Abstract This paper discusses the character of AmandaWingfield in Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie". It shows Amanda as an embattled mother who, along with her two children, lives in a world of illusions.
From the Paper "Amanda Wingfield described by Preston Fambrough as an embattled mother is a woman desperately anxious to ensure that her daughter Laura will ensnare a suitable husband and that her son Tom will provide the support that Amanda needs for herself and for her family. The entire Wingfield family lives in a world of illusions or hopes. The thesis to be addressed herein is that in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie there are many different personalities living in ..."
Abstract This paper discusses two literary works and focuses on the hopes and wishes of the mother in each story for her family. The paper compares and contrasts AmandaWingfield from Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie" and Linda Loman from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", in terms of how they wish their families to be treated. The paper contends that both women are passive-aggressive toward their children, refusing to see or accept them as they are. The paper explains that as a result, both women damage and eventually destroy, their much-cherished relationships with those they love most.
From the Paper " Linda Loman, Willy's long-suffering wife in Death of a Salesman, although less out of touch than Amanda, is unable to confront Willy, the most important person in her life, about the depth of his misery, or his plan to commit suicide. When Linda finds evidence in the garage of Willy's plan, instead of insisting that Willy level with her, and then should seek outside help, Linda merely confides Willy's suicide plan to Biff, who is as emotionally helpless as his father. At the beginning, Linda tells Willy, when he feels confused and exhausted, "But you didn't rest your mind. Your mind is overactive and the mind is what counts" (Miller, Death of a Salesman, p. 1674). Here, Linda is on the right track, but only briefly. Soon afterward, she fails to note Willy's obviously exhausted and confused mental state when he says "Biff is a lazy bum" and then, a few lines later: "There's one thing about Biff-he's not lazy" (p. 1674)."
Abstract Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" exposes the conflicts between the old Southern values and the brute force of the new, Northern values. Some of those conflicts in society - with reference to women's place in America in the 1940s - are reviewed in this paper, in order to present a psychosocial background into the characters AmandaWingfield and her troubled daughter, Laura Wingfield. It also looks at how Williams painted literary portraits of his female characters with the brushstrokes from his own family experiences (his sister was schizophrenic) and from the society that he observed all around him and about which he held strong opinions.
From the Paper "In the interest of offering further perspective on why Williams portrayed female characters in The Glass Menagerie the way he did, it is worth noting that when Williams was just five years of age, he suffered from a paralytic disease, causing him to be paralyzed. At seven, he was diagnosed with diphtheria. His mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, approached his difficulties during this period in his life by encouraging him to dream up stories and read. But Edwina is also reported to have been a pushy, sometimes smothering woman by a biographer writing for ThinkQuest (http://library.thinkquest.org). Indeed, his mother did not approve of him "...playing with other boys" and his father made him quit the University of Missouri to work in the shoe business. "
Abstract This paper proposes an effective new approach to teaching students in Grades 4 to 6 multiplication, using Cindy Neuschwander's, book "Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream", which features the concept of multiplication as a shorter way to find an answer than counting. The paper explains that the book's approach involves teaching the children why one needs to learn the multiplication tables, since children are often preoccupied with the reasons they are asked to do things. The paper also explains that the book places emphasis on applying math to everyday real-life situations that children can relate to. To conclude, the paper maintains that "Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream" will help to motivate children towards learning multiplication by making it into something fun.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
A Three-Part Lesson Plan
Exploration
Overview
Conclusion
From the Paper "Children in Grades 4 to 6 are more given to questioning and this can become a device in postponing work sessions, in asking why something is undertaken. Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream has appealing illustrations reinforcing the idea of a world of many particularities. Using the example above, if a city neighbourhood has 200 televisions in about 200 dwellings but the class estimates that there are perhaps 50 to 75 dogs, what does this tell us about how people live?
"Flash cards indicating equations of 5 x 6, for instance, or 7 x 2, should be incorporated into the day at more than one point. Most children can attend to a focused lesson but will welcome the card's reappearance, later on, as a very old method of 'saturation' that also helps to break up the day. The teacher makes the reminder that times tables are learned a little at a time beyond formal efforts to memorize tables in printed form, till students do not need to think each time but realize they can recall more equations. The teacher should state that no one learns them perfectly, this human touch of stating which table she may have to pause and think through each time helping the task of memorization seem less daunting."
Abstract The paper shows that in "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams, symbolism is used to describe the character development of Laura Wingfield. It describes how the use of symbolism in this play reveals deeper aspects of Laura's persona and her relationships with the outside world. The symbols that describe Laura's development through "The Glass Menagerie" include the fire escape, the glass menagerie and the unicorn.
