The Glass Menagerie (Blog 5)
By: Tennessee Williams

While reading this play, I actually really liked it.  I actually found Williams' unique style with such detailed stage directions to be favorable.  I liked being able to picture all that was happening, and it was so easy to do this with the thorough directions.  "At the rise of the curtain, the audience is faced with the dark, grim rear wall of the Wingfield tenement.  This building is flanked on both sides by dark, narrow alleys..." (1235).  Descriptions like this were useful for me to better imagine the setting of each scene.  In addition, I liked the fact that Williams only included 4 main characters.  This made it much easier to understand their individual thoughts and actions.  Also, I feel like this made them have closer ties to each other.  One element that I particularly disliked was the ending.  There was not one happy thing at the end of this play.  Laura was still left feeling lonely, with no gentleman callers.  Amanda was still struggling with relating to her son.  Tom lost his job at the warehouse, and he ended up leaving his family altogether.  "'Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box.  I left Saint Louis'" (1288).  I wanted at least one of the characters to end up achieving a goal or just anything positive.  The lack of such an ending made me dislike this aspect of The Glass Menagerie.