Glass Menagerie

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Glass Menagerie

• Scene 3-5

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Summary for Scene 12

• Billy

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Scene 1

• At a dining room
• Amanda repeatedly tells Tom to chew his food
• Laura wanted to fetch something but was stopped
  by her mother I want you to stay fresh and
  pretty---for gentlemen callers!
• Amanda recalled the memory One Sunday afternoon
  in Blue Mountain.
• Laura said she is not as popular as her mother
  once was

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Scene 2

• Laura is polishing her collection of glass
  figurines
• As Laura heard Amanda approaching, she hides her
  ornaments and pretends to be studying a diagram
  of a keyboard.
• A teacher informed Amanda that Laura has not come
  to class since the first few days
• Laura explained where she had been
• Amanda ask if she has ever liked a boy

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Scene 2

• Laura had a crush on a boy named Jim, who had a
  wonderful voice
• Blue Roses, how the boy called Laura
• Laura told her mother Im---crippled!
• Amanda told her daughter to develop charm

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Plot summary
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Scene 3

• The image of a gentleman caller becomes a
  obsession in the house.
• The quarrel between Amanda and Tom. Tom's rage
  about given no privacy by Amanda.
• The accident which destroyed Laura's beloved
  glass menageries.

Eddie
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Scene 4

• The symbolic meaning of Mr. Wingfield's
  photograph.
• Tom's reluctant reconciliation with Amanda
• Another quarrel caused by the sentence Tom said
  Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a
  fighter.

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Scene 5

• Tom announced to Amanda that he has already found
  a gentleman caller for Laura.
• Amanda's worry about Laura's future.
• Tom holds a negative attitude about it and tell
  Amanda not to expect too much.
• Amanda's reaction to what Tom said.

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Characters

• Angus and Thomas

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Tom Wingfield

• Who is he?
• What kind of man he is?
• What is the function of this character in The
  Glass Menagerie?

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Toms Double Role in the Play

• As a character whose recollections the play
  documents
• As a character who acts within those
  recollections
• ? Where can we sense memorys emotional
  distortion of truth?
• A narrator and also a character
• Address the audience directly
• Demonstrates the real emotions
• ? Is he reliable?

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The Character Who Is Full of Contradiction

• Care for his family Indifferent and
  even cruel toward them.
• Rational Sometimes emotional
• Dreamer Breadwinner
• Dreams of higher things Stuck in
  reality, the lower class, lower job and endless
  household

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The Man Who Intensifies the Relation Between
Wingfields

• A character also a narrator
• ? points out the tension between truth and
  memory's distortion of truth
• ? Intensifies the relation between Wingfields
  and clearly shows their personalities
• ? Amandas nostalgia for her past and demands
  for the familys future
• ? Lauras social and physical handicaps

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Conflicts Characteristics of Amanda and Laura

• Whos in charge of this?
• Well, its
• Thomas!

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Conflicts as the Key to Explore Their
Characteristics

• Three Conflicts
• 1. The conflict between Amanda and Tom.
• 
  (Scene 3)
• 2. Laura(shrilly). My glass! -menagerie
• 
  (Scene 3)
• 3. The role of peacemaker between Amanda and Tom
  (for the follow-up effect after the first
  conflict.
  (Scene 4)

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The Quarrel between Amanda and Tom

• Cause
• Legend on Screen You Think Im in Love with
  Continental Shoemakers? the cause
• The great difference of their thoughts toward
  values and life between Amanda and Tom.
• ?Tom is always thinking of superior things,
  quite unsatisfied with the status quo, especially
  for his mother.
• ?Amanda affords him no privacy.
• ?She also arbitrarily returns his book, to
  which she calls a kind of filth.

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The Emotional Quarrel

• Lack of Privacy
• Amanda What is the matter with you,
  you-big-big-IDIOT!
• Tom Look-Ive got no thing, no single thing-
• Tom In my life here that I can call my OWN!
  Everything is-
• ?Different thoughts
• Tom laughs wildly when Amanda is speaking
• Amanda BUT I WONT ALLOW SUCH FILTH BROUGHT
  INTO MY HOUSE! No, No,no,no,no,no!
• ?Toms Point
• Tom House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes
  a slave of himself to-
• (He means himself, the one who pays the rent)

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The Emotional Quarrel

• Toms Attempt to Escape
• Tom No, I wont hear more. Im going out!
• Amanda You come right back in-
• Tom Out, out ,out! Because Im-
• Laura (desperately) Tom!
• ?Amandas Point
• Amanda I think youve been doing things that
  youre ashamed of. Thats why you act like this.
  I dont believe that you go every night to the
  movies. Oh, I can picture the way youre doing
  down there. Moping, doping, because youre in no
  condition.
• Tom (wildly) No, I am in no condition!
• ?Amanda thinks Toms misbehavior is endangering
  his job and, hence, the familys security.

