The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams (That's not a real person. He is made up)
Unique to this play, one of the characters (Tom, specifically) narrates the play as if he wrote this portrayal of his memories. Being a memory subject to psychological license and selective recollection, the play exhibits several themes stated explicitly by the narrator.
In the opening scene, Tom introduces himself, the setting, and the idea of the memory play to the audience as both character and narrator. One practical function of this introduction is to remind the audience that this version of Tom's memories will bear some exaggerations and omissions that carry Tom's interpretations of the memories. For some reason or another, Tom is looking back on these memories and has invited the audience to study his recollections along with him.
Specifically, Tom alerts the audience in his opening speech to the idea that the characters and people of the time of his memory suffered from delusions. Referring to the population's refusal to recognize hardships and dangers, Tom utilizes an antimetabole: "Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy" (Williams, 1236). Although some might think that the characters in the play simply cannot see or recognize signals of impending doom or failure, Tom reverses the idea to point out that the characters were able but unwilling to notice.
This theme of misinterpretation and deception comes between Amanda and Laura. Because Laura had deceived Amanda in regards to her typing classes, Amanda decided that Laura's only hope for a future lay in marriage. However, Amanda refuses to acknowledge two facts: Laura is disabled and charm was not only her husband's way of finding a wife, but also of deceiving her.
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