study guide - Manitoba Theatre Centre

STUDY GUIDE
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
generously supported by
February 13 – March 8, 2014
S T R O N G E R C O M M U N I T I E S T O G E T H E R TM
This guide compiled by George Buri for MTC, January 2014.
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Presents
BY
Tennessee Williams
Director - Steven Schipper
Set and Costume Design - Charlotte Dean
Lighting Design - Hugh Conacher
Composer - Marc Desormeaux
Video Designer - Deco Dawson
Assistant Director - Michelle Boulet
Apprentice Director - Kelly Jenken
Stage Manager - Margaret Brook
Assistant Stage Manager - Michael Duggan
Apprentice Stage Manager - Matthew Lagacé
THE CAST (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Laura Wingfield – Andrea del Campo
Amanda Wingfield – Kelli Fox
Tom Wingfield – Ryan James Miller
The Gentleman Caller – Tim Ziegler
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THEATRE ETIQUETTE
“The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.” – Arthur Miller
Arrive Early: Latecomers may not be admitted to a performance. Please ensure you arrive with enough
time to find your seat before the performance starts.
Cell Phones and Other Electronic Devices: Please TURN OFF your cell phones/iPods/gaming
systems/cameras. We have seen an increase in texting, surfing, and gaming during performances, which
is very distracting for the performers and other audience members. The use of cameras and recording
devices is strictly prohibited.
Talking During the Performance: You can be heard (even when whispering!) by the actors onstage and
the audience around you. Disruptive patrons will be removed from the theatre. Please wait to share
your thoughts and opinions with others until after the performance.
Food/Drinks: Food and drinks are not allowed in the theatre. Where there is an intermission,
concessions may be open for purchase of snacks and drinks. There is complimentary water in the lobby.
Dress: There is no dress code at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, but we respectfully request that
patrons refrain from wearing hats in the theatre. We also strive to be a scent-free environment, and
thank all patrons for their cooperation.
Leaving During the Performance: If an audience member leaves the theatre during a performance, they
will be readmitted at the discretion of our Front of House staff. Should they be readmitted, they will not
be ushered back to their original seat, but placed in a vacant seat at the back of the house.
Being Asked to Leave: The theatre staff has, and will exercise, the right to ask any member of the
audience to leave the performance if that person is being disruptive. Inappropriate and disruptive
behaviour includes, but is not limited to: talking in the audience; using electronic devices, cameras, laser
pointers, or other light- or sound-emitting devices; and/or deliberately interfering with an actor or the
performance (tripping, throwing items on or near the stage, etc.).
Talkbacks: All Tuesday evening and weekday matinee performances at MTC feature a talkback with
members of the cast following the show. While watching the performance, make a mental note of
questions to ask the actors. Questions can be about the story, the interpretation, life in the theatre, etc.
Enjoy the show: Laugh, applaud, cheer and respond to the performance appropriately. Make sure to
thank all the artists for their hard work with applause during the curtain call.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams III, was born in Columbus, Mississippi on March 26, 1911. His
parents both came from Southern families. His father, Cornelius, was proud, domineering, blunt and
hot-tempered. His mother, on the other hand, was a gentle, sensitive, and puritanical daughter of an
Episcopalian minister. His parents’ marriage was not a happy one. His father was a traveling salesman
for a shoe company and was away most of the time. The family lived with Tennessee's maternal
grandparents. Tennessee was very close to his sister Rose and they both received great affection from
their mother. As a child Tennessee contracted diphtheria which left him with partially paralyzed legs for
a time. His mother proved to be very over-protective of him and Tennessee created and lived in an
imaginary world.
At the age of eight, Tennessee’s world was turned upside-down when his father was made Sales
Manager of the International Shoe Company and the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Tennessee and
Rose never seemed to get over this uprooting of the family;
they moved from apartment to apartment and hated the
city. Much of this upbringing is reflected in The Glass
Menagerie. Tennessee's schooling was painful. He was
teased for his accent and his delicate manner. When a
second son was born to the family in 1919, Tennessee was
sent to live with his grandparents for a year. This was a
happy period for Tennessee and he developed an interest in
literature and read the works of Dickens, Scott, and
Shakespeare.
