Facing Reality in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee...

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was a confusing, astounding, and wonderful play that takes an in depth look at the complex relationships that develop between members of a family and then presents them for the audiences dissection. How did the characters in the play interact? What were the independent and dependent relationships between the characters? Perhaps most important, how did they cope with one another? That seemed to be the key question when looking at The Glass Menagerie. Each character had their own method for dealing with the others and reality, primarily by not truly dealing with them and it. Amanda, the father, Laura, Tom, and even Jim, each character in this story had their own way of escaping reality;†¦show more content†¦Amandas husband, and Tom and Lauras father, had a rather simple method of escapism in this play. He simply escaped. Never physically present in The Glass Menagerie (Williams 389), the reason for his departure was unclear and c an only lead to conjecture on the part of the reader or watcher. Instead a far greater impact seemed to be felt from his very absence than his presence. As a character, his physical escape cannot truly be commented on except perhaps to say that his escape was the only true escape in the play. He was the only character that the audience was never shown the intrusion of reality into his fantasy and that seems significant. The reality of his absence could not be ignored and his physical escape was true. Lauras methods of escapism were perhaps a little more typical. While she did dwell in thoughts of the past and future as her mother did, she more frequently used objects to take her away from reality. To avoid a confrontation with her mother about business college, Laura physically and mentally escaped into the park (Williams 392). Laura withdrew into her world of glass figurines and music (Williams 399), and until her mother and Jim forced her to see beyond her physical being, L aura hid behind her physical impairment (Williams 392). However, it was only when a dose of reality intruded into her imaginary world, that Laura truly seemedShow MoreRelated The Glass Menagerie: Existentialist Responsibilities Conveyed Through the Character Tom1655 Words   |  7 PagesThe story of a young Tennessee Williams is poetically portrayed through a 1945 Broadway Play, The Glass Menagerie. The main character, Tom Wingfield, lives in his family’s apartment with his mother, Amanda Wingfield, and sister, Laura Wingfield. Their father left the family, and he remains a silent character appearing as a portrait on the apartment wall. Throughout the seven scenes, the immaturity of each family member is revealed. 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