STUDY GUIDE – THE GLASS MENAGERIE: Edwards, Theatre 2

SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS - The Glass Menagerie

Scene 1

1. Identify Amanda Wingfield, Laura Wingfield and Tom Wingfield.

2. Where does the play take place?

3. How does Scene One indicate that Amanda is overbearing and sometimes cruel yet clearly loves her children?

Scene Two

1. Why did Laura quit business college?

2. What was Laura actually doing during the hours she was supposed to be in school?

3. How do you think Amanda knows ". . . what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position"?

4. Why did Jim call Laura "Blue Roses"?

5. Amanda realizes that Laura will not be able to cope with any kind of career. What is her solution for Laura's future?

Scene Three

1. Tom opens the scene as the narrator explaining that there is a specter and a hope hovering over the apartment. What is it?

2. How is Amanda preparing for this gentleman caller?

3. What ignited the argument between Tom and Amanda?

4. Why is Tom mad?

5. Why doesn't Amanda believe Tom goes to the movies?

6. The pieces of the glass menagerie breaking accidentally are symbolic of Laura. Explain how.

Scene Four

1. Who is in a "nailed up coffin" and who found a way out of one?

2. Laura leaves the apartment once and slips on the fire escape. What is Williams symbolically telling us?

3. Tom and Amanda disagree over what the causes of human actions should be. What does Tom think? What does Amanda think?

4. What does Amanda ask of Tom?

Scene Five

1. Amanda is concerned about what aspects of the gentleman caller's character?

2. Why does Tom try to warn Amanda that Laura is not like other girls and not to count on too much from her when Jim calls?

3. What can we gather about Amanda's husband's character? Even though we do not see him in the play, we learn some things about him, things which reflect particularly in Tom and Amanda.

Scene Six

1. Amanda makes both of these statements: "All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and menexpect them to be." "No girl can do worse than put herself at the mercy of a handsomeappearance." Explain Amanda's double standard.

2. Give examples showing that Amanda does not understand Laura's feelings of fear.

3. What does Laura do after she opens the door for Tom and Jim?

4. What are Tom's plans for the future?

5. How does Amanda act towards Jim?

Scene Seven

1. Where is Laura?

2. Jim sits on the floor by Laura and talks to her. How does she react?

3. What is the significance of Laura's unicorn?

4. Why does Jim ask Laura to dance?

5. Jim has made Laura feel more normal than she has ever felt. Explain the significance of theunicorn's being broken.

6. Why does Jim kiss Laura?

7. How does Laura react to the kiss?

8. What causes Laura to retreat back into her solitary world?

9. Laura sees Jim as a hero with exceptional capabilities. What is Jim actually?

10. Why does Amanda blame Tom for the evening's failure?

  • THEMES IN THE GLASS MENAGERIE
  • Memory

When Tom Wingfield begins to speak in Scene 1 ofThe Glass Menagerie, one of the first things he tells the audience is, “The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic.” The influence and power of memory is perhaps the central theme in the play and influences all the characters, who are all, in some way, trapped by memory. Tom is haunted by the memory of deserting his sister. Amanda can’t move past the memory of living a better life in Blue Mountain where it seemed possible that she could have married one of her seventeen gentleman callers. Laura allows herself to become lost in phonographrecordsleft by their father, the records themselves holding memories of the past. Even Jim is entangled by the memories of his days as a highschoolhero instead of just another guy working at a factory.

The idea of memory also directly influences how the play is presented. In Scene 1, using production notes and Tom’s introductory speeches, Williams says that the play is not meant to look like reality. There will be music, the lighting won’t be realistic, etc. The theme of memory influences the physical aspects of the play as well as the characters in it.

  • Yearning for / Impossibility of Escape

All of the play’s characters make attempts at escape. The father is the ultimate symbol of escape because of his desertion. Laura continually escapes into a world of fantasy through the glass menagerie and the old phonograph records. Amanda tries to escape her current life by retelling stories of when she was young and life had limitless possibilities. Tom escapes his life and his mind-numbing job by going to the movies and sometimes getting drunk. Even the apartment where they live is something from which they would like to escape, though theireconomic circumstances make this impossible. Notice that when they leave the apartment, they leave down the fire escape.

Even though all of the characters are looking for some type of escape, none of them, with the possible exception of the father, is able completely to achieve it. The entire play is about Tom’s failure at his attempt to escape. Some people read into the end of the play that when Tom asks Laura to blow out her candles, he is finally achieving escape for himself. Think about whether or not you agree and why.

  • Fantasy vs. Reality

In their attempts to escape reality, all of the characters retreat into some kind of fantasy, whether it is films or glass animals. They find a source of comfort and contentment in these fantasy realms that they do not seem to find in reality. Laura especially chooses the world of the unreal over that of the real. While the other characters are able to function in the outside world, Laura’s inability to cope outside of her fantasy world is what makes her a cripple, much more so than her actual physical disability.

  • Duty to Your Family

Many of the actions of the Wingfields are driven by the idea of familial duty. Their present circumstances are a direct result of the father abandoning his duty, leaving Amanda to shoulder the burden of supporting the family. Amanda knows that some day Tom will leave as well, and she feels enormous pressure to make sure Laura will be taken care of. She enlists Tom’s help because it is also his duty to see that his sister is married off to a nice boy. It is the duty of both Amanda and Tom to work for the money that keeps the family afloat. This role of breadwinner is especially hard on Tom because he hates his job, and it keeps him from pursuing the type of life and career he wants. When Tom leaves to join the Merchant Marines, he is abandoning his duty to his mother and sister, and it is this that haunts him.