The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is one of my favorite works of literature. In fact, I remember being completely blown away the first time I read it. That being said, here are some discussion questions for The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams:

1. This play is written in an unrealistic style. There are pictures and sayings that are supposed to be projected behind the actors onstage, and background music is written into the stage directions. Why do you think Williams makes such an effort to keep the audience aware of the presentation aspects of this work? Is Williams specifically trying to avoid a realist approach? If so, do you think a realistic approach would give more weight to Menagerie?

2. Williams has Tom, narrate Menagerie does the theatrical device of a narrator help or hinder the action in the play?

3. Tom states in his 0pening speech, "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." What does that mean? Is Williams indicating that truth about life is easier to learn through allegory? If so is that true? What allegories have helped you understand truth?

4. Tom also states that this is a "memory play" and as such the things seen are not as they precisely happened, but as they are remembered. If that is the case, why is the play so depressing? Do our memories make the past happier or more depressing? Why would Tom's memories of the events depicted in the play be worse than they actually were?

5. The Wingfield family lives in dreams. How are each of the Wingfields' dreams different, and at the same time how do each of their dreams lead them to the same place?

6. Amanda is caught in a past that never existed, as she tells stories of her youth. Is nostalgia, heightened as it is by Amanda, a damning force in our lives, or can it be an effective motivator for the future? What is it for Amanda.

7. Laura is lost in a world of imagination, how is her world different than the world Amanda has constructed for herself? Is it more/less damning?

8. Tom is lost in a world of adventure and poetry that does not exist, but which eventually compels him to leave his home and family, how can deferred dreams destroy relationships and our lives? Clearly, we need ambition, we need dreams to move forward in our lives, without risktakers we would not make it to where we are, so what is the difference between the Wingfield's whose dreams ultimately destroy themselves, and those whose dreams compel them to greater heights?

9. Why is it important that Laura is portrayed as unique, with the symbolism of the glass unicorn and "blue roses"? Is Williams making a statement about society's treatment of those who are different? Would Laura have been happier if she had been more like everyone else, just as she tries to say the unicorn was happier after he lost his horn? Laura's uniqueness brings her sorrow, but Amanda's attempts to integrate Laura into society through secretarial school, suitors, etc. force Laura into a deeper sorrow, is Williams stating that in our present society that there really is no place where those who are truly unique can be happy because they are either ostracized or they are forced to conform?

10. It is often said that The Glass Menagerie is an autobiographical play. If that is the case, how does it change your view of Tom and his reasons for remembering his life as depicted in the play.