The+Class+Menagerie

Plot Events:

-Amanda and her children, Tom and Laura, have supper. The tension betwwen Amanda and Tom is obvious. Amanda acts surprised that Laura will not have any "gentlemen callers." -Amanda discovers that Laura has not been attending her typing class after talking with her teacher. Laura admits that she goes to the zoo everyday instead. -Amanda is concerned that Laura does not have a secure future with a husband. -Laura reveals that she had a crush on a popular boy named Jim in high school, but now she is 23.

Characters: 1. Amanda Wingfield: Laura & Tom's mother. Amanda clings to memories of her vanished past and desperately wishes her daughter to have as many suitors as she did when she was a teenager. She is very proud and vivacious, as well as charming and admirable at the same time. 2. Laura Wingfield: Amanda's daughter & Tom's older sister. She has a leg brace due to a bad leg and is incredibly shy because of it. She rarely branches out into society and is devoted to her collection of glass figurines and old records. 3. Tom Wingfield: Amanda's son and Laura's younger brother. He works at a shoe factory in order to support the family, being the only male figure in the family. He is an aspiring poet and hates the monotony of his job so for an escape he goes to the movies almost every night and turns to alcohol. 4. Jim O'Connor: An old friend of Tom & Laura who now works at the shoe factory as a shipping clerk. He was a popular athlete in high school and now has unwavering goals for the future. Amanda asks Tom to bring him home so he can meet Laura, but in the end Jim ends up being engaged to another woman. 5. Mr. Wingfield: Amanda's husband and Tom & Laura's father. He worked for a telephone company and left the family before the play began. Even though he never appears on stage, his picture is displayed prominently in the Wingfield's home.

Setting: The Wingfield's apartment located in the lower-middle class part of St. Louis, Missouri in the late 1930s after the Great Depression.

Key Symbols: 1. The Glass Menagerie: The glass figurines are the main symbol throughout the play because they represent the different facet's of Laura's personality. Like Lauara, they are fragile, old-fashioned, and delicate. The glass also seems boring at first but when placed in the light, a rainbow appears due to the reflection of light and similarily Laura appears to be boring and bland on the outside but once you look at her in the "right light" the reader discovers her interesting personality. 2. Fire Escape: The place where Tom often (literally) escapes to while in the apartment. It symbolizes where Laura, but mostly Tom can escape to from the "fires" and dysfunction of their family. 3. Glass Unicorn: Laura's favorite figurine in her collection, it represents her different personality. Like the unicorn, Laura is lonely, unusual and ill-adapted to her surroundings. After Jim dances and then kisses Laura, he gives her a sense of normalcy and ironically he then breaks the horn off the unicorn, giving the unicorn a sense of normalcy as well.

Key Images: 1. Glass figurines: Display fragileness of Laura and the world around her 2. Blue Roses: Jim's nickname for Laura, pictures of blue roses appear on screen when Laura is mentioned 3. The movies: Tom escapes his family and life by drinking a lot and going to the movies. They provide an escape from his life where he can live through the lives of those in the movies.

Key Themes: 1. Accepting Reality: Throughout the play, the characters struggle with accepting and relating to reality. Unfortunately, each member of the Wingfield family is unable to overcome this obstacle and lives in their own world of illusions. Laura has the most trouble accepting reality, since she lives in a world with her glass figurines and is unable to function in the outside world. Tom has the ability to function in the real world, but in the end he has no desire to truly succeed professionally, thus living in his own world. Lastly Amanda has the most difficult relationship with reality. She is attached to social and financial successes in life, but these elements cause her to live in her own world and cannot accept the fact she was merely brought up as a southern belle and no longer lives that life. 2. Impossibility of True Escape: Throughout the entire play Tom desperately searches to escape from his menial job and life in the shoe factory, but cannot truly escape. Even though he physically and literally can escape to the fire escape, that is the farthest he gets because of his inability to leave Laura and Amanda to survive financially on their own. There is nothing physically stopping Tom from escaping from Laura and Amanda, instead it is his own emotions that stop him from truly being able to escape from his mother and sister.

Key Structural Elements: 1. Memory form: Tom states in the beginning that the play's style and content are shaped by memory. The play lacks realism and music is used throughout the overdraw the emotion and symbolism in the play. This set up also relates to the story line in which each character is stuck in their own memories- Amanda reliving her teenage years and Laura remembering high school years with Jim. Memories for each character are crippling and prevent the characters from finding true happiness at the end of the play.