Tennessee returned home to discover that his sister was
unable to adjust emotionally as she matured. As she
withdrew into herself, their relationship got weaker and
weaker. Tennessee retreated into writing. At fourteen he
earned forty dollars for an article entitled “Can A Good Wife
Be A Good Sport?”. He graduated from high school in 1929
and enrolled in Journalism at the University of Missouri but
he quickly lost interest in school work. In Tennessee's third
year his father took him out of university and enrolled him in a business school, and then gave him a job
at the shoe factory warehouse at a salary of sixty-five dollars a month. This occurred in 1932, one of the
worst years of the depression. Tennessee hated these years, and this experience is reflected in The Glass
Menagerie. Tennessee sought refuge from his own depression in his writing and, like Tom in The Glass
Menagerie, he attended movies to escape his reality.
With the help of his grandmother, Tennessee Williams returned to school at the Washington University
of St. Louis. His play-going and reading increased and he was greatly influenced by Lorca and Chekhov.
Unable to cope further with his family situation, Tennessee enrolled at the University of Iowa where he
continued to write drama. He received his BA in 1937. His career as a writer took off when he got an
agent in New York and moved there. One of his short stories was published and he received a
Rockefeller grant of one thousand dollars. His play Battle of Angels was produced in Boston. It was not a
success but it marked the beginning of Tennessee Williams’ career in professional theatre. His first big
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success was with The Glass Menagerie in 1944. It had a long run on Broadway, and won the New York
Drama Critics’ Circle Award as best play. His next Broadway success, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947),
secured his reputation as a great playwright. Between 1948 and 1959, six of his plays were performed
on Broadway: Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real (1953), Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). By the end of the 1950s
Tennessee had earned two Pulitzer Prizes, four New York Drama Critic's Circle Awards, three Donaldson
Awards, and a coveted Tony Award.
Tennessee Williams reached world-wide audiences when The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named
Desire were made into motion pictures. Later plays that were adapted into film or television included
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Rose Tattoo, The Night of the Iguana, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Summer and
Smoke.
Success began to elude Tennessee Williams as the 1970s and 1980s brought theatrical failures. He
suffered a great deal of personal turmoil and the quality of his work suffered greatly as a result of
increased drug and alcohol consumption. He died on February 25, 1983 in New York at the age of 71,
leaving a lasting theatrical legacy as one of the great writers of the twentieth century.
His plays continue to be performed on the stages of the world. They are studied in schools and
universities. His greatest gift as a playwright is revealed in his characters, in their intensity and
individuality. His plays present a balance between the realistic, the impressionistic, and the romantic,
and create a theatrical experience for the audience that has seldom been equaled. All of these
characteristics are found in The Glass Menagerie, a poetic, beautiful, and meaningful play.
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
In his autobiography, Tennessee Williams stated that his goal in writing is to, “capture the constantly
evanescent quality of existence.” He says that he succeeded in only a few of his plays. The Glass
Menagerie is definitely one of them. Evanescence can be related to something in memory, something
that is quickly fading or disappearing, something beautiful and fragile that is gone all too soon. That
fleeting fragility is both the glory and pain of life. It is perfectly what he captures in The Glass
Menagerie.
The Glass Menagerie is the most autobiographical of his plays, alluding very closely to his own life.
Williams, whose real name is Thomas, is Tom, his mother, Amanda, and his sister Rose, Laura. Elements
of the character of Laura could also be found in Tennessee (his introverted nature, and his obsession
with writing which was much like Laura's obsession with her animals).
The play itself is a reworking of a Tennessee Williams short story, “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” (1943) and a
screenplay, The Gentlemen Caller. The short story is also written from the point of view of narrator Tom
Wingfield, and many of the soliloquies in the play come directly from the short story. Many elements of
the short story are left out of the play, but they generally have the same plot and characters.
