The Glass Menagerie
Memory play classic
A 1944 play by Tennessee Williams, his first major success.
The memory play follows Tom Wingfield as narrator recalling his overbearing mother Amanda and fragile sister Laura, who tends a collection of glass animal figurines.
The play established Williams as a leading American dramatist and introduced themes he would revisit: family dysfunction, Southern gentility in decline, and the tension between dreams and reality.
We're reading The Glass Menagerie in drama class.
State without hope
- futilityLack of purpose
- resignationVoluntary relinquishment of position
- bleaknessQuality of being dreary
- trappedUnable to escape
stifling · suffocation · desperation · defeat · melancholy · sorrow · gloom · abandonment
American Southern Gothic playwright
- dramaTheatrical art or turmoil
- theaterVenue for live drama
- stageRaised performance platform
- monologueUninterrupted solo address
screen legend · Broadway · script · performance · tragedy · Southern Gothic · autobiographical · American drama
Imaginative mental wandering
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- dreamworldImaginary realm during slumber
- unrealityQuality of being imaginary
- make-believeImaginative play or fantasy
pretense · chimera · self-deception · Amanda · gentleman caller · facade · denial · romanticism
Recalling past experiences
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
- recollectionRecalled mental image
- reverieAbstracted, pleasant daydream
- flashbackInvoluntary past memory
retrospect · Tom · narrator · past · bygone · wistful · sentimental · longing
hopelessness
State without hope
- futilityLack of purpose
- resignationVoluntary relinquishment of position
- bleaknessQuality of being dreary
trapped · stifling · suffocation · desperation · defeat · melancholy · sorrow · gloom · abandonment · dejection
Tennessee Williams
American Southern Gothic playwright
monologue · screen legend · Broadway · script · performance · tragedy · Southern Gothic · autobiographical · American drama · set design
fantasy
Imaginative mental wandering
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- dreamworldImaginary realm during slumber
- unrealityQuality of being imaginary
make-believe · pretense · chimera · self-deception · Amanda · gentleman caller · facade · denial · romanticism · idealization
reminiscence
Recalling past experiences
- nostalgiaLonging for the past
- recollectionRecalled mental image
- reverieAbstracted, pleasant daydream
flashback · retrospect · Tom · narrator · past · bygone · wistful · sentimental · longing · yearning
delicate
Easily broken or harmed
- breakableCapable of shattering
- vulnerableOpen to attack
- brittleLiable to shatter
shatter · crack · splinter · gossamer · tenuous · frail · thin · sensitive · precarious · diaphanous
- PlaysHamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear
- Modern TheaterIbsen, Chekhov, Beckett, O'Neill, Miller
- Modern DramaHenrik Ibsen, modern theater, modern tragedy, social drama, psychological drama
- Tennessee WilliamsBlanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, Streetcar Named Desire
- Broadwaymusicals, musical, Tony Award, musical theatre, theaters
- theaterplays, stage, play, onstage, acting
The Glass MenagerieGlengarry Glen Ross
Mamet's salesmen tragedy
kitchen sink realism · social realism · A Doll's House · Twelve Angry Men · The Iceman Cometh
The Glass Menageriefarce
Absurd, laughable situation
Broadway musical · vaudeville · slapstick comedy · The Producers · melodrama
glass, glasses, glassed, glassing, glassy, glassware, glasshouse, menagerie, menageries