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Analysis of “the Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams

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Tennessee Williams’s play “The Glass Menagerie” tells about the disappointment that life has brought to the Wingfield family. The characters of this play are people whose dreams and life expectations have been shattered by the cruel reality. This disappointment breeds unrest and dissatisfaction in them, they feel trapped in their lives and are seeking for escape. In this extract there is a mix of registers. Moreover, the registers differ even within the speech of individual characters. While Laura and Amanda are speaking exclusively in formal style, Tom and Jim speak mostly informally; however the two men manage to change the register of their speech several times. Through different features of the characters’ speech, the author reveals their psychological state and intentions, for example, Laura’s feeling of embarrassment and Amanda’s pretence of being a real lady and her intention to give her daughter away to a rich and noble man. The idiolect and qualities of the characters are revealed with the help of phonetic, grammatical, and lexical stylistic devices. In order to achieve an effect of natural speech, the author has used a lot of dashes that represent the gaps and pauses in the speech. They bring out characters’ emotions, for example, Laura’s nervousness and anxiety: “How - how do you do?” We can feel also Jim’s confusion while speaking to Amanda: “[…] no – no – thank you – […]” These dashes also reveal one’s unwillingness to talk about certain issues, for example, Tom’s avoidance of speaking about his sister: “Laura is - terribly shy girl.” As well as bringing out characters’ state of mind, dashes accentuate the statement and display the importance that character has attached to it: “Primarily it amounts to – social poise!” All in all, it is clear that the frequent use of dashes greatly contribute to the effect of natural speech. However, not only dashes

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