"The Glass Menagerie" p. 1119 #7

The amount of time covered in the action of the play is unclear. The events of the play seem to occur very fast pace; however, dialogue hints at significant amounts of time passing. At the beginning of the play, the setting is described as "Time: Now and the Past" (scene 1, page 1235). This small detail is very important to the play. As the play unfolds, it is revealed that the story is all a part of Tom's memory. Therefore, