The Glass Menagerie

Glass Menagerie is a collection of fragile glass animal figurines. Fragile is the word which describes the family in the story. From the mother which sees no reality with a cripple daughter that she sees beautiful to a son that wants out but is also Amanda's sole provider. The daughter is such that fragile is to harsh a word. Her life buried in glass animals and a victrola, she is a fragile as that unicorn that breaks in scene four. Tom is full of contradiction. On the one hand, he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of escape, adventure, and higher things. On the other hand, he seems completely bound to the petty world of the Wingfield household.

One of the key things of the play is how it relates to Williams' life with the mixture of illusions and reality. All of the characters appear to be connected in some way to members of his family. The mother, Amanda Wingfield, shares similarities with Williams' mother, a harsh woman who had been known of being a southern belle and living a luxurious life. Laura Wingfield, her daughter, is similar to Williams' sister, Rose. Laura is shy and uneasy to the point of being socially unable. As a result of her mother's nagging, Laura's slight limp is exaggerated in her mind to the point where she believes herself crippled. Amanda's illusion or what she wanted to see was that Laura was beautiful and had many male callers. Williams' sister was also mentally unstable, and spent most of her life in a mental institution. The play's protagonist Tom Wingfield, is very similar to Williams himself. For most of his life, Williams felt guilty about leaving his mentally ill sister on her own, to nearly die from a botched lobotomy. In the play, Tom feels as if he is betraying his sister by leaving home, just like his father did.

Some critics have thought that Tom is a homosexual (just as Williams was). Tom is a writer working a crappy job in a shoe factory. Which Williams