The Glass Menagerie : Key info
The Glass Menagerie is a notable literary work by Tennessee Williams. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of The Glass Menagerie.
Key info
Full Title: The Glass Menagerie.
Playwright: Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
When Written: Williams worked on various drafts during the 1930s and 1940s. Much of the play is based on his 1943 short story “Portrait of a Girl in Glass.”
Where Written: Around the United States, though primarily in Los Angeles, California.
When Published: The play premiered in Chicago in 1944 and moved to Broadway in 1945.
Literary Period: Late Modernism
Genre: Memory play
Setting: St. Louis, Missouri in the 1930s
Climax: The Gentleman Caller’s visit in scenes six and seven, particularly when the glass unicorn shatters.
Point of View: Tom narrates the play and also is a character in it.
Tense: Tom narrates events in The Glass Menagerie in the past tense (because when Tom narrates the events, they already happened in the past). The dialogue in the play is in the present tense.
About the Title: The title The Glass Menagerie describes Laura’s collection of tiny glass animals, which are as fragile as Laura herself.
Morality
Forgetting disillusionment and focusing only on the present is our main responsibility.