Dramatic Lit

Kerry

Response Paper

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

To me The Glass Menagerie is a great tragic and memory play, filled with symbols and a very interesting theme, which is illusion versus reality. The three characters in the play Amanda, Tom & Laura cannot accept reality nor do they relate to it and they cannot seem to see what their life really is. Although Amanda loves her children she also constantly berets them. For example she seems to make comments to her son Tom on a daily basis in regards to his appearance, manners and drinking. I feel that he is very frustrated with his mother for treating him like a child. You can sense this when she calls him for dinner and begins to tell him how to eat by saying, "Honey don't push with your fingers, chew". He responds by telling her he cannot eat with her watching over him. (Act 1, Barranger, page 109). Laura is also under the mother's control, with Amanda telling her to sit and look pretty for gentlemen callers. When Laura explains to her that there will be none, Amanda response with "there must be a tornado or flood". (Scene1, Barranger, page 110). That comment tells me that she does not see Laura for what she is, which is a shy girl who is also crippled who lives in her own world filled with glass figures as friends. These glass symbols represent Laura's own personality, which is fragile and delicate. I see Amanda as a tragic character that refuses to her life as it is. Living in the past she often tells her children stories of her spoiled childhood and the many gentlemen callers she has had. Trying to desperately to live through her children she tries to control them to suit her own needs so in her mind they are all superior. I did notice however that she does not talk about her life when it comes to meeting her husband, who had