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The Glass Menagerie Analysis

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The Glass Menagerie is a memory play written by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. It was one of the most famous play which features Wingfield family caught between their yearnings and reality.
The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. The play takes place in the Wingfield apartment. The Wingfields exist in a separate world, Tom lives in his dreams, Amanda lives in the past and Laura lives in her world of glass animals. Tom works at a shoe warehouse to support his family but is frustrated by his job and aspires to be a poet. He struggles to write for he is sleep-deprived and annoyed. Yet, he escapes from reality through nightly excursions, apparently to the movies but also to local bars. Tom feels both obligated towards yet burdened by his family and longs to escape.
He is fed up of his family as Amanda keeps on nagging him to find a suitable gentleman caller for his sister, Laura. He aspires to be a poet but is burdened with family responsibilities which constantly hold him back from fulfilling his dreams.
Laura has a fantasy world of her own. She is least bothered to indulge herself in finding a man for herself. She busies herself caring for her "glass menagerie," a collection of delicate little glass animals. They are only friends. As the title of the play informs us, the glass menagerie, or

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