The Glass Mernageria

Victoria Paolisso
Judith Lezotte
ENC 1102
3 Feb. 2011
Laura’s Menagerie
An insight into Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tennessee Williams’ own family, while growing up in Missouri, would give the reader better insight to why he wrote such gloomy and depressing plays. Williams based the characters in his play The Glass Menagerie on his own family. The inspiration for his character Laura Wingfield was Williams’ own real life sister Rose Williams who suffered from Schizophrenia. (Bloom 11) Laura Wingfield, like Rose, isolated herself from the world with her glass animal figurines. Tennessee Williams uses the glass figurines to symbolize the fragility of Laura’s character: her illusions, her solidarity, her differences, and her connections. (Presley, 42) Laura Wingfield, who feels like an outcast because of her limp, lives her life in a world of illusions similar to the illusions experienced by Rose Williams.
In The Glass Menagerie, Laura Wingfield lives with her mother, Amanda Wingfield. After Amanda’s husband left the family, Amanda had the full burden of raising two children (Laura and her son Tom) on her own. Williams’ depiction of Amanda as a strong woman is contrasted by the fragility of her daughter Laura and the poor coping mechanism of her son Tom.
Williams also brilliantly contrasts the difference between the weakness of siblings Laura and Tom. Like Laura Wingfield, her brother Tom also lives in a fantasy world. Tom escapes reality on a nightly basis with alcohol and entertainment. Laura, however, isolates herself in her home from any contact and bonds herself to a Glass Menagerie. The Glass Menagerie, for Laura, gave her a sense of normalcy and purpose.
Amanda Wingfield, while strong and independent, lacks empathy towards her children and
becomes quickly frustrated with their behavior. For example, in Scene 6, Amanda yells at Laura, “I’m sick too --- of your nonsense! Why can’t you and your brother be normal people ?!!” (Williams 1639)...