Tennesse Williams' The Glass Menagerie

In Tennessee Williams' classic American play The Glass Menagerie, the main characters all struggle to deal with the disappointing realities of their lives. Indeed, Laura, Tom, and Amanda Wingfield all turn to comfortable illusions in order to combat the loneliness and desperations of their daily lives. Thus, this conflict between reality and illusion becomes the central theme of Williams' play, as he uses his characters to depict the way in which one can use fantasy to escape an unpleasant reality.

Of three main characters in the play, it would seem that Laura Wingfield has the most difficulty accepting the reality of her life. She chooses to inhabit a world of her own making because she is handicapped, both physically and emotionally. Laura not only must wear a leg brace, and because she is terribly shy, she is emotionally cut off from other people as well. Instead, she turns to her collection of glass animals and essentially constructs a private world for herself in order to insulate herself from reality. Her mother believes that Laura's only hope is to get marri

Category: Literature - T