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The Emotional Quarrel

• ?Toms Rage
• Tom Listen! You think Im crazy about the
  warehouse? (He bends fiercely toward her slight
  figure.) You think Im in love with the
  Continental Shoemakers? You think I want to spend
  fifty-five years down there in that-Every time
  you come in yelling that God damn Rise and
  Shine! Rise and Shine! I say to myself How
  lucky dead people are! But I get up. I go!
  ...For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all
  that I dream of doing and being ever! And you say
  self-selfs all I ever think of. Why, listen, if
  self is what I thought of, Mother, Id be where
  he is-GONE! (pointing to fathers picture)
• Tom says You ugly-babbling old-witch
• ?He passionately expresses his hatred for the
  factory, and seems to envy the dead people for
  Amandas morning slogans sake.
• ?He also says how he has abandoned his dreams to
  work day after day for them. And if he is exactly
  a selfish person as Amanda claims, he would have
  deserted them long ago.

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Overview of This Conflict

• ?She desperately tries to seize his son, whom she
  considered as the backbone of great importance to
  both the future and present, in the family.
• ?Therefore she may unintentionally ignore her
  sons feelings.
• ?When Tom starts past her (for he wants to leave
  immediately), Amanda grabs his arm.
• ?She fears to lose again- first her husband, now
  the son.
• ?Amanda is willful in doing what she deems as
  righteous.
• ?She presumptuously returns his book by the
  insane (in her opinion) Mr. Lawrence.
• Have you noticed Lauras existence in this
  conflict? There is only one line.
• ?Lauras painful shyness and silence is
  completely shown.

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My glass! -menagerie

• His arm catches in the sleeve of the coat as he
  struggles to pull it on. For a moment he is
  pinioned by the bulky garment. With an outraged
  groan he tears the coat off again, splitting the
  shoulders of it, and hurls it across the room.
  It strikes against the shelf of Lauras glass
  collection, there is a tinkle of shattering
  glass. LAURA cries out as if wounded.
• LAURA (shrilly) My glass!-menagerie(she covers
  her face and turns away)
• (TOM is left with LAURA. LAURA clings weakly to
  the mantel with her face averted. TOM stares at
  her stupidly for a moment. Then he crosses to
  shelf. Drops awkwardly to his knees to collect
  the fallen glass, glancing at LAURA as if he
  would speak but couldnt.)
• ?A conflict between Tom and Laura.
• Tom accidentally breaks her glass menagerie, and
  seems to say something to Laura but couldnt.

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Laura and the Glass Menagerie

• The glass menagerie stands for a symbolic meaning
  -Lauras personality.
• ?Like these fragile, beloved glass animals, Laura
  is also delicate, flighty.
• ?Lauras first response to her broken treasure is
  sorrow, not anger.
• ?Toms speechlessness toward Laura may suggest
  his own self-contradiction, and Lauras pathetic
  personality.

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Laura the Peacemaker

• In Scene 4, Tom returns home
• The conflict among the three.
• Due to his indignant departure, Amanda says I
  wont speak to you- until you apologize!
• Laura plays an role as peacemaker between Amanda
  and Tom. In the possible complete silence between
  them, Laura becomes dramatically active (compared
  to the former scenes) in speaking, for she wants
  to recover the atmosphere in her family.
• Amanda sends Laura out to buy groceries on
  credit. On the way down the fire escape, Laura
  slips and falls but is not hurt.
• ?Both Amanda and Tom instantly show their care
  for her.
• But as soon as Tom apologizes, Lauras play
  becomes again unimportant.
• ?Why Laura becomes a successful peacemaker?

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Characteristics of Amanda and Laura

• Through analyzing the conflicts

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Characteristic of Amanda

• Through the quarrel between Amanda and Tom, we
  know that they have quite different thoughts and
  values.
• Amandas Background and Change
• Amanda, who has a quite traditional
  upbringing, is from a prominent Southern family.
  But things have changed- everything she was once
  taught to value is now with a wholly new aspect.
  She does indeed suffer from this significant
  change, of economic and social status.
• We can perceive that Amanda is still
  sticking to the old ways, about genteel manner
  and values.
• ?Amanda is seemingly quite demanding and
  dominant, yet we should not forget her love and
  willingness to sacrifice for her children.