The play is set around the year 1937 at the time of the Great Depression. Tom, the narrator, is in the
present, relating past incidents through memory. Hence, Williams refers to it as a “memory” play.
Williams had many ideas about staging the play. In his production notes he gives the play’s director a
wide range of “freedom of convention” because it is a memory play. In order to capture “the
evanescent” quality of existence, the material is “tenuous” and “delicate” and requires subtlety of
direction. Music, lighting and the use of the scrim can play a large role in achieving this. In being
unrealistic, the play can aim closer to the truth. Using unconventional techniques should provide a more
penetrating look at things as they really are. In his production notes Williams states that “expressionism
and all other unconventional techniques in drama have only one valid aim, and that is a closer approach
to truth.” The audience member, therefore, should not expect to see the straight realistic play with
authentic furniture and props, but a symbolic play, in which suggestion plays a much bigger role.
Movement, lighting, and music play a heightened role in achieving the desired mood and atmosphere.
There is a single recurring tune which Williams calls “The Glass Menagerie” and it adds emotional
emphasis. It is like “circus” music that is coming from some distance
away. Williams describes it as “the lightest, most delicate music in the
world and perhaps the saddest” which “expresses the surface vivacity of
life, with the underlying strain of immutable and inexpressible sorrow.”
The music evokes “nostalgia” which is the “first condition of the play.” In
keeping with the idea of a “memory” play, the lighting is not realistic. The
stage is dim and scenes are often viewed as through the fog of memory.
The scrim can be used to suggest this. Shafts of lights are focused on
certain areas or actors. Laura has her own distinct pool of light separating
her from the others. Into this expressionistic atmosphere of setting,
music and light, the characters are thrust and the play unfolds. Audiences
will see how MTC’s production of The Glass Menagerie interprets these
suggestions.
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PLOT
“Yes. I have tricks in my pocket. I have things up my sleeve. But, I am
the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the
appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant guise of illusion.”
– Tom in The Glass Menagerie
Tom, the narrator and protagonist introduces the play to the audience as a memory play which is based
on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. The play consists of eight scenes which
are flashbacks to Tom's life. The plot centers on Amanda's relationship with Tom and her attempts to
find a husband for his sister, Laura. Act One, which includes scenes 1-6, build the action towards the
coming of “the gentlemen caller.” In Act Two, scenes 7 and 8, the “gentlemen caller” arrives and we
build to the climax and denouement of the play.
In scene one, Tom enters dressed as a merchant sailor and addresses the audience. He will give us
“truth in the pleasant guise of illusion.” He sets the time as the thirties during the Great Depression
“when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind.” He explains that
this is a memory play and, therefore, sentimental not realistic. We also learn that “memory” is “set to
music.” He introduces the characters and tells the audience that he has a poet's weakness for symbols.
In this scene we see Amanda, Laura and Tom at the table. Amanda constantly nags Tom about chewing
his food properly and we get the idea that this nagging is continual. In the remainder of the scene
Amanda reminisces about her “gentlemen callers.”
In scene two, we see Amanda scolding Laura for the deceit of pretending she has been attending
Rubicam's Business College. We find out that Laura was sick at the college, ran out and never returned.
The scene also reveals that Laura once liked a boy in high school and his name was Jim. At this point the
idea of finding a gentlemen caller for Laura takes hold on Amanda.
In scene three, Amanda thrusts into action, making preparations. She is on the phone to try to sell
subscriptions to The Homemaker's Companion in order to have the money to feather the nest for the
gentlemen caller. She berates Tom about reading D.H. Lawrence, not treating his job seriously enough,
and going to the movies. She can't believe he is always at the movies. Tom feeds her paranoia by telling
her he is going to “opium dens” and that he is a member of the “Hogan” gang and a hired assassin. The
confrontation with Amanda blows up when Tom
calls her an “ugly babbling old witch” and walks out.
