie.
Conclusion
The Glass Menagerie points at a system of oppression. It points at a society where art, culture and happiness are all disregarded unless they are able to provide monetary success. The idea we all live with, even today, is that our lives are validated by our income. We all strive to make more and more money. Are we happy? Are we choosing what we love? These are questions a capitalistic society looks down upon.
When you are rich and successful you will be happy. You will be rich after you work hard. You can work hard and become rich no matter who you are.
Aren’t these all illusions we are taught? Will we all actually be able to overcome all the hurdles and all achieve high levels of success. Especially in our societies today where you are discriminated against depending on your colour, caste, religion and gender identity. Will we all be able to overcome all that with just hard work?
For English Honours students
The best source to study this play is the Worldview Critical Editions book edited by Payal Nagpal. I would highly recommend that you first read the play and then read her introduction. If you have more time then read the essay ‘The Clash between Jim and Laura’ by Anand Prakash at the back of the book.
The key points to focus on for your exams are-
- Theme of abandonment
- The unrealistic American Dream
- Laura and Tom’s character sketch
- The significance of the Gentlemen Caller.
Best of luck! Please do reach out if you have any doubts.
