the study guide

The Glass Menagerie
Study Guide
By Kelsey Brown
Table of Content
Tennessee Williams… pg.3 The Glass Menagerie… pg.5
•  Stage Play… pg.6
•  Movie… pg.7
Characters… pg.8
Themes… pg. 11
Tennessee and His Plays… pg. 13
Director’s Concept… pg.15
Works Cited… pg. 17
Tennessee Williams
•  Born March 26, 1911 in
Columbus, Mississippi .
•  His name was Thomas
Lanier Williams III, later
changed to Tennessee .
•  Enrolled into University of
Missouri for Journalism.
•  Moved to New Orleans at
age 28.
•  Died February 25, 1983.
The Glass
menagerie
Stage play and movie
Stage Play
•  The Glass Menagerie was first produced as a stage play
March 31st, 1944 in Chicago.
•  The play s script was published in 1945 and then
performed on Broadway.
•  The Glass Menagerie performed on Broadway this past
year starring Zachary Quinto •  The Glass Menagerie won awards such as •  The Sidney Howard Memorial Award
•  The Donaldson Award
•  New York Drama Critics’ Circle award
Movie
•  The script was first turned into
a movie in 1950 starring Arthur
Kennedy as Tom
•  In 1973 the movie was re-made
starring Katharine Hepburn as
Amanda and Sam Waterston as Tom
•  The movie was again made in 1987
starring John Malkovich as Tom
Characters
•  Amanda Wingfield - Mother of Tom and Laura
Wingfield. A southern belle in her time, Amanda now
raises her grown children alone. Her husband
abandoned her alone in St. Louis with the kids. She is
devoted to her children to a point of overbearing
them. She longs to enjoy the youth she once had with
her children but the longing has pushed them away.
•  Tom Wingfield- Youngest of the two
Wingfield children, works at a warehouse
to pay for his family’s expenses. A writer
and a poet, Tom has a longing for
something more than their small
apartment life in St. Louis. •  Laura Wingfield- Tom’s older sister, is very
shy. Shy enough to warrant an almost mental
fragility. During illnesses she had in high school,
Laura now walks with a limp. She prefers to
isolate herself in the family apartment with her
glass figurines.
•  Jim O Connor- An old high school
acquaintance of Laura’s and a coworker of
Tom’s down at the warehouse. He hopes to
one day shine again like he did in high
school and become a man of worth .
Themes
•  Difficulty Accepting Reality: The characters cannot
overcome the difficulties of their lives. They try to withdraw
into their private illusions. •  The Impossible Escape: Each character desires to get out of
where they are in their lives. Amanda wants to go back to the
old south. Laura wants to go into the world of her
menagerie. Jim wants to become a big CEO in some big city
company. Tom wants to just get away but doesn’t want to be
like his father and leave the ones he loves behind.
•  The Power of Memory: The play is set as a memory of
Tom’s. It is Tom telling the story of his family all from
memory. The family keeps trying to relive a time that was
their best in the past: Laura in high school before her
pleurosis, Amanda in her days of Southern youth, Tom
before he was the care taker of his family.
Tennessee and his plays
The reflection of his family
•  Tom- Tennessee •  Tennessee had diphtheria for two years at the age of 5. His
legs were paralyzed for the whole time of his illness. This
inspired Laura’s limp.
•  Tennessee collected the royal cards in decks so that he could
hold court while he was bed ridden. Just like the menagerie set
Laura has.
•  Laura- Rose (Tennessee’s Sister)
•  His sister’s name gave him the nick name for Laura between her and
Jim.
•  Was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 27. She was then
confined to a mental institution. •  Their parents signed off on a prefrontal lobotomy which failed,
leaving her in a vegetable state for the rest of her life
•  Amanda- Edwina (Tennessee s Mother) •  Edwina was left to take care of the children by herself most of the
time while Tennessee’s father was off at work or drunk in bars.
Director s Concept
Shattered glass, broken but transparent, reflecting rainbows
as light filters through the fractured places. We in our human
searching, each long for relationships and to belong but often
strive to fill through escapism. Laura’s glass menagerie provides
a sense of security, control and beauty which she does not
experience day to day. She is much like her precious unicorn
forever kept within glass, misunderstood and unique as the horn
on this magnificent, imagined animal, reaching to be seen and
loved.
Work Cited
. N.p.. Web. 31 Mar 2014.
<http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/1226502>.
. N.p.. Web. 31 Mar 2014.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/menagerie/themes.html>.
. N.p.. Web. 31 Mar 2014.
Tennesse Williams, , and Tennesse Williams. N.d. 0. n.p
ACU Theatre G;ass Menagerie Photo shoot
Britannica, . N.p.. Web. 31 Mar 2014.
<http://www.biography.com/people/tennessee-williams-9532952>.
N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 31 Mar 2014.
N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 31 Mar 2014.