the glass menagerie literary analysis essay

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The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee williams.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Glass Menagerie: Introduction

The glass menagerie: plot summary, the glass menagerie: detailed summary & analysis, the glass menagerie: themes, the glass menagerie: quotes, the glass menagerie: characters, the glass menagerie: symbols, the glass menagerie: literary devices, the glass menagerie: theme wheel, brief biography of tennessee williams.

Historical Context of The Glass Menagerie

Other books related to the glass menagerie.

Full Title: The Glass Menagerie
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 Los Angeles, California.
When Published: The play premiered in Chicago in 1944 and moved to Broadway in 1945. Random House published the play 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.

Extra Credit for The Glass Menagerie

The Laugh Menagerie. Christopher Durang’s one-act play For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls is a parody of The Glass Menagerie , featuring the pathologically shy Lawrence and his collection of glass cocktail stirrers. (“This one is called string bean because it’s long and thin,” he says. “I call this one thermometer because it looks like a thermometer.”)

Glass Blue Roses. At the turn of the twentieth century, the German glassmakers Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka created hundreds of biological models entirely of glass. Famed for their scientific precision and prized for their exquisite beauty, these extraordinarily finely detailed glass marine animals and glass flowers receive thousands of visitors every year at Harvard University’s Museum of Natural History.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Glass Menagerie — Critical Analysis of “The Glass Menagerie”

Critical Analysis of "The Glass Menagerie"

Categories: The Glass Menagerie Theatre

About this sample

Words: 689 |

Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 689 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

The illusory nature of dreams, the symbolism of the glass menagerie, the power of memory, the tragic consequences of illusion.

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