1156 Williams, Tennessee
theater of realistic conventions” and revitalize the
American stage.
The critical aspect of expressionism for this play
is that it springs from Tom’s memory. In his opening
monologue, Tom comments on the unconventional
use of light and music in the play, remarking, “Being
a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental,
it is not realistic. In memory everything seems to
happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the
wings.” This music, vaguely reminiscent of a carnival
tune, was written specifically for the play and recurs
throughout the drama. The light highlights action
that is in “contradistinction to what is the apparent
center,” drawing attention to parts of Tom’s memory
that may otherwise have faded. Such stage tech-
niques did, in fact, invigorate the American stage,
influencing generations of playwrights to come.
But it is not in the stage technique alone that
memory is important. The four characters in the play
are consumed by the past, failed expectations, and an
inability to move forward as a result. Jim, a minor
character, was a high-school superstar who excelled
in basketball, speech, and drama. However, in the
present, several years after graduating, Jim has been
unable to continue the kind of success he achieved
in high school, and he basks in the memory of his
former glory, even encouraging people who knew him
then to tell others about his high-school exploits.
Tom, who wishes to escape a stultified life in St.
Louis, is haunted by the memory of his father, who
unmercifully abandoned his wife and two children
well before the play’s current action. The young man
faces a dilemma: In order to have a life of his own,
he must follow in his father’s footsteps and aban-
don the two women in his life. Once he leaves, the
memory of his father is replaced by the memory of
his sister. As he makes his way in the world, travel-
ing incessantly from city to city, he cannot escape
the memory of his sister, and his profound guilt
overwhelms whatever happiness he may otherwise
find in his escape.
Like her son, Amanda carries burdens, and they
are related to memory. Amanda cannot forget her
past on Blue Mountain, a time when the vestiges
of southern grace and charm still mattered, a time
when she lorded it over gentleman callers like a
queen. However, in choosing the man who ulti-
mately abandons her family, Amanda fell for style
over substance, and her poor decision haunts her
adult life, as she is fundamentally unequipped to
raise her children to live in the modern world.
Finally, the tragedy of memory is seen through
Laura. Williams brilliantly uses the revolutionary
stage technique with his characterization of Laura,
a physically and emotionally crippled young woman
who lives in a world of fantasy wherein she collects
glass animals and takes daily trips to the zoo. Because
she is quiet by nature, Williams uses light to make
the audience aware of her presence, which is also a
constant, subtle reminder to the audience of Tom’s
guilt over his abandonment of this young woman
who cannot function outside her home. Laura also
plays music throughout the play, records left by her
father, making his absence forever felt. Furthermore,
Laura’s memory of Jim as a high-school hero whom
she loved from afar is shattered when her opportu-
nity for him to love her back is ruined by the news
of his engagement to a woman named Betty. Laura’s
one shot at love is so disastrous that it destroys any
hope of her achieving a relationship of any kind, as
the memory of the gentleman caller who rejected
her is too powerful to overcome.
Overwhelmingly sad, The Glass Menagerie
remains a play audiences recognize as a touchstone
of theatrical innovation, predicated on Williams’s
creation of the “memory play.” Yet it is not Tom’s
memory alone that serves as the focal point. With
careful scrutiny, one finds that each character is fro-
zen in time because of his or her memory, and the
inability to move forward is caused by the inability
to overcome failed dreams.
Chris BellreSponSIbILIty in The Glass Menagerie
Responsibility is a crucial theme in Tennessee Wil-
liams’s The Glass Menagerie. Each major character
in the play struggles with personal desires that clash
with his or her duties to others.
For instance, Laura, a young woman in her mid-
20s, seeks escape from the world outside the dingy
apartment she shares with her mother, Amanda, and
brother, Tom, in an impoverished neighborhood in
St. Louis, Missouri. Amanda recognizes that at her
age, Laura must cease living in a world in which her