Name: The Glass Menagerie
ISBN: 9780141190266

Tennessee Williams

Abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield comforts herself with recollections of her earlier, life in Blue Mountain when she was pursued by 'gentleman callers'. Her son Tom, a poet with a job in a warehouse, longs for adventure and escape from his mother's suffocating embrace, while Laura, her daughter, has her glass menagerie and her memories.

The Glass Menagerie

clara

The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart." 

I didn't go to the moon, I went much further - for time is the longest distance between two places. (…) I descended the steps of this fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space. I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches.

A classic of modern drama about three confused family members living in their own world of illusions.

Trever

This really got me. I think it's because of Laura. I kind of related to her.

Jaclyn

Read this for class and I really liked it! So much symbolism!

Jordyn Wassen

I had to read this for English class and it was much better than I thought it was going to be. I didn't know much going into it but I enjoyed the plot and enjoyed reading it. The only problem I had with it was the ending was a bit confusing and I'm still not really sure how it ends. But everything else was great and I loved it.

Lizzy Jensen

I had a tough time with this one. I just didn’t…get it? Could be because I read it and didn’t watch it, but I had a hard time understanding why it’s such an iconic piece of American drama. It was just a…play. I felt like there was so much attention on Tom and Jim and not enough on Amanda and Laura. They are such complex women and I feel like Williams could have dived deeper into that. I just feel like this okay is no longer relevant to us.

Kate Gravelle

This is my favorite play by Tennessee Williams and the first time I’ve re read it since I was in high school.

Laura

Tennessee Williams is probably my favorite playwright, if not one of my favorite writers in general. His family tragedies are gripping and, well, tragic. This play was a masterpiece, and I think I liked it even more than Streetcar. I wish I could see it on Broadway.

Read more like this review on my blog, http://www.bookwormbasics.blogspot.com

Rachel

I love this play, but I hate it because I was that painfully shy girl who lived in her own world and it just felt like I was reading about myself that existed a few years ago, luckily I'm not like that anymore. The characters were great for the story Amanda, Laura and Tom don't seem like people who would come from the same family, but then you see how they interact and see why there is tension. The thing that I didn't like was how over the top descriptive Williams made it, sure it's great for visualizations and understanding the characters, but I would much rather learned about the characters by reading their dialog and actions instead of being told in the beginning who was who and everything about their personality. With that said, I am surprised how there are things that can be interpreted differently by people, usually when the characters are pinned down with straight forward descriptions, there isn't much wiggle room for thought on the plot. Whether or not Tom was selfish, I thought for sure, Williams would either make it clear which way he was, but left it open.

The glass menagerie

Caitlin Berger

Wow, powerful play by a powerful playwright. I really enjoyed reading this, even though it was quite short. I like plays with only a handful of characters, it feels more intimate. I adored the symbolism in all the scenes, in the characters and the writing. Tennessee Williams is just amazing, a genius. I loved how he included images on a screen for every scene, that'd be interesting to see live. 

This edition of the play also contained tons of other things that I didn't really bother to read, but that looked interesting. (Essay, articles, poems, etc.) I just really enjoyed reading the play, it's definitely one that I'd love to see put on. A definite recommendation!

The Glass Menagerie

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