Tom returns late at night in scene four, and loses his
key on the fire escape. Laura lets him in and he tells
her he was at the movies. In addition to a Garbo
picture, a Mickey Mouse cartoon, a travelogue and
a newsreel, there was a big stage show featuring
Malvolio the Magician who performed the coffin
trick. Tom says, “We nailed him into a coffin and he
got out without removing one nail. There is a trick
that would come in handy for me – get me out of
this 2 by 4 situation!”
At the start of scene five, the next morning, after Laura is sent out for groceries, Tom and Amanda make
up, Amanda tells him not to be a drunkard, and not to gulp his coffee because “drinking too-hot liquids
makes cancer of the stomach.” When Amanda asks Tom why he goes to the movies so much, Tom tells
Amanda he goes to the movies because he likes adventure and adventure is something he does not get
at work. He says, “Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given
much play at the warehouse.” The conversation turns to Laura and her future and the need to make
“plans and provisions” for her. Amanda tells Tom that “as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care
of her, married, a home of her own, independent - why then you'll be free to go wherever you please, on
land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows you.” She asks Tom to find some nice young man at the
warehouse to introduce to Laura and, after much imploring, Tom agrees.
In scene six, in the early evening after dinner, Tom goes out to the fire escape landing and hears music
across the alley from the Paradise Dance Hall. Amanda comes out and makes a wish on the “silver
slipper of the moon” and Tom tells her that a gentlemen caller is coming. He has asked a “nice young
man” to come to dinner. We learn that his name is James D. O' Conner and that he is a shipping clerk in
the warehouse. As Amanda is madly making plans for this occasion, Laura comes out and Amanda asks
her to make a wish on “little silver slipper” of the moon. She tells her to wish for “happiness! And just a
little bit of good fortune!” Thus, Act One ends in great anticipation.
The start of Act Two (scene seven) introduces the character of Jim as Tom brings him home to supper.
Laura trembles nervously as Amanda tries to make her appear attractive. Amanda herself wears a
“girlish frock” and carries a bunch of jonquils. When Laura hears Tom's friend is called Jim O' Connor,
possibly the boy she knew in high school, she says she could not come to the table. She is forced to
answer the door and her worst fears are realized. At first Jim does not recognize Laura but does
comment on the fact that her hands are cold. Laura retreats while Tom and Jim talk of Jim's future plans,
the warehouse, and the movies. Amanda enters like a Southern belle, tells them that “sister” (Laura) is
in charge of dinner. When Laura enters, it is obvious that she is ill and she retires to the sofa while Tom,
Jim and Amanda sit down to dinner in the dining room.
As the final scene begins Jim toasts “the old South” and the lights go out. Tom had neglected to pay the
electric bill. The rest of the scene is played in candlelight. As Amanda and Tom work in the kitchen, Jim
joins Laura in the living room and brings her a glass of dandelion wine. Sitting on the floor with
candlelight and wine, Jim tells Laura about the Century of Progress exhibition he attended in Chicago. It
is Laura who alludes to the past when she asks Jim if he had kept up his singing. He then recognizes her
as “Blue Roses” from high school. They reminisce about high school and look at pictures in the high
school yearbook. Jim tells her that “people are not so dreadful
when you know them.” As they talk Jim builds up Laura's
confidence. He tells her that her principle trouble is her “lack of
confidence” in herself and that her little physical defect is
“hardly noticeable” and “magnified a thousand times” by her
imagination. He tells her to think of herself as being “superior”
in some way. Laura shows Jim her collection of glass animals
(her glass menagerie), and points out her favorite one, the
unicorn, which is different from all the others. As music drifts in
from the Paradise Dance Hall, Jim coaxes her up to dance and
shows her how. As they are dancing he knocks the unicorn over
and its horn falls off. Laura says, “Now he's like all the other
horses.” Like the unicorn losing its horn, Laura coming out of her
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shell is like all the normal girls. She says she will imagine that the unicorn had an operation which would
make him less “freakish.” Jim tells Laura that she is “pretty” and that she is unlike other people “one
times one.” The high point comes when Jim tells Laura:
I happened to notice you had this inferiority complex that keeps you
from feeling comfortable with people. Somebody ought to build your
confidence up — way up! And make you proud instead of shy and turning
away and — blushing… Somebody ought to – kiss you, Laura!”
