Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Abandonment
The plot of The Glass Menagerie is structured
around a series of abandonments. Mr. Wingfield’s desertion of his
family determines their life situation; Jim’s desertion of Laura
is the center of the play’s dramatic action; Tom’s abandonment of
his family gives him the distance that allows him to shape their
story into a narrative. Each of these acts of desertion proves devastating
for those left behind. At the same time, each of them is portrayed
as the necessary condition for, and a natural result of, inevitable
progress. In particular, each is strongly associated with the march
of technological progress and the achievements of the modern world.
Mr. Wingfield, who works for the telephone company, leaves his family
because he “fell in love with [the] long distances” that the telephone
brings into people’s consciousness. It is impossible to imagine
that Jim, who puts his faith in the future of radio and television,
would tie himself to the sealed, static world of Laura. Tom sees
his departure as essential to the pursuit of “adventure,” his taste
for which is whetted by the movies he attends nightly. Only Amanda
and Laura, who are devoted to archaic values and old memories, will
presumably never assume the role of abandoner and are doomed to
be repeatedly abandoned.
The Words and Images on the Screen
One of the play’s most unique stylistic features is the
use of an onstage screen on which words and images relevant to the
action are projected. Sometimes the screen is used to emphasize
the importance of something referred to by the characters, as when
an image of blue roses appears in Scene Two; sometimes it refers
to something from a character’s past or fantasy, as when the image
of Amanda as a young girl appears in Scene Six. At other times,
it seems to function as a slate for impersonal commentary on the
events and characters of the play, as when “Ou sont les neiges”
(words from a fifteenth-century French poem praising beautiful women)
appear in Scene One as Amanda’s voice is heard offstage.
What appears on the screen generally emphasizes themes
or symbols that are already established quite obviously by the action
of the play. The device thus seems at best ironic, and at worst
somewhat pretentious or condescending. Directors who have staged
the play have been, for the most part, very ambivalent about the
effectiveness and value of the screen, and virtually all have chosen
to eliminate it from the performance. The screen is, however, an
interesting epitome of Tennessee Williams’s expressionist theatrical
style, which downplays realistic portrayals of life in favor of
stylized presentations of inner experience.
Music
Music is used often in The Glass Menagerie, both
to emphasize themes and to enhance the drama. Sometimes the music
is extra-diegetic—coming from outside the play, not from within
it—and though the audience can hear it the characters cannot. For
example, a musical piece entitled “The Glass Menagerie,” written
specifically for the play by the composer Paul Bowles, plays when
Laura’s character or her glass collection comes to the forefront
of the action. This piece makes its first appearance at the end
of Scene One, when Laura notes that Amanda is afraid that her daughter
will end up an old maid. Other times, the music comes from inside
the diegetic space of the play—that is, it is a part of the action,
and the characters can hear it. Examples of this are the music that
wafts up from the Paradise Dance Hall and the music Laura plays
on her record player. Both the extra-diegetic and the diegetic music
often provide commentary on what is going on in the play. For example,
the Paradise Dance Hall plays a piece entitled “The World Is Waiting
for the Sunrise” while Tom is talking about the approach of World
War II.
