The Glass Menagerie
In Tennessee William’s “memory play” The Glass Menagerie, we see a dysfunctional family who as a result of their patriarch’s desertion live constrained within their own unhappiness. Tom feels that the source of his woes was imprisonment by having to support his family when in reality it is the guilt of leaving his sister behind; Amanda is unhappy with her children because they do not follow the path that she wants them to take but deep down she is unhappy with the choices she made in her life, and Laura thinks all of her distress is due to being crippled when it really is about an inferiority complex.
In this play, we must first keep in mind that this is a “memory play” that comes from the perspective of Tom’s recollections. Tom is both a character and the narrator who tells a story about a time in his life where he felt his unhappiness came from his feelings of being trapped by having to carry the weight of his family’s entire responsibilities. We see this theme of his imprisonment in the following passage from scene three during an altercation with his mother, Amanda.
TOM. What in Christ’s name am I—
AMANDA. (Shrilly) Don’t you use that—
TOM. Supposed to do!
AMANDA. Expression! Not in my—
TOM. Ohhh!
AMANDA. Presence! Have you gone out of your senses?
TOM. I have, that’s true, driven out!
AMANDA. What is the matter with you, you—big—big—IDIOT!
TOM. Look—I’ve got no thing, no single thing—
AMANDA. Lower your voice!
TOM. In my life here that I can call my OWN! Everything is—
AMANDA. Stop that shouting!
TOM. Yesterday you confiscated my books! You had the nerve to—
AMANDA. I took that horrible novel back to the library—yes! That hideous book by that insane Mr. Lawrence. (Tom laughs wildly.) I cannot control the output of diseased minds or people who cater to them—(Tom laughs still more wildly.) BUT I WON’T ALLOW SUCH FILTH BROUGHT INTO MY HOUSE! No, no, no, no, no!
TOM. House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes a slave of himself to— (2302)
In this passage, Tom is growing tired of his mother’s constant nagging and points out that he does not have a life of his own, that everything is being taken away from him, even the simple pleasures such as reading a book despite sacrificing himself to support his family. These resentments, at the time seemed to be the main reason behind his affliction and drove him to find a way out in pursue of happiness. We find proof of this in the following passage from scene six during a conversation with his friend Jim O’Connor.
TOM. I’m starting to boil inside. I know I seem dreamy, but inside— well, I’m boiling! Whenever I pick up a shoe, I shudder a little thinking how short life is and what I am doing!—Whatever that means. I know it doesn’t mean shoes—except as something to wear on traveler’s feet! (Finds paper.) Look—
JIM. What?
TOM. I’m a member.
JIM. (reading) The Union of Merchant Seamen.
TOM. I paid my dues this month, instead of the light bill. (2321)
Tom thought that by getting out and joining the Merchant Marines would fix his problems and make him happy but by leaving, ultimately led him to realize that his real source of unhappiness was the guilt and haunting memory of deserting Laura just like his father before him. We find evidence of this during scene seven when Tom breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience once again with his closing speech, which goes as follows:
TOM. I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between places—Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. I left Saint Louis. I descended the step of this fire-escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space—I travelled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but tom away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass—Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes...Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger—anything that can blow your candles out! (Laura bends over the candles.)—for nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura— and so good-bye… (2337 – 2338)
Tom never imagined he would be so loyal to Laura in the sense that even though he left he took her memory wherever he went. Laura became a constant reminder of his guilt, which was ultimately the true cause of his unhappiness according to his recollections.
Further, Toms unhappiness is depicted in the way he seems haunted by his resolve to abandon his family and go out to search for adventure. Tom’s actions guide the reader and presents a tone of anxiety and guilty and empathy can be seen in the entire play .His unhappiness is centered on resentment for the responsibilities that he bears on behalf of his family. Knowing that he has the responsibility to help in supporting his family is one such source of unhappiness. Considering that helping to support the family is not his obligation, he is full of resentment for his mother’s constant nagging about his life, job and future. This bitterness that he harbors inside can be seen running over to the one thing that is an inhibition at home, Laura his crippled sister. He fills unhappy because of the knowledge of his love for her and she needs him. However, Tom is unable to help Laura and so runs away. In doing so, he choose his dreams over the reality of the needs of his family. In addition, his dull life and job make him to remain cynical and unhappy. Even after trying to take night classes, he seems not really satisfied by anything and he ponders that being a writer will enable him escape this mundane life and be able to find adventure. He lacks the trait of a hero and thus leaves his family behind and more so abandons handicapped and innocent sister Laura. In retelling the story, he is unable to be happy and peaceful until he can forgive himself. Where ever he goes after running away he feels the touch of Laura on his shoulder.“I turn around and look into her eyes. Oh, Laura, I tried to leave you behind, but I am more faithful than I intended to be.”
In the case of Amanda, we see an overbearing mother who is discontented with her children because they do not follow the path that she wants them to take. She wanted Laura to attend Rubicam’s Business College to obtain a business career or to get married, which is revealed on the following passage from the second scene after finding out that her daughter had been deceiving her and had dropped out of college.
AMANDA. (hopelessly fingering the huge pocketbook). So what are we going to do the rest of our lives? Stay home and watch the parades go by? Amuse ourselves with the glass menagerie, darling? Eternally play those worn-out phonograph records your father left as a painful reminder of him? We wont have a business career—we’ve given that up because it gave us nervous indigestion! (Laughs wearily.) What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren’t prepared to occupy a position. I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South—barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband or brother’s wife!—stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room—encouraged by one in-law to visit another—little birdlike women without any nest—eating the crust of humility all their life! Is that the future that we’ve mapped out for ourselves? I swear it’s the only way alternative I can think of! It isn’t a very pleasant alternative, is it? Of course—some girls do marry. (Laura twists her hands nervously.) Haven’t you ever liked some boy?