From the Paper "Fire escapes are typically used as a means of escaping danger such as a fire. That is, people use the fire escape as a way out of a dangerous or unwanted situation. In contrast, Laura used the fire escape as a means of connecting to the outside world. Because Laura is an extremely shy girl, she is more comfortable staying at home attentively caring for her glass menagerie and playing her victrola. By staying in her safe world, she is able to deny the realities of the outer world such as marriage or career. For example, Jim, the gentleman caller, symbolizes the outside world. It is symbolic that Laura does not want to open the door when Jim arrives. She does not want the outside world coming into the safe world she created in her apartment. She even becomes sick with the thought of opening the door and allowing Jim into her home."
Abstract This paper is a literary analysis of how life imitates art in "The Glass Menagerie". The author examines how the character of Tom Wingfield greatly resembled playwright Tennessee Williams' life, and the Wingfields' family life was just as difficult as Williams' upbringing.
From the Paper "Anatole France, French literary critic and author of the late 19th and 20th centuries, once said, "A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself." In his one-act drama, "The Glass Menagerie", Tennessee Williams was indeed drawing from an autobiographical well and it is written about his own family struggles."
Tags: drama, play, tennessee, williams, tom, amanda, laura, wingfield, rose
Abstract The paper discusses the play 1944 play "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams whose plot draws loosely on autobiographical material from the writer's own life. The paper shows how the play describes the main character (Tom Wingfield)'s anguished struggle between the call of duty towards his mother (AmandaWingfield) and sister (Laura Wingfield) and his desire to ?live his own life.? Tom is also the "narrator" in the play who often moves in and out of the action. The paper discusses how, apart from the use of a narrator, "The Glass Menagerie" is notable for the use of music, screen projections and lighting effects that helped to create a dream-like effect that is appropriate for a ?memory play.? This was unusual for the time and challenged the naturalistic convention of plays of the period.
From the Paper "The play is divided into seven acts and opens in the run-down St. Louis apartment of the family sometime in 1937 with the narrator Tom reflecting on his past memory. By speaking directly to the audience through the narrator the playwright makes a deliberate departure from the naturalistic convention of plays at the time. The essential characteristics of all the characters in the play are established quickly at the beginning with the use of this technique. Amanda is a loving but nagging and meddlesome mother who annoys Tom by her demanding ways. She is also apt to live in the past and far removed from the present realities of her life as she often recalls the days when she was a young Southern belle and a single evening in her past when seventeen gentlemen suitors came calling on her."
Abstract This paper discusses the failure of the 'American Dream' in the play 'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennessee Williams.The paper discusses how the Wingfield family tends to blur reality preferring to live an illusion. According to the paper, this leaves the Wingfield family with continuous feelings of rejection, frustration and desperation.
From the Paper "Initially, from Tom's end, he showed no conscious effort to redeem himself from the fact that will always be poor and underprivileged, in the midst of the affluent lives of other people in the society they lived in. However, eventually as the play comes to a close, he realized that he cannot always live his life based on simple aspirations and hopes fueled by his movie-watching. Interestingly, Tom's fascination with movies eventually became the catalyst for him to realize that life was harshly and radically different from the movies. The sheltered lives of people in movies are hardly what Tom and his family had experienced, a realization that made him hopeless and desperate, but also motivated to take action. "
Tags: Tom, Amanda, Laura, life, family, movies, escape
Abstract This paper examines the four characters: AmandaWingfield, the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother and play narrator and Jim the gentleman caller in the above play by Tennessee Williams.
From the Paper This paper examines the four characters: Amanda Wingfield, the mother, Laura the daughter, Tom the brother and play narrator and Jim the gentleman caller in the above play by Tennessee Williams.
Abstract The author of this paper analyzes how Tennessee Williams, in his play, "The Glass Menagerie", portrays the fragile psyches of its characters. The paper shows how the characters are an arrangement of tiny, delicate glass figurines whose essence of life can be shattered very easily.
From the Paper "All the characters in the play in some way seek an escape: Tom"movies and the marines, Laura"solace in her glass animals, Amanda?from reality; even Jim seeks escape from the responsibilities of his upcoming marriage. The father has already left, abandoning his family to their fate. The play is also replete with symbolism: The apartment in a big city is a symbol for the loneliness that each character carries around."
