"THE GLASS MENAGERIE & A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Jim O'Connor also chases a dream. He tries to sell Tom "a bill of goods" about success, for he's already bought one that says if you work hard, take the right courses, show self-assurance, and believe in the future of capitalism you'll make it big. But Jim has made little progress since high school, and with the war coming on, the path to success is likely to be detoured.

The personal failure of all the characters in the play in some ways parallels the larger social failure of America. The Depression turned millions of American dreams into nightmares. And the only way out was no better. It took a catastrophic war to release the country from poverty and fear.

^^^^^^^^^^THE GLASS MENAGERIE: STYLE

Almost from the outset you know that The Glass Menagerie is going to be a poetic play. Your first clue is Tom's playful use of words. Tom announces, "He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." He also uses metaphors ("the middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind"), and his language is often alliterative as in "fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille...." But in case you missed all that, Tom declares outright, "I have a poet's weakness for symbols."

It is not only Tom who endows the play with poetry. Amanda also has a gift for words. She's especially fond of colorful, figurative language. You'll find some in almost all her lengthy speeches, as in her lecture to Laura about the hopelessness of the future (Scene Two): "-stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room... like birdlike women without any nest--eating the crust of humility...."

Because Tennessee Williams had his own mother in mind when he created Amanda, he tried to make her sound like a dignified Southern lady. (Her lines ought to be spoken with a Southern drawl.) Nothing tasteless or vulgar passes her lips. She often uses the sort of flowery language you'd expect to hear on a veranda in the Old South: "liquid refreshment" for drink, "position" instead of job, and "handsome appearance" rather than good looks.

In addition, Amanda wants to impose her taste in words on her children. She rejects Tom's books as "filth." Also, because she thinks the word "cripple" is offensive, she won't permit Laura to use it. Of course Amanda may deny the word because she refuses to allow Laura to pity herself.

As you study the play some of the symbols, such as Laura's glass menagerie, will virtually explain themselves. You can't miss the similarity between the delicate glass animals and Laura's fragility. On the other hand, you'll have to dig a little to find symbolic meaning in, say, the breaking of the unicorn. At first Jim is a unique hero. But he turns out to be quite ordinary, after all, just as the broken unicorn resembles an ordinary horse. Similarly, during the evening of Jim's visit Laura emerges briefly from her make-believe world into the world of real people leading ordinary lives.

Symbols come in a variety of forms in The Glass Menagerie. You can readily assign symbolic importance to objects (e.g., candles, rainbows, typewriter chart) and to actions (Laura's tripping on the fire escape, Tom's moviegoing). Tom describes Jim O'Connor as a symbolic character who represents deferred hopes for the future. Many of the images projected on the screen suggest deeper meanings, too. Take, for example, "Jolly Roger" (Tom's desire for adventure) and "Annunciation" (the news that Jim is coming to dinner). Perhaps the whole play, acted out behind transparent screens and dimly lit, symbolizes the workings of memory. As you search through the text for symbols you're not likely to come up empty handed. But guard against turning everything into a symbol. You need to support your interpretations with solid evidence from the play.

^^^^^^^^^^THE GLASS MENAGERIE: POINT OF VIEW

Tom is both a character in the play and the play's narrator. At the very beginning and at several points along the way Tom, as narrator, stands on the fire escape outside the Wingfields' apartment and addresses you directly. He tells you about a period of time--about three or four years ago--when he broke away from his mother and sister and became a wanderer. He also sets the scene, establishes the mood, comments on the world situation, and gives you background information.

You know how hard it sometimes is to remember details of events that happened only yesterday? Tom knows, too, that you can't always depend on your memory. So rather than trying to re-create precisely what took place several years ago, he presents the story unrealistically. At dinner, for example, the characters don't use real dishes and utensils. They pretend to be eating. And if the actors are good, the illusion is quite satisfactory.

"Memory," the playwright tells you in his stage directions, "takes a lot of poetic license" because it is "seated predominantly in the heart." Consider Williams' words a fair warning that what you see on stage is only approximately what happened in reality. Every event has been filtered by time and by Tom's feelings. Amanda's nagging is supposed to irritate you, just as it irritates Tom. If at any time you find Laura particularly lovely or especially helpless, consider those impressions to be Tom's, too. In short, Tom is your emotional guide through the play.

You may notice that Tom's vision extends even beyond what he actually saw or experienced. Some scenes include only Laura and Amanda or Jim O'Connor. Since Tom can't know exactly what happened when he wasn't there, he invents dialogue and action and shows you what might have occurred. Is that a flaw in the play?

When people look back to the past, do they recall the good things more readily than the bad? Does Tom? Or do his memories seem more bitter than sweet? Or are his recollections flavored by both? Tom often speaks ironically. Note how he describes Amanda on the phone in Scene Three. Is Tom's humor biting? Or do you find it gentle, touched by nostalgia? Tom calls the play "sentimental," which suggests Tennessee Williams' intentions.

^^^^^^^^^^THE GLASS MENAGERIE: FORM AND STRUCTURE

The play has seven scenes. The first four take place over a few days' time during the winter season. The remaining scenes occur on two successive evenings during the following spring. Since the play contains no formal "acts," a director can prescribe an intermission at any time. How would you divide the play if you were directing a performance? In formulating your answer take into account the passage of time, climactic moments in the play, and the development of the characters. Why do you suppose Williams chose not to tell you where to break the action?

Williams attempted to unify the several episodes by devising a series of projected images and words on a screen, but most directors don't bother using the technique. The story, they feel, can stand unaided, despite repeated jumps between present and past.

Tom, the narrator, exists in the present. He talks directly to the audience at the start of the play, at the openings of Scenes Three and Six, and again at the end. Also, he steps briefly into the narrator's shoes part way through Scene Five.

The rest of the time Tom is a character in the play. Even at those times, however, your focus is shifted to the past. Amanda, for example, frequently recalls her life as a young girl, and Laura and Jim refer to their high school days, which ended six years before.

Because the play comes from Tom's memory, time loses its usual sequence and structure in The Glass Menagerie. In your memory, thoughts can bounce at will between the recent and distant past. That may explain the play's flow of events. During most of the play Tom's memory is fastened to the period just before he leaves home. Each episode in the play helps to explain why in the end Tom had no choice but to escape. If you examine his closing speech, however, you'll see whether or not he truly escaped.

^^^^^^^^^^THE GLASS MENAGERIE: SCENE ONE

Tennessee Williams gives you a lengthy set of stage directions at the start. He wants you to see the run-down tenement where the Wingfield family lives, and he wants to create a mood that combines dinginess, desperation and depression. After you are familiar with the play, return to the opening scene and reexamine Williams' choice of details: the fire escape, the alley, the blown-up photo of smiling Mr. Wingfield, and the typewriter keyboard chart. All, you will see, play important roles somewhere in The Glass Menagerie.

When Tom steps out on the fire escape to talk to the audience, he tells you the social background of the play (the 1930's). He introduces himself and the play's other characters, including his father. Although Mr. Wingfield shows up only in his photograph, he's an influential character in the play. Later on you'll see why.

By the end of Tom's opening speech you know a great deal about him. From his appearance you know he is a merchant sailor. You know, too, that he has a way with words and a "poet's weakness for symbols." His first words--"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket"--alert you to his playful disposition. He's going to trick you by giving you truth in the guise of illusion. That is, he's going to tell you a true story but make it seem unreal. Illusions, you'll soon see, pile up one after the other as the play proceeds.