The Glass Menagerie Scenes 1 - 2
The play begins with a revelation of the Wingfield apartment, the lights draw attention to a typewriter, several well-polished glass animals, the large portrait of a man, and the fire escape landing that leads into the apartment. The Wingfields belong to the lower middle class of America, as indicated by their alley-facing apartment which is described to be located in one of those large and featureless buildings that populate the poorer sections of urban areas. Tom Wingfield, the narrator and one of the major characters of the play enters the apartment and explains that the play which follows is a memory play, based on his memory. He is dressed in the attire of a merchant sailor, and he smokes a cigarette as he addresses the audience. The play is set in the 1930s, during the time of the Great Depression, and makes special mention of the labor differences that had affected major American cities like Chicago. He introduces us to the main characters of the play, Amanda Wingfield, his mother, Laura Wingfield, his sister, and the portrait of his father, who had abandoned their family.
Tom takes his place at the table as the play begins, and his mother begins to lightly chide him about the manner of his dining. Tom grows frustrated with her unending stream of criticism and storms out of the dining room and onto the fire escape to smoke a cigarette. Laura attempts to prevent any further unpleasantness between her family members by trying to bring out the dessert. Amanda refuses to allow her to do so and asks her to rest instead for her gentleman callers. Laura doesn’t believe she will have any, but the conversation of gentlemen callers visibly transforms Amanda. She fondly talks about her youth in Blue Mountain and cites a specific weekend when she had received more than seventeen gentleman callers. Her children seem to have heard this account several times but indulge her by listening to her attentively yet again. Amanda talks about all the young men of repute that had visited her with the hope of courting her and specifically mentions their material state as well as all the provisions they had made for their widows. She then returns to the kitchen to clean the dishes, and yet again refuses Laura’s offer of help. She asks Laura to practice her typing instead and to remain fresh for her gentleman callers, yet again, Laura tells her that she is not expecting any callers. Laura tells Tom that their mother is worried that Laura will end up as an old maid.
Laura is washing and polishing her collection of delicate glass animals when she hears her mother ascending to their apartment through the fire escape. She quickly ceases fussing over her glass menagerie and pretends to be working on her skills at the typewriter. Amanda is visibly upset and does not answer her daughter directly as she questions her about where she’s been. Suddenly, Amanda goes over to the material that Laura had been using for her study and begins to tear it one after the other. Laura is quite taken aback at her mother’s strange behavior and asks her to explain in a faint voice. Amanda finally reveals that she had just visited Laura’s business college, where she had been surprised to learn that Laura had stopped attending the classes within the first week of the course after she had become sick in class and had consequently been carried out of class. Laura doesn’t visibly express any fear or shock at this revelation and instead turns to the victrola in the apartment. Amanda questions Laura about where she had been pretending to be for the past six weeks. Laura explains that she had been walking about in the parks, and Amanda interrupts her as she can’t believe that Laura would walk around outside in the cold with her thin coat just to fool her mother about the business college. Laura explains that she hadn’t wanted to disappoint her mother. Amanda is severely disappointed in Laura’s wasting 50 dollars on tuition, but she is also worried about what will become of Laura in the future. She does not want Laura to spend all her days in the house fussing over glass trinkets and playing the records that her father left them.
She recollects her energy and decides that she is now going to bend all her energy into making sure that Laura makes a worthy match for herself and can be protected through the institute of marriage. Laura does not entertain such dreams, and she points out her disability, but her mother dismisses this notion vehemently. Laura had liked a boy in high school, Jim, who had a talent for singing. She fondly remembered that Jim had called her “Blue Roses” because he had misheard what she had said to him at school. Laura thinks that Jim is probably married off by now, and does not have any notions of marriage. On the other hand, Amanda believes that just like her father, Laura is gifted with a charm that would make any man fall for her.
Analysis
This is a memory play, crafted by a character within the play, separate from the actual author. This separation that exists between the narrator, and the writer, is mostly just cosmetic. Tom, the narrator of the play, seems to possess all the powers of the author, as he seems to create and direct the play as its being performed, exemplified through his control of the music, and lighting of the theatre. The author, Tennessee Williams shared several similarities with Tom, and that extended even to the name, for the author had also been called Tom before he changed it.
Tom describes the setting of the play at the beginning and mentions Guernica, which perhaps indicates both the bombing of the city and the painting that Picasso made. The time following the depression was a difficult time for a lot of people in America, and thus the predicaments of the Wingfields are commonplace even if they are rather tragic. These first few scenes of the play are filled with symbols, chief among them being the fire escape, typewriter, portrait, and finally the glass menagerie. These symbols develop the themes of the play as it progresses, and chief among these is the theme of false realities. Most characters of the play, except for the late-to-arrive Gentleman caller, inhabit a world of fantasy rather than the actual world of facts. The most deluded character in this respect is most certainly, Amanda Wingfield, the dramatic matriarch of this family.
From her very first appearance in the play, it is evident that Amanda does not truly inhabit the apartment, but rather spends most of her time reminiscing about her life as a young girl at Blue Mountain. Her endless repetition of the day when she had received 17 gentlemen callers tires her children, and yet they indulge her by allowing her to repeat the story whenever they like. Although, Amanda is certainly not alone in this respect. Laura is unable to withstand the reality of the world, and this is most accurately depicted in her experience at the business school. She lives in the imagined reality of the Glass Menagerie, rather than the Winfield apartment. Lastly, all three Wingfields are unable to come to terms with the abandonment of the patriarch and continue to accord him a great space in their lives through their ways. This is represented through the large portrait of the man that is prominently displayed on stage, and often illuminated with sharp stage lighting.