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Characteristic of Amanda

• Evidence
• Before the quarrel between Amanda and Tom,
  she is working on subscription sales. What for?
  In fact, she is preparing for Lauras marriage
  without much complaint. Due to the sharp turn of
  her life, which has alienated her from modern
  society, hardships are expected in her
  engagements with people. But she still does the
  hard work, with strange confidence.
• ?Amandas Psychological Defects
• Throughout the conflicts, we see that her
  perspective and values are different from Toms.
• Affords no privacy
• Over-concerned with Toms future prospect.
• Over-concerned with Lauras marriage, she is
  always arranging, planning for it.

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Characteristic of Laura

• Laura crippled, wears a brace, walks with a
  limp. Twenty-three years old and painfully shy.
  She is far away from the reality outside the
  house.
• Throughout the conflicts
• From the obvious fewest lines in this play, we
  know that she is indeed painfully shy, almost
  selfless.
• The broken glass menagerie represents her fragile
  world.
• The existence of a mere pitiable figure of
  compassion, for Amanda and Tom never demand
  anything of her they deem Laura as the innocent
  one.

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Characteristic of Laura

• Laura, who is crippled both in mind and body, is
  almost totally alienated from the outside world.
  But yet no one ever blames Laura for her
  dependence, or her helplessness to support the
  family.
• ?Her selflessness somehow brings a sense of guilt
  upon Tom and Amanda, for their selfishness. That
  is, when Amanda and Tom are in embarrassment, she
  becomes strangely active to recover the family
  bond.
• ?In this play, she is the one who never hurts
  anyone. She really cares for other- she cries for
  Toms unhappiness.

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Stage Direction

• Joe Wang

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The Stage

• Dim Lights
• Soft Music
• Projection of Images and Captions

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Dim Lights

• Purpose The scenes are memories
• Non-realistic
• Effect Poetic

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Soft Music

• Delicate / lovely / sad
• Purpose to bring out the fragility of the
  glass / Laura.

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Projection of Images and Captions

• Purpose To emphasize the important parts of each
  scene.
• Effect Make strong impressions

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Themes
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Themes

• Disappointment
• Escape
• Expectation

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disappointment (scene III)

• Tom is disappointed with his life because he
  feels trapped. He must work in the warehouse to
  support his family (mother and sister). In spite
  of his sacrificing his own dreams, Amanda insists
  on he acts selfish and jeopardizes their security
  by going to the movies every night.
• His sacrifice is overshadowed by Amanda's belief
  that he is selfish.

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disappointment (scene V)

• Although Amanda is optimistic at the prospect of
  the gentlemen caller for Laura, Tom reminds
  Amanda not to expect too much from Laura because
  she is very peculiar.

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Escape

• Tom goes to the movie as a way to escape.(scene
  III)
• After seeing the magician escape from a coffin
  w/o removing a nail made Tom very impressed, and
  he believes that it parallels with his situation
  at home. He has to find a way escaping without
  destroying the family like his father did.

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Escape

• Amanda demands an explanation of why Tom spends
  so much time watching movies in the night, and he
  tells her that it's because he seeks adventure.
  The movies are his escape from the mundane
  reality of his warehouse job and his apartment
• Amanda mentions the letter Tom receives from the
  Merchant Marines. To sail away with the Merchant
  Marines seems to be the most adventurous way to
  escape.

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Escape

• Tom calls to Amanda's attention that it is not
  normal for a young girl to live wrapped up in a
  world of glass ornaments without real human
  interaction. The glass menagerie is Laura's
  escape from the harshness of reality. Her
  disability and lack of confidence has led to
  shyness. Her escape isolates her further from the
  society. She dotes with the glass ornaments to
  avoid interactions with others.

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Expectation

• Amanda tries to tell Tom about how much she loved
  his father and how she never expected him to
  abandon them and disappear for good. She expects
  Tom to help her find a way to establish a stable
  future for Laura. At the same time, Tom tries to
  explain that he dreams of more than just a
  warehouse worker.
• Amanda expects the gentleman caller would
  instantly fall in love in Laura. Her expectations
  of people and life is that everyone would bend to
  her if she just presents in the right way.

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Symbols
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Scene 3

• The beginning of the scene Annunciation
• Williamss reference to thee birth of savior and
  fairy-tale

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Scene 4

• Mr. Wingfields photograph
• The landing on the fire escape
• The use of Blue Rose

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Scene 5

• The coffin trick
• The rainbow-colored scarf