The Glass Menagerie Critique Essay
A persons life isn’t always what it’s expected to be. Every ones lives tell a completely different story, whether it’s sad or it’s joyful. Tennessee Williams shows a great example of three peoples lives in his play “The Glass Menagerie”. In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses several different themes throughout the play, including control in Amanda, Laura and Tom’s lives. Laura is one of the characters that gets a lot of control in her life, by her mother Amanda. “We have to be making some plans and previsions for her.
She’s older than you. ” (Williams 763) Amanda is the one speaking in the quote above, she is speaking to Tom. Amanda is saying that they need to be making plans and changes in Laura’s life. She technically wants to control Laura’s life. Amanda is the mother of Tom and Laura but she tries to control everything they do. Amanda is the controller of her son and daughter, Tom and Laura. She either controls what they do or tries to control their future. “… it would be nice for your sister if you brought home some nice young man from the warehouse… (756) Amanda says that to Tom. “Laura, are you going to do what I asked you to , or do i have to get dressed and go out myself? ” Amanda says this to Laura. As you can tell Amanda is very bossy, she wants Tom to get Laura a nice young man from the warehouse and commands Laura to go somewhere for her. Laura usually does what her mother says but Tom sometimes yells back her and makes a big argument start. On the other hand Tom gets controlled by his mother, Amanda, but he tries to defend himself.
Whenever Tom and Amanda argue Tom tries to defend himself by talking back to her, for example, “House, house! Who pays the rent on it, who makes himself a slave to-” (759) Tom is complaining to Amanda how he is the one who pays the rent when she is trying to accuse him for doing nothing. In every argument that they have, Tom doesn’t let it go, he keeps it going. Williams had several different themes in The glass Menagerie. Control was one that stood out to me. Obviously Amanda was the overall controller. She tried to control Laura and Toms lives. “You smoke too much.
A pack a day at fifteen cents a pack, how much would that amount add up to in a month? ” (764) Amanda tries to control Toms smoking habits, but he’s a grown man and he decided to smoke and she has to deal with it now. She is not always going to have control over him or even Laura’s life. When i read this play, i could kind of relater to Laura’s life. Control is also in my life, from my parent. They simply want me to have a better life, sort of like Laura in the play. “I want you to be someone in life and want you to have a career that you enjoy doing. (My parents) My parents don’t want me to end up working at a fast food restaurant for the rest of my life, they want me to continue my education so i can end up with a career that will pay me the big bucks. I’m pretty sure anyone has some kind of control in their lives. Control was one of the themes that Tennessee Williams used in The Glass Menagerie. Control in this play is important because it is one of the main themes, and shows how peoples lives can be when we might think it’s the total opposite.
