ENGL 4603/5413, AMST 5833: American Drama

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 3: The Glass Menagerie

Theatrical Elements

1. Screen Device

a. What is meant by the “screen device” for this play? What does it consist of? What are some specific examples of it?

b. According to the “Production Notes” by Tennessee Williams, what is the intended purpose of the screen device? In your opinion, to what extent would the use of the screen device fulfill this purpose? Why or why not?

c. The screen device was not used in the initial Broadway production and has rarely been used on stage. Why do you suppose that, despise its being in the script, it is usually omitted in stage productions?

2. Music

a. In the “Production Notes,” Williams says that the music used in the play should sound like circus music heard from a distance. How would this kind of music be appropriate to the play?

b. Williams uses various descriptors to catch the intended sound and mood of the music of the play. How is each of the following descriptors of the music appropriate to the play as whole?

i. “lightest, most delicate”

ii. “surface vivacity”

iii. “strain of immutable and inexpressible sorrow”

iv. “the lovely fragility of glass”

c. What does Williams mean when he says this music is “primarily Laura’s music”?

3. Lighting

a. In what sense should the lighting be “not realistic”? Why should the lighting in general be “dim”?

b. Aside from generally dim lighting, what other kind of lighting does Williams specify? What is the purpose of this other lighting?

c. What are some specific scenes in which the script mentions the lighting? What lighting does the script require? Why?

4. Setting (the set)

a. According to Williams’s scene description at the beginning of scene 1, why should the scene be “nonrealistic” and “dim and poetic”?

b. What scene provides the setting of the entire play? Based on the scene description at the beginning of scene 1, what adjectives or other descriptors would you use to describe the set? What effect would this setting have on the audience?

c. What is the physical relationship of the fire escape to the rest of the set? What does the presence of the fire escape reveal about the social class of the inhabitants?

d. According to the second paragraph of the scene description at the beginning of scene 1, what symbolic significance does Williams attach to the fire escape?

e. Whose photograph hangs on the wall? What is the significance of this photograph to the play as a whole?

f. What are “portieres”? Where do they hang?

g. What is a scrim? In what specific scenes do the portieres of the Wingfields’ dining room serve as a scrim?

Realism vs. Expressionism

1. What is the difference between realism and expressionism in dramatic productions? What are some examples of realism in this play? What are some examples of expressionism?

2. What does Tom as narrator mean at the beginning of the play when he says, “I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion”?

Tom’s Narration

1. What kinds of information does Tom’s narration provide? What functions does it serve?

2. According to Tom’s opening narration, in what decade of the twentieth century does the action of the play take place? What national and international events of this decade does the narrator emphasize? How do these events relate to the plot of the play?

3. What is the significance of Tom’s wearing the uniform of a merchant seaman at the beginning of the play? (We do not fully learn the significance until the end of the play.)

4. The play is told through Tom’s memory. Does Tom’s memory make him a reliable narrator or an unreliable narrator? Why?

5. Benjamin Nelson, in “Problems in The Glass Menagerie,” the last commentary on this play in your textbook, criticizes Tom’s narration for being flowery, “painfully pretentious,” and pseudo-poetical. What passages would support this judgment? Do you agree with Nelson? Why or why not?

Plot

1. Scene 1 (Legend on screen [in French]: “Where are the snows [of yesteryear]?”)

a. A play’s exposition explains the main characters and situation. Aside from Tom’s opening narration, what expository information does scene 1 reveal?

b. What does Amanda say about her “gentleman callers”? What does Amanda’s obsession with gentleman callers reveal about the current situation of Amanda and her family?

c. What is the origin of the line “Where are the snows of yesteryear?” In its original context, what does this line mean? How does this line relate to the content of scene 1?

d. What conflict do Amanda and Tom have over his eating habits? What does this conflict reveal about the characters’ situation and relationships?

2. Scene 2 (Legend on screen: “Laura, Haven’t You Ever Liked Some Boy?”)

a. The rising action of a play develops conflict. Scene 2 focuses on Amanda’s conflict with Laura. Over what specific issues do Amanda and Laura have conflict?

b. About one column from the end of scene 2, what does Amanda say about the lives of unmarried women? To what extent is this an accurate description of the economic and social position of unmarried women in American society in the 1930s?

3. Scene 3 (Legend on screen: “After the Fiasco—”)

a. What is “the fiasco” referred to in the legend on the screen at the beginning of this scene?

b. What conflicts arise between Amanda and Tom in this scene?

c. What does Tom say to his mother that shocks and hurts her deeply?

d. How does Tom inadvertently hurt Laura?

4. Scene 4

a. Concerning what issues do Amanda and Tom have conflict?

b. Near the end of scene 4, what important request does Amanda make of Tom?

c. Even though Tom obviously does not want to agree to his mother’s request, why do you think he does so?

