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Theme Of Memory In The Glass Menagerie

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The play The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams has many themes throughout it but one that stuck out the most was “Memory and Past”. After researching Williams life and comparing it to many of the characters in the play, we can see how the play itself was written based off the memory of his personal life. The audience is able to notice how Williams incorporated some of his life into this play therefore making it similar to an autobiographical play. For example, he got the inspiration for Laura, who plays the sister in the play, from his real life sister Rose. In the play Laura has a physical handicap condition in which it causes her to have a bit of a limp. The innovation for this came from the fact that his sister had a mental illness like mentioned in the article written by the Washington Post, “The sister in the play, Laura, has a physical handicap, a limp, which Williams substituted for the mental illness of his real sister, Rose.” At the beginning of the play we also hear how Toms says “The play is memory” which can be interpreted as a memory based of Williams’ memory. Furthermore, Amanda is also very attached to the memories she lived while growing up. She can be described as a person living in the past which is preventing her from going further in her life and succeeding. All of the characters in this play live in some sort of past memory not allowing them to continue with life. These characters are living in their memories and can not let them go. Amanda

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