Q. ''The Glass Menagerie' has been criticised for its sentimentality and praised for its tenderness.' Discuss.
'Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, not realistic.' Tennessee Williams expresses and accepts the sentimentality of this play at the very start but also provides a justification that it is a play based on the memory of a man who leaves his family and is now haunted by his guilt. Thus sentiment is to be expected, but Williams does not make a hero out of this man, he does not shade his memory in such way that he looks like the only victim. Instead Williams presents Tom as both a victim and a culprit accepting his wrong doings and not exhibiting his hardships to form an excuse but to simply tell his story and make peace with his past.
This play is set during the peak of America's Great Depression. We see the youth drowning in sins and entertainment to keep themselves from facing the reality of the war that is approaching. Thus we know that it is a sentimental time, a time when people are giving up dreams and trying their best to make ends meet. When the audience consider the situation and the circumstances of the Wingfield family, they can not help but feel sentiment towards them. In these difficult times their father left them, Laura is crippled and unable to find independence through both education and marriage. Although Amanda tries to provide for her family she is unable to, as most of the people she calls to market a magazine hang up on her, furthermore she idealises her past to the point that she is stuck in it and halts her children from moving on as well, although the audience do feel pity towards her as she is a rejected woman raising two children on her own she is not met with sentiment due to her boisterous, dramatic nature that ensues humour. The audience eventually get tired of her repetitions of the past and overly girlish behaviour while expecting her to take the mature role of a mother. Her character brings laughter and balances the dark atmosphere giving moments of relief that only make the tragedy more prominent.
Williams introduces Tom as the breadwinner of the family. The audience see him work a shoe factory when he dreams of getting away and becoming a poet. The fact that he stays for the sake of his sister brings out the tenderness of this play. We see how when Tom accidentally crushes Laura's glass menagerie, Amanda walks out on both her children, forming a parallel with their father, while Tom helps Laura pick up the broken pieces and tidy the mess. We see how when he comes back late at night he picks up a scarf for Laura on the way and confides in her although it is done in a sarcastic tone, we later also see how Laura tries to fix the bond between Amanda and Tom, how she is the mediator. We get the sense that the Wingfields are just a normal family trying to get through difficult times and we see the tender sibling bond Laura and Tom share. It invites sympathy yet the realism keeps it safe from the undeserved pity.
Williams has presented Laura as the main character. She is the object of everyones attention as the stage directions (lights, music) revolve around her, so it is not unexpected that her shy, childlike, crippled persona would attract the sentiments of the audience. As we know, Tom regrets leaving her we see her like 'a frightened deer' and feel sympathy towards her yet in the scene with Jim we find an unexpected cheerfulness in her character. We see the close relationship form and we can feel the love between them, but when Jim leaves her our hopes are crushed as well and we again sympathise with Laura. The play seems to have become tragic, but it is no longer sentimental because Laura is shown to give up one of her precious glass menageries, she finally opens up to someone and at the end smilies at her mother in comfort. Thus the audience is given hope that while the ending is ambiguous perhaps the future holds something better for Laura. We can also not blame Jim, we feel sympathy towards him, he gives priority towards his promise to Betty rather than giving priority to his feelings for Laura. We see that the characters are held back by chains of societal norms and only Tom escapes these chains in the play.
As a memory play, it is meant to be sentimental, but when you look at how dreams are shattered by realities that exist even in today's time, this play becomes something beyond an object of sentiment, it becomes a reminder and a reliever. It tells you it's okay to look ahead and look back at the past only to learn from it. In today's post-modern era this play can not be considered a sentimental play but one that depicts reality well and is not only meant to evoke emotion amongst the audience but also to open their eyes towards society's injustices and the people struggling around them.
YOU ARE READING
English Literature 9695
Non-FictionThis is a compilation of all the essays and notes I wrote while I was in ALevels. It must be noted that not all of of these are A* material (though none goes lower than a grade B) so they aren't meant to be copy pasted for your school assignments. U...
