Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Robert Bray ISBN: 0-8112-1404-4 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.55 (97 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant
Comment: Quite simply, The Glass Menagerie is the very reason you read a book. For the passion, the pain, the happiness, that indescribable feeling you get when you've finished the very last sentence. Tennessee Williams doesn't disappoint. The Glass Menagerie tells the story a family trapped in the ruthless battle of life, struggling to survive their circumstances and the memories that plague the Wingfield apartment. So subtlety and tenderly does Williams weave the reader within the words of his play that we too are left like his characters, gasping for a breath away from the intoxicating despair that inhabits their existence. The Glass Menagerie's brilliance lies in Tom as narrator, Williams continues symbols (eg. the Paradise Dance Hall, the gentlemen caller, the fir escape) and his ability to create characters so real you can almost hear their heart beat. Basically if you haven't read The Glass Menagerie you should, it's an unforgettable experience.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Glass Menagerie
Comment: I read the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. I really enjoyed reading this book because it was easy to follow, and it was very interesting. The book is about a dysfunctional family who lives in St. Louis during the Great Depression. The play has three main characters. Tom is the narrator and the oldest son. Tom has been out of high school for six years and works at Continental Shoemakers Warehouse. He supports the entire family. He has a bad habit of smoking, which his mother, Amanda, does not like. Amanda is a mother who has high expectations for her children. She emphasizes all the wrong things Tom does, which frustrates him to a degree where he leaves and does not come home until late at night. The last main character is Laura. She is quiet and does not like going out in public.She usually gets stuck in the middle of the arguments between Tom and Amanda.
I like this book because Tennessee Williams relates incidents to how things actually were during the 1930's. For example during the play, Laura is supposed to be taken tests to see if she is eligible to get a job, but she skips them. Amanda's resolution for Laura is for her to get married. Back in the 1930's, if women could not make it on their own by working, they got married to a man who could support them. Another example would be Amanda does not have a job. Tom has to support his mother and his sister. This shows how people survived during the depression.
I also liked how Mr. Williams conveyed each character in the family with problem of some kind. Tom is bored of his life and wants to go out and have adventure. That is why he goes out to the movies every night. Laura is extremely shy and never leaves the house. She has a collection of glass ornaments that she organizes and keeps with her at all times. Amanda is an over protective mother that will not let Tom go. He is six years out of high school and she still tries to control what he does, and that leads to many arguments between the two of them.
The last main aspect I like about this play was how Tennessee Williams made each character have something special of their own to escape the hardships of life. Laura's glass menagerie of animals helped her escape reality. Those glass animals are all she cared about. Tom, on the other hand, escaped reality by going to the movies. He would go out late into the night and watch movies of people having adventurous lives, just as he dreamt about. Lastly, Amanda's escape from reality was Blue Mountain. She would ponder on the old times when she was popular and was loved by everyone.
Rating: 2
Summary: The first Tennesee Williams I ever read will be the last
Comment: Why is it that in order for a book, play, or piece of literature to be considered "Great" it has to make you feel like you just walked through an emotional meat-grinder and rolled around in broken glass for a few hours? I can easily cite several pieces that illustrate this, from the style of "yanking the rug of hope out from under you" types ("The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, "1984" by George Orwell), to stories of extremely sick, obsessive people ("Wuthering Heights", Emily Bronte), to stories that just bring out the absolute worst human traits available, and builds upon them literal skyscrapers of the bad aspects of humanity. It is in this last group that I include the "The Glass Menagerie", where it sits glumly next to Hawthorne's tepid "The Scarlett Letter" and George Eliot's equally insipid "Silas Marner".
Now don't get me wrong...Mr. Williams has a real gift with writing, putting you practically in the story and taking off with it. I have never seen a stage production of "The Glass Menagerie" but the play itself is written in such a way that it's very easy to visualize as you read along. Pertaining to Mr. Williams style of writing, his use of the "memory play" is among the most unique tools I've ever seen in a story and he works it to great, surreal effect. The protaganist of the story is Tom, a guy stranded in a seemingly hopeless cycle of life that has him as the family's main breadwinner, working a thankless job and living his desired life of high adventure vicariously by going to the movies. His mother, the overbearing Amanda Wingfield, is a woman literally from another time who cannot seem to break out of the idea that she no longer lives in the old, antibellum South, but rather in a seedy tenement in central St. Louis. His older sister Laura is a shy and reclusive 24 year old woman who has a condition that makes one leg shorter than the other and so she's considered "crippled."
Laura in particular is more the central focus of the story, or rather finding a man that will court and marry her is definitely the main goal of the mother, Amanda. Tom on the other hand, while sympathizing with his sister's status, really on the whole has larger dreams and just wants none of the whole thing, only to escape his lowly job at the shoe warehouse and avoid his overbearing mother. He brings home a coworker one night (after being codgered to death by good ol' Mom) which introduces the character Jim O'Connor to Laura. A surprisingly good rapport occurs between the two, and just as you think the story might have a hopeful ending it turns out ol' Jim is already engaged to the enigmatic Betty. The scene ends, Jim departs, Laura is left devastated with a half broken collection of glass animal figurines (the titular "Glass Menagerie") and Tom makes his big escape to the merchant marine by way of the fire escape, all while having deprived the whole family of electric because he spent the money to register with the service(lights go out right after dinner, what timing). Nice guy, eh?
This is allegedly a semi-autobiographical reminiscing by Tennessee Williams on his childhood, and the end of the play has Tom remarking how his sister Laura still haunts him. And it's about the only inkling of conscience that you get out of this play. That he writes so well only leaves you feeling more robbed at the end. The whole fiasco might have gotten 2 more stars out of me had he taken Laura with him when he escaped, but with no more presence but to fish out a cigarette and head for the hills (like father, like son) I think this one will stay at 2.
This play should be issued with a bottle of St. John's Wort. Thanks Tennessee!
 |
Title: Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller ISBN: 0140481346 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
 |
Title: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams ISBN: 0451167783 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1989 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: A Raisin in the Sun by LORRAINE HANSBERRY ISBN: 0679755330 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 November, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
 |
Title: Williams' Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire (Cliffs Notes by James L. Roberts ISBN: 0822005336 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 05 January, 1965 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