They kiss and the music ends. In this climatic scene, Laura sheds her fears and is normal. However, as
the scene continues Jim reveals that he is engaged and won't be seeing Laura again. When he leaves
and Amanda discovers that Jim is engaged she blames Tom. Tom goes to the movies and Laura retreats
back to her world of the glass animals.
As the narrator again, Tom reveals that he left shortly after and never returned. He bids farewell to his
mother and sister and tells Laura to blow out the candles as the play ends.
CHARACTERS
Tom, Amanda, and Laura are three characters lost in their own illusions. Tom seeks escape from the dull
drudgery of the shoe factory and the incessant badgering of his mother by going to the movies and
vicariously experiencing a life of romance and adventure. His pursuit of writing and his dream of joining
the Merchant Marine are also an attempt to escape the reality of his existence. He is lost in his dreams
of adventure and consequently, does not succeed in the real world. He is in a trap. He has to act
without pity to escape. He wants to perform the coffin trick of escaping without removing a nail (hurting
Laura and Amanda), but it is clear that, though he has left physically, he can't leave emotionally.
The real world has ceased to exist for Laura altogether. She is paralyzed by fear. She throws up at
Business College and is afraid to go back. When she finds out the supper guest is Jim, the boy she had a
crush on in high school, she can't bear to come to the table for supper. Her minor physical crippling is
nothing compared to her emotional crippling. She is lost in her world of the glass menagerie. She is like
the little glass animals she cares for. They are very fragile and easily broken and Laura is emotionally
fragile and unable to cope with the real world. She has one moment of normalcy with Jim but soon
retreats into her imaginary world.
Amanda, a woman of great vitality, is lost in the world of the past. She clings to her youth, a time and
place where she was the center of the attention of many “gentlemen callers.” She still thinks of herself
as a Southern belle and refers to Laura as “sister.” She is overprotective of her children and tries to run
their lives. Williams says her life is “paranoia.” She thinks Tom knew Jim was engaged and fears Tom is
up to some shady activities when he is at the movies. She is afraid of the future and of what will
happen to her and Laura. As the world closes in on her she retreats to her world of imagined past
glories.
Jim, the gentlemen caller, is described by Williams as a “nice, ordinary, young man.” While he has not
been as successful as he would like to have been, he is grounded in reality. He brings Laura out of her
emotional shyness but he can't be the person she needs to keep her out. He is the most well-adjusted
character in the play. Tom, as narrator, refers to him as the symbol of “the long-delayed but always
expected something that we live for.”
Finally, there is the character of the father. The photograph with his smiling face is ever present in the
play. He is the “telephone man” who “fell in love with long-distance” who succeeded in escaping and
abandoning his family. Unlike Tom, he seems to have been able to escape both physically and
emotionally.
Tom has presented many truths in the “guise of reality” in The Glass Menagerie. That is why the play is a
classic and is as popular today as the day it first appeared.
GLOSSARY
Beleaguered: Besieged. In describing his high school days Jim says he was “beleaguered by females.”
Benjamin Franklin: (1706-1790) One of the founding fathers of
the United States of America. Franklin was a leading author,
printer, satirist, statesmen, inventor, scientist, and diplomat. He is
famous, among other things, for his theories regarding electricity
and the invention of the lightning rod. When the lights go out,
Amanda asks if it was “Benjamin Franklin who tied a key to a
kite?”
Berchtesgaden: Location of Hitler's Eagle’s Nest alpine lodge.
Tom's reference to events in Europe before WWII.
Celotex interior: Building board or paneling. Tom asks Amanda if
she thinks he is in love with his workplace at the Continental
Shoemakers: “You think I want to spend fifty-five years down
there in that - celotex interior! With flourescent-tubes!” He does
not want to spend his life in such a sterile environment.