(2299 – 2300)
She wanted Tom to stop jeopardizing their security and worried he was following his father’s footsteps by being out late at night. Amanda also wanted him to find his sister a gentleman caller, as a backup plan for Laura and herself. In scene four, we find the following passage that proves this.
AMANDA. Oh, I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It’s terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation—Then left! Good-bye! And me with the bag to hold. I saw that letter you got from the Merchant Marine. I know what you’re dreaming of. I’m not standing here blindfolded. Very well, then. Then do it! But not till there’s somebody to take your place. (2308)
Amanda’s discontent with her children it’s nothing but the surface of a much deeper affair attributed to her past. Her real source of unhappiness comes from the regret of the choices she made in her life, by marrying Mr. Wingfield. We have to take in consideration that Amanda, in her prime had a very fortunate lifestyle in the South. She brags about having seventeen gentlemen callers at once in one occasion, among them were distinguished young planters of the Mississippi Delta. Amanda could have had it all by marrying one of her prominent suitors but instead she chose to marry Mr. Winfield, the man who ended up deserting her. We can see in the following passage from scene one when she is bragging about her youth to her children during a dinner conversation.
AMANDA. That Fitzhugh boy went North and made a fortune—came to be known as the Wolf of Wall Street! He had the Midas touch, whatever he touched turned to gold! And I could have been Mrs. Duncan J. Fitzhugh, mind you! But— I picked your father! (2297)
Amanda’s unhappiness stems from living in a world that is fluctuating between reality and illusion. She closes her eyes to the real and brutal world when a situation is convenient to her. She is, however, unable to live in this illusion forever. She has to face the pressures of everyday life than comes with many unpleasant facts. The condition of Laura is a major source of her unhappiness as seen in her assertions that “"I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position." She is faced with the reality of her daughter’s position even if she cannot acknowledge her disability. Moreover, she has read the letter that was sent to Tom by Merchant Marine and is aware that he will be leaving them soon. Her life is full of other impossibilities. She wishes that her children could get the best out of life but cannot understand that what she wants varies largely from what they want most. Her refusal to acknowledge that she is very different from her children is a cause for unhappiness and a lot of unhappy moments. She is unable to understand why Laura cannot have charm and gaiety. Her idea of charm is very different from that of her daughter’s idea. She can manage to be exceptionally lively at any time while Lauran is confined in sensitive and quiet world. The final analysis can present her as being frivolous but it’s because of her past life. When she was deserted by her husband, she encountered a meaningless and empty life, which was the beginning of her misery and unhappiness. She resulted to fabricating things so as to fill the void in her life. By devoting too much to her kids and living through them she missed a point. She was reliving her life and therefore failed to understand varied personalities possessed by her children and made Tom to escape from home. This further added to her unhappiness.
Regarding Laura, she attributes all of her distress to being crippled. For instance, when her mother tells her that she should find a nice man to marry since she is not meant for a business career Laura gives her mother the excuse of being crippled. Laura is constantly exaggerating the extent of her physical disability. She has one leg slightly shorter than the other which is nothing that should keep her from finishing her education or isolating herself in her own world of little glass animals and playing old phonograph’s records. It is not until Jim O’Connor, her high school crush comes over for dinner that she realizes that her real problem and the reason why she has been so unhappy is just an inferiority complex.
JIM. You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! (2330)
JIM. Yep—that’s what I judge to be your principal trouble. A lack of confidence in yourself. I’m basing that fact on a number of your remarks and also on certain observations I’ve made. For instance, that clumping you thought was so awful in high school. You say that you even dreaded to walk into class. You see what you did? You dropped out of school, you gave up an education because of a clump, which as far as I know was practically nonexistent! A little physical defect is what you have. Hardly noticeable even! Magnified thousands of times by imagination! (2330)
These passages strengthen the idea that Laura’s convictions of her problems revolving around her physical disability were absurd and that in reality it was simply a lack of confidence. Laura’s memory of her wonderful loving parents make her to create a fake world of her own, so that she could live within it and having not to feel the discomfort and pain that results from a harsh real world. Laura’s unhappiness can be traced from her parents’ perception that she was the reason they could no longer remain happy. The parents took the presence of Laura as something that would break their loving union, which rapidly became a memory. In her adult life, she is unable to find happiness in a realistic world; in a similar manner her parents could no longer experience happiness due to her presence. Her disability makes her feel rejected always and everywhere and she feels that she is in a cage. Furthermore, she feels that she cannot be as good as her mother, Amanda. Amanda was very popular in her young age .Upon asserting that she was anticipating no gentlemen callers, her mother looks astonished, in their seemingly frequent conversation. She asserts that “'I'm not popular like you were”. Laura unhappiness comes from her fear of the rejection she may face in a real world; she uses her handicap condition to hide from the real world. In fact, she takes the role of a victim which right suits her reason of withdrawing from the reality and thus living a happy but fake world. When she is offered a chance to enroll in a business college so that she can be a secretary and earn money and therefore, detach from her family’s rejective world , she choose to drop out of college and hence remain cage in her paranoid world. This further contributes to her unhappiness.
Conclusion
The unhappiness noted in the play can be attributed to the difficulty the aforementioned characters have in accepting reality and relating to it. Tom fails to accept the responsibility bestowed on him to take care of the needs of the family, even if it is not his obligation. He cannot be happy due to guilty of abandoning his family more so his crippled sister Laura. Amanda’s unhappiness can be attributed to living through her children so since she was deserted by her husband. She wants the best for her children but cannot understand that her life and theirs are quite different and her. Laura’s unhappiness stems from her shyness and lack of confidence which makes her act the victim of circumstances she is in. The theme of unhappiness is, nevertheless, a reflection of a normal family in a real world.