Abstract This paper discusses the story behind the play, "The Glass Menagerie". The focus is on explaining the symbols used in the play. Some of the symbols explained are the fire escape, the use of irony, the glass menagerie, the search for a man by both Laura and Amanda. The paper concludes by suggesting that the family in this play is dysfunctional and explains the reasons for this suggestion.
From the Paper "Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds her children of "one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain" when she received seventeen gentlemen callers (Williams 32). Amanda refuses to acknowledge that her daughter is handicapped and refers to her disability as "a little defect (that is) hardly noticeable" (Williams 45). Only for brief moments does Amanda ever admit that her daughter is "crippled" but then quickly reverts back into her state of denial. Amanda doesn't see anything in realistic terms. She believes that the gentleman caller, Jim, is going to be the one man who will rescue Laura, even though she has never seen or spoken to him at this point. Again, she is wrapped up in her own fantasies and delusions about men, who must act as saviors to all young women."
Tags:wingfield, woman, figurines, family, depression, tom, fragility, glass, music, jim
Abstract This paper examines how Tennessee Williams's 1944 classic, "The Glass Menagerie", can be considered a study in multiple-level metaphors. It attempts to demonstrate how a collection of glass ornaments is an extrinsic comparison between the lives of the characters in the play, the family dynamic shown in the play, and also the interplay between the audience, who are merely passive observers, and the actors. It looks at how, in ?The Glass Menagerie,? we trace a few slices in the lives of three individuals with different characters and yet who share the commonality of fragility; this tenuous thread weaves around the characters and can be easily shattered from within and from the outside.
From the Paper "The Glass Menagerie is about several slices in the lives of a family that lives in a rundown apartment in St. Louis. The family consists of an overbearing but concerned mother, Amanda Wingfield; a son, Tom, who is the sole breadwinner of the family; and, his sister Laura, who is possessed of a fragile physical constitution and an even fragile psyche. It is not difficult to imagine that the lives of this family resemble fragile pieces of glass arranged in a menagerie. The family is poor. The father abandoned the family several years ago and fled to Mexico. His only correspondence from Mexico was a postcard that had no return address."
Abstract This paper examines six different plays are used to show how children are victimized by their parents. The plays are "Oedipus the King", "The Glass Menagerie," "Antigone", "Hamlet", "A Doll's House" and "M Butterfly".
From the Paper "In the six dramas we have read there is a common theme with respect to the children in each work. From "Oedipus" and "Antigone" to "Hamlet" and "The Glass Menagerie each of the plays shows the suffering of children that stems..."
Tags: Oedipus, Antigone, M Butterfly, AmandaWingfield, Hamlet, Nora Helmer
Abstract The paper examines Tennessee Williams' style of writing in his play ''The Glass Menagerie" together with his characterization, use of symbolism and theatrical effects. It analyzes the main theme of appearance versus reality and how the play can be considered an autobiography of Williams' life.
From the Paper "The second male character in the play is Jim O'Conner, Laura's gentleman caller. Although he only appears in the last scene, his role is pivotel.He is a link between Laura and the outside society .She used to have a crush on him during high-school but she is afraid to see him again due to her extreme shyness, which is shown in scene seven where she is sick and unable to sit with her mother, brother and Jim on the dinner table. Unfortunately, a little bit after Laura becomes comfortable with him, he announces his engagement and her dreams are shattered, leaving Laura more devastated and more alienated from society."
Abstract This paper reviews one of Tennessee Williams' most memorable plays, 'The Glass Menagerie'. The paper reports that Williams could not help but to embed elements of his personal life in this play. The paper further discusses how, told through the eyes of narrator ,Tom, the story of the Wingfields remarkably resembles Williams' own life.
From the Paper "The glass menagerie symbolizes not only Laura's fragility but that of the entire Wingfield family. Amanda may be the strongest Wingfield but Tom and Laura's mother is also vulnerable. She demonstrates an acute sense of financial insecurity and must feign confidence and strength in spite of having been abandoned by the men in her life. The Glass Menagerie is an inadvertently feminist play for several reasons. First, Amanda encourages Laura's occupational growth and self-sufficiency. Although she was raised in a traditional Southern family, Amanda does not view marriage as a woman's only source of personal satisfaction. Williams suggests that women in fact should not rely on men, based on the playwright's own experiences with his distant father and his personal tendencies toward fantasy and escapism. Tom, like Tennessee, cannot contend with the responsibilities and pressures placed up on him by traditional family life and the American Dream."
Tags: traditional, Southern, social, norms, mental, illness, amanda, laura, tom