Chamberlain: Author Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) was a
British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minster of the
United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Best known for his
failed “appeasement policy” towards Nazi Germany and Hitler,
which culminated in the signing of the Munich Agreement of
1938. When referring to adventure and change that were
imminent for his generation, Tom suggests change is “Suspended
in the mist over Berchtesgaden, caught in the folds of
Chamberlain's umbrella--.” It is like the world is about to explode.
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Christian Martyr: A person who is killed for following Christianity,
through stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of
torture. The first martyr was St. Stephen. Amanda uses this
expression when she is trying to sell subscriptions to describe
women who have sinus and kidney conditions, over-dramatizing
her concern for them.
Cotillion: A type of patterned social dance that originated in
France in the 18th Century. When greeting Jim in her Southern
belle dress, Amanda tells him she led the cotillion in that dress
years ago.
D.A.R.: Daughters of the American Revolution. A non-profit group
working to promote historical preservation and patriotism in the
United States. Amanda is a member and is on her way to be
“inducted” into her office when she stops off at Rubicam's
Business College.
Dizzy Dean: Jerome Herman Dean (1910-1974) was a pitcher for
the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a brash and colourful personality
and was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame. While reading the Post Dispatch Jim refers to Dizzy Dean
being on his bad behaviour again.
Edison: Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed
many devices that affected life around the world, including the phonograph player, the motion picture
camera, and a long-lasting electric light bulb. When the lights go out Amanda says, “We'll just have to
spend the remainder of the evening in the nineteenth century, before Mr. Edison made the Mazda
lamp.”
Emissary: A person sent on a special mission. Tom describes Jim as “an emissary from a world of reality.”
Episcopalian: Part of the communion of Anglican Churches. It describes itself as being Protestant, yet
Catholic. It is also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Amanda is
telling one of her colourful stories to Jim and talks about a Church burning down because “the
Episcopalians gave card parties.”
Etruscan: A civilization of ancient Italy known for figurative sculpture in
terracotta and cast bronze. Referenced by Tom in the play.
Fiasco: Something that is a complete failure. Tom uses the word to
describe Laura's experience at Rubicam's Business College.
Gable: Clark Gable (1901-1960) was a major Hollywood actor, nicknamed
“The King”. Best known for playing Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind.
Clark Gable won an Oscar for It Happened One Night. Tom says that when
a war occurs adventure becomes available to all the people, it is
“everybody’s dish, not only Gable’s.”
Guernica: A Basque town bombed by the Nazis during the Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939). The event was immortalized in a painting by Pablo
Picasso (1881-1973). Tom says, “In Spain there was Guernica. Here there
were disturbances of labor, sometimes pretty violent, in otherwise
peaceful cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis...”
Horsey set on Long Island: Wealthy Americans who dabble in equestrian
events and live in large mansions. Part of Amanda's sales pitch for The
Companion which features a new book by Bessie Mae Hopper “about the
horsey set on Long Island.” Williams is poking fun at Amanda's literary
tastes.
Jonquils: A bulbous flowering plant, a species of daffodil. When reminiscing about the past Amanda
refers to the young men gathering jonquils for her.
Mr. Lawrence: D.H. Lawrence was the author of Lady Chatterley's Lover, and Sons and Lovers. He is
considered to be one of the great writers of the 20th Century. Amanda castigates Tom for reading his
work. “I took that horrible novel back to the Library - yes! That hideous book by that insane Mr.
Lawrence.” Williams is making fun of Amanda's literary tastes and indirectly criticizing the general
ignorance of Americans when it comes to the arts and literature.
Mastication: Refers to chewing food. Amanda criticizes Tom for not chewing properly.
Mazda Lamp: A trademark name registered by General Electric in 1909 for electric light bulbs.
Midas Touch: Midas was the legendary king of Phrygia. The legend says that he
was granted the power to change whatever he touched into gold.
Milk Fund: The milk fund was founded during the Great Depression in 1932. It
was a charity designed to raise money to buy milk for needy children. Tom tells
Laura that there was a collection for the milk fund when he attended the movies.
