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The Glass Menagerie

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Submitted By christie2470
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Play of Choice

I chose to read The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams as my play of choice. I wanted to read another play by Williams because I was really impressed with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
As in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, this story centers on a rather dysfunctional family, the Winfield’s. Amanda Wingfield is a single mother to her two children Tom and Laura. That concept is rather ahead of its time, as the play takes place in 1937.
Tom is the narrator of the play which is referred to as a “memory” play, as it comes from his memory and perspective. I liked the fact that the play had a narrator. It gave more depth to his character and I feel that any time something is narrated you receive more information. It is also much easier to read a play that is narrated because less is left to your imagination.
Our textbook had very good information on set design for this play. It included pictures from an actual production and also gave an artists’ rendering of the Broadway set design. The entire play is set in the tenement apartment of the Wingfields’ which was nice. Because the entire play was set there, it gave me plenty of time to imagine the details of the set. I began to form pictures in my mind of the apartment and the fire escape.
I will call Laura Wingfield the main character of the play. It is her that the story seems to revolve around. The character of Laura is one that I believe any audience can have empathy for. She is a “cripple”, a term that her mother despises. She is also a nervous type that would today more than likely be diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder. What I really think I related to with this character is the fact that she is so fragile. I think that any audience can relate to that, as we all have some type of disability and we are all fragile at times. She is a very likeable character that I found myself worrying about. I really

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