The glass menagerie

write an  analysis essay about the play “The glass menagerie” by William Tennessee . and some instructions to follow are:

1. The thesis statement should be the last sentence of the introduction.
2. The essay should be more analysis and avoid too much summary.
3. Use supporting evidence from the book such as quotations with analysis and explanation.
4. The essay should be in the present tense not the past.
5. Avoid repetitive information in the paragraphs.
6. Do not leave too much space between each paragraph.

The person Reliant wrote this but did not finish this

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION:

This page contains the reading guide for The Glass Menagerie

INSTRUCTIONS:

Choose one of the 5 subject areas (expressionism, imagery and symbols, characters, Amanda, or themes) and then 1 of the subtopics.
Write a 1-page (250-300 words) well-developed essay in response to the question you have chosen.
As part of your title, make clear the subject/question you have selected.
On the day after this paper is due, you will be randomly assigned two classmates’ papers to “review.” You are to read the papers and respond to the ideas contained in them. Place your response (comments) in the comment box and/or you can respond directly on the paper.
I.  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Expressionism

Williams’s dramatic expressionism is a departure from photographic realism and from “slice-of-life” drama. His ideal is not portrayal of external reality but the accurate expression of ideas. Comment on the aspects of “dramatic expressionism” evident in the play:
direct presentation of the emotions of characters as a means of expressing dramatic values
unreal atmospheres purposely distorted to convey more emphatically the author’s ideas
use of characters with symbolic or representative names, such as the “Gentleman Caller”
distortion of strict time sequences, as in Tom’s retrospective presentation of events in The Glass Menagerie
episodic structure, such as the seven scenes of The Glass Menagerie, reflecting the perceptions of a contemplative observer.
The use of direct address to the theater audience, to reinforce the impressions made by the events and characters of a play, is a device of dramatic expressionism. Discuss Williams’s use of the device in Tom’s repeated direct addresses to the audience in The Glass Menagerie.
The modern expressionist theater traditionally presents criticism of the world of working men and women, of the dehumanizing aspects of modern industrial and urban life. Comment on such criticism as it appears in The Glass Menagerie.
Discuss the expressionistic use of sound, lighting, and scenery in The Glass Menagerie.
Sound: Scenes in The Glass Menagerie are enveloped or “framed” by musical themes specifically identified with characters and events. In his “Production Notes,” Williams identified his use of  music as “another extra-literary accent in this play,” adding that it “is primarily Laura’s music and therefore comes out most clearly when the play focuses on her.” Discuss the music as a device for evoking associations with Laura.
Lighting: The lighting in The Glass Menagerie is used to create an atmosphere, and it is also used to focus attention on characters. Discuss the use of lighting to convey value judgments about characters and to show their emotions, as with the red lighting used during the argument between Tom and Amanda.
Lighting: In his “Production Notes” for The Glass Menagerie, Williams wrote, “The lighting is not realistic. In keeping with the atmosphere of memory, the stage is dim. Discuss Williams’s use of dim lighting to create an “atmosphere of memory.”
Scenery: Particularly notable is the use of projecting legends and images on a screen, but I don’t want to discuss “projection techniques,” so I added no questions about it here.
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Imagery and Symbols

Discuss the imagery of imprisonment, the use of such terms as “cellular” apartments, in the descriptions at the beginning of the play.
What is the symbolic implication of Laura’s blowing out the candles at the end of the play? Is she extinguishing her last hopes, or is she blowing away her life of illusions? Or is the meaning of her last gesture ambiguous. On what evidence in the text do you base your conclusion?
Laura’s menagerie of glass animals has obvious symbolic significance. Her washing of the animals resembles a purification ritual used to protect against some threat or defilement. Discuss the assertions that the menagerie represents:
Laura’s fragile, other-worldly beauty”
Laura’s immobilized animal or sexual nature”
Laura’s “arrested emotional development”
The unicorn has traditionally been considered to be an emblem of chastity, an animal symbolically associated with virgins. What is the significance of the horn broken from the unicorn in The Glass Menagerie? Does the broken unicorn suggest the breaking of Laura’s dreams, the destruction of her world or the end of her imprisonment, a sign of her escape into the world? Or is the symbol wholly ambiguous?
III. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Characters

Williams’s plays are said to be filled with “people who cannot adjust, who escape into reverie, fantasy, dream, alcohol, drugs, insanity.” Characterize Tom, Laura, Amanda, and Jim. Does each fit the pattern in some way?
Jim O’Connor, the “Gentleman Caller,” is an example of the intrusive stranger, characteristic of the dramas of Tennessee Williams. What is his function in the drama?
Discuss Tom’s role as a character and as a narrator-spokesman for the author. As a central character and as the narrator-spokesman, he provides the point of view of the play. He also controls and shapes the viewer’s responses. … Williams identifies Tom the narrator as “an undisguised convention of the play. He takes whatever license with dramatic convention is convenient to his purposes [II.1435]. Point out how events and characters are seen through his eyes and are therefore colored by his perceptions of things as they took place in the past. (You probably should focus to one character and central events. Remember, you’re only to write a couple hundred words.)
Characterize Tom’s narrative comments. They reveal his own character. Note for example the ornate phrasing of such “purple passages” as, “Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy” [II.1435].
IV. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Amanda

Amanda’s telephone conversations in The Glass Menagerie are a theatrical device of exposition – like her son’s direct addresses to the audience. These are means of revealing Amanda’s view of reality and the world. What is conveyed by her telephone conversations, her association with the tradition of popular romantic literature in The Homemaker’s Companion and the “serialized sublimations of ladies of letters” [II.1442]?
Amanda lives in a world of memory and illusion, and she romanticizes and glorifies the past. Discuss the significance of her “girlish frock of yellowed voile with a blue silk sash” and her references to “jonquils” [II.1458]
Amanda sees herself as a southern belle. She assumes an exaggerated accent when the “Gentleman Caller” arrives: “I think light things are better fo’ this time of year …” [II.1463] What makes her performance as a southern belle grotesque? (Refer back to Sherwood Anderson’s definition of grotesque. Consider especially the obsession, isolation, and defeat implicit in the grotesque character)
V. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Theme

“Loneliness” is a major theme of Williams. Is it a theme in The Glass Menagerie? Explain.
“Would-be artists” is a theme in The Glass Menagerie. This theme is represented through Tom. Explain how Tom represents this concern and demonstrate the point Williams seem to make .
“Psychological and physical cripples” are another theme Williams often confronts. In what way(s) is Laura in The Glass Menagerie both of these? Through her, what point does Williams seem to make? Explain.