A scintillating memory play

There is not an iota of doubt that the name of Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is hardly unknown to all in the realm of proliferating the genre of drama in America. Tennessee Williams , along with his contemporaries Eugene O’ Neil (1888-1953) and Arthur Miller (1915-2005), intend to divulge the worst condition of the society . The plays of Tennessee Williams state the disturbed mindset of people that they are not able to cope with the society .He is percolated as a playwright in America after the publication of his notable work named The Glass Menagerie (1944) in which the playwright projects the theme of poverty as a backdrop to trace the obstacles of the industrial workers. His use of memory takes a pivotal role in characters’ life. It juxtaposes emotion of the characters’ with sadness. This play mainly compels the readers and the audiences to mull how worsen is the present days to stay happily. As the doyen of psychology, Sigmund Freud claims that “although an individual may be unable to recall the memory, it may still affect the individual through subconscious influences on behavior and emotional responding”. The main protagonist of the play, Tom Wingfield ruminates his vices on which the main plot is based on. The notion of memory takes an integral part in this play .Laura Wingfield escapes herself from the society to get relief from this hurly burly world. The father of them already leaves to get a better life. Amanda Wingfield , mother of Laura and Tom , is so much concerned to educate her daughter for her future that she can skillfully handle her husband after her marriage. The characters in the play, sometimes , behave frantically that they intend to express something in front of the deteriorated society. Laura is unable to speak her childhood crush and the same thing is happened with Tom who fails to get a greater job. The Wingfields escape from reality to abate the pain that haunts them again and again. They loss the flow how to get happiness. Amanda Wingfield jovially keeps aside her full of stressful life to imbue her children at the same time. She also metamorphoses her as the queen of imaginative world in order to escape from the brutalities of today’s world. She apparently induces her children to walk with the pace of society .Tom losses the opportunity due to his excessive lethargy in work. Laura also fails the same way due to her immoderate shy. She keeps busy herself in gathering the glass animals to forget the pain of life .She losses her childhood crush named Jim O’ Connor because of her excessive intricacy .The breaking of the glass animal during her dance with Jim is a delineation of her lack of resemblance with the past and the present. A kind of disparity strikes her mind and becomes determined to stay away from the society.
The problem of alienation is also prevalent wherein Tom Wingfield dissociates himself from the society. The family belongs to lower class and cannot fulfill their dreams .He also internally isolates himself from the society because of the ruthlessness of the capitalists. The character called Jim O’ Connor is really strange to understand properly. He sometimes behaves like madcap. His character is the appraisal of the Capitalists, reflecting through his dress habits and flirtatious nature. He knows about Laura from his high school days and calls her as a ‘blue rose’ for her unparalleled beauty. He dances with her for few minutes and rejects her abruptly; which superimposes his capitalist mindset. The magnum opus of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1895-1820) entitled The Communist Manifesto depicts the cruelty of the capitalists in which the lower class people are exploited. The relationship between Jim O’ Connor and Laura is generally a portrayal of the conflicting relationship of the capitalist and the lower class as well.. Jim is visible in flesh and blood at the end of the play to hurt Laura physically. He already wounds her by breaking her heart during her high school days.
Laura: Little articles of [glass] they’re ornaments mostly. Most of the glass tinniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie . Here’s an example of one, if you’d like to see it…oh, be careful if you breathe ,it breaks…you see how the light shines through him?
Jim: It sure does shine.
Laura: I should’ not be partial, but he is my one.
Jim: What kind of thing is this one supposed to be?
Laura: Haven’t you noticed the single horn on his forehead?
Jim: A unicorn, huh? Aren’t they extinct in they modern world?
Laura: I know
Jim: Poor little fellow, he must feel a sort of lonesome.
Amanda fails to adore her life when she thinks about her daughter. She always vibrates Laura to run with the passage of time. Laura’s failure to become eyeful cramps her mother and remembers her days in which she shows her fancy lifestyle to attract boys. The play mainly excavates the stark combat of the characters’ within themselves. They remember their bygone days to become happy in the modern world. Tom is akin to Virginia Woolf’s (1882-1941) enormous character named Jacob in Jacob’s Room who also passes much time with his own self. The playwright tries to pervade the condition of the lower class during the Twentieth century through the play.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are exclusively his own)
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