Paragon: A model of excellence or perfection. Amanda refers to Jim as a paragon.
Pleurosis: A form of pleurisy which is an infection of the membrane that
surrounds the lung. In high school, when Laura tells Jim she had pleurosis, he
thinks she said blue roses and that is why he called her “blue roses.”
The Pirates of Penzance: An operetta by the famous duo of Gilbert and Sullivan. Jim had the lead in the
high school production that was fondly remembered by Laura.
Propaganda: A form of communication aimed at influencing one's attitude and behaviour. Propaganda
can be partly true and partly false. When Laura tells Jim that the personal section of the high school
yearbook says he was engaged he called it propaganda.
Quinine: A drug used in the treatment of malaria, lupus and arthritis. Describing a fever in her youth,
Amanda says she took quinine.
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Spartan endurance: The people of the ancient Greek city of Sparta were known for being strong, selfdisciplined, austere people. Amanda tells Tom that life calls for Spartan endurance, suggesting that Tom
must be tough to go through life because life is not easy.
Supercilious: To be supercilious is to be indifferent or haughty. Amanda tells Tom not to be supercilious
with her when she is trying to discuss life and the future with him.
Victrola: An early record-playing device. Originally the term applied only to the horn phonographs made
by Victor. Laura is obsessed with her glass animals and with playing the Victrola.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Using heavy cardboard or wood, create a scale model set for a proscenium arch stage presentation of
The Glass Menagerie. Present your model to the class. (Drama, English, Art)
Research the art of costume design for the stage or interview a costume designer from a professional
company in your area. Sketch a set of costumes that would be suitable for The Glass Menagerie.
Present a sketch for Amanda, Laura, Tom and Jim. Present your sketches to the class. Explain what
scene the costume is designed for and what thought processes and research went into your design.
(Drama, Art, English)
Rehearse and perform one of the following scenes from The Glass Menagerie. Remember to consider
the physical, vocal, and emotional requirements for each character you portray. Also think about your
character's center of gravity. Use costumes that suggest the character you are playing if possible.
Present your scene to the class. (English, Drama)
a) Scene one: Tom, Amanda, Laura
b) Scene two: Amanda and Laura
c) Scene four: Tom and Laura
Many have seen The Glass Menagerie as Williams' criticism of the society in which he lives. In what way
can the play be seen as an allegory in which the characters reflect the insecurities and frustrations of
man in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? Discuss with direct reference to The Glass Menagerie.
Write your ideas in a short essay or an outline and present in small group discussion. (English)
It seems that all the characters in The Glass Menagerie are afraid of something. Do you agree? In a
short essay, show how at least two characters appear to be crippled by their fear. (English)
“I have a weakness for symbols,” says Tom. How does Williams use symbols in the play? Identify four
symbols and discuss their meaning and function. (English)
Attend a production of the play or view a film version of the play. Report on the following: (English,
Drama)
a) How do the sets, lighting and music contribute to the mood of the play?
b) In what way did the actors confirm your expectations of the characters they portrayed?
Account for any differences.
Amanda tells Tom, “You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions.” How many characters in The Glass
Menagerie live in a dream? What does each dream represent for each character? To what extent do we
all live in a dream? How can you apply this to your own life? (For personal writing and discussion in
English or Drama.)
Would you agree with the assessment that Laura suffers from an inferiority complex and that Amanda is
paranoiac? Why? Debate or discuss with direct reference to The Glass Menagerie. (Psychology, English)
The Glass Menagerie is set in the Great Depression of the 1930s. What specific allusions to the Great
Depression are made in the play? Create a magazine or newspaper in a 1930s style with articles and
illustrations and photos inspired by references in the play. (English, Social Studies, Art, Journalism)
13
RESOURCES USED
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie, Dramatists Play Service Inc.: New York, 1948
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie, New Directions Publishing Corporation: Toronto, 1988
Williams, Tennessee. Memoirs, Bantam Books: New York, 1976
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