Let us now talk about a play about family memories. The Wingfield family is presented in The Glass Menagerie, a play by Tennessee Williams.
The family consists of Amanda Wingfield, and her children, Tom and Laura Wingfield. If you are wondering about Mr. Wingfield, he is mentioned only occasionally in the play. He had abandoned Amanda long back.
Amanda had a comfortable youth, but is now struggling to raise her children. She wishes for her children to have the same comforts as her but, her devotion to them almost makes her appear hateful often. Though her son Tom wants to be a poet, he works at a shoe warehouse to support the family. Needless to say, he is frustrated by his job.
Tom feels both obligated and burdened by his family and longs to escape. His nightly excursions to the movies offer him some escape from reality. His sister Laura is mentally fragile; a childhood illness has left her limp and isolated from the rest of the world. No wonder she suffers from an inferiority complex. She creates a world of her own, symbolized by her collection of glass figurines. The name of the play comes from Laura’s collection of glass figurines- The Glass Menagerie.
The Glass Menagerie made the name Tennessee Williams popular in the literary circles of America and the rest of the world. The play has strong autobiographical elements; it features some behaviours of the author, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister.
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