5. Scene 5 (Legend on screen: “Annunciation”)

a. What does the word annunciation mean, and in what context is the word usually used? What is ironic about the use of the term here?

b. What “annunciation” does Tom casually make to Amanda?

c. What contrasting attitudes do Tom and Amanda have toward the upcoming visit of Tom’s friend Jim?

d. A play’s crisis is the turning point or the moment when the plot changes direction. In the context of the play as a whole, how does this scene constitute the crisis?

6. Scene 6 (Image on screen: “high school hero”)

a. Why does Williams choose the image of a “high school hero” for this scene?

b. What conflicts do Amanda and Laura have over what Laura should do?

c. About two pages into this scene, why does the legend “Terror!” appear on the screen? Why is Laura even more agitated about her gentleman caller’s visit than she thought she would be?

7. Scene 7: “A Souvenir”

a. In what ways does Laura conversation with Jim go better than she could have imagined?

b. A play’s climax is the moment of the plot that is most exciting to the audience. At the climax of this play, what revelation does Jim make to Laura?

c. The falling action of a play leads from the climax to the resolution. What happens in the falling action of The Glass Menagerie?

d. What is the “souvenir” that Williams uses as a sort of title for this scene?

e. A play’s dénouement is the resolution of the main conflict. According to Tom’s closing narration, what happens in the dénouement of this play? How have Amanda’s conflicts with Tom been resolved? How have Amanda’s conflicts with Laura been resolved? What internal conflict within Tom has not been solved? What questions does this ending leave unresolved for the audience?

Amanda

1. Amanda is one of the greatest characters in all of American drama. Many great actresses have played Amanda on stage and/or film, including Laurette Taylor, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy, and (in the 1987 film directed by Paul Newman) Joanne Woodward. Williams himself writes in the script, “There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person.”

a. What makes Amanda a round (complex) character?

b. Which of Amanda’s character traits and/or actions are truly admirable, lovable, tender, and/or heroic?

c. What is foolish and/or cruel about Amanda’s words and/or actions?

d. What is pitiable or pathetic about Amanda and/or her situation?

e. In the theatre, Amanda elicits many laughs from the audience. Which of Amanda’s lines of dialogue do you find humorous?

2. In “Problems in The Glass Menagerie” in your textbook, what aspects of Amanda’s character does Benjamin Nelson praise?

3. To what extent can we believe what Amanda says about her past? On what occasions does she appear to be exaggerating? What might be the reasons for her exaggerations?

4. Amanda believes she is a very practical person who makes “plans and provisions” for herself and her children. What plans and provisions does she attempt to make? In actuality, how practical are her plans and provisions? Why?

5. Although Amanda has frequently been compared to Williams’s mother, Mrs. Williams insisted that the only thing she and Amanda had in common was their love for jonquils. Outside research: What other similarities did the playwright’s mother have with Amanda?

Laura

1. Many criticize Williams for making Laura a flat (one-dimensional) character. What aspects of Laura’s character does Williams develop? In what sense is her character one-dimensional?

2. How is Laura like her own glass collection? How is she like the unicorn whose horn Jim breaks off?

3. Outside research: What does Laura have in common with Williams’s own sister Rose? How is Laura’s handicap different from Rose’s?

Jim, the Gentleman Caller

1. According to Tom’s opening narration, Jim is “the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of reality.” In what sense is Jim more “realistic” than the other characters? How realistic are his plans for future success and happiness?

2. Tom’s opening narration also says that the gentleman caller symbolizes “the long delayed but always expected something that we live for.”

a. How does the play establish this symbolism?

b. What almost universal human tendency does this statement point out?

c. How does this statement relate to the theme of the play (see below)?

Theme

1. In what sense is each of the following living in a world of illusion? What is the result for each?

a. The world as a whole, and especially the American middle class, in the 1930s

b. Amanda

c. Tom

d. Laura

e. Jim

2. What does Laura’s glass menagerie symbolize? How does the title of the play capture its theme?

3. What aspirations of the American Dream does this play reflect? What, if anything, does the play have to say about the American Dream?

Elements of Tragedy in The Glass Menagerie

1. Are the main characters of the play noble in status and character?

2. Do the main characters fall from happiness to misery?

3. What reversals do any of the main characters experience? What is the final reversal?

4. Do the main characters experience recognition? As revealed by their words and/or actions, what if anything have they learned?

5. Benjamin Nelson argues that the play is merely pathetic rather than tragic because the characters live in a “determined universe” in which they are helpless to do anything about their plight.

a. To what extent do you agree with this evaluation?

b. What external factors beyond their control help cause the characters’ misery?

c. On the other hand, do any of the characters have a hamartia (imperfection, error in judgment, tragic flaw) that causes their fall? What hamartia do they all share (see previous section on Theme)?

6. Do any of the main characters have tragic stature at the end, inspiring us with the way they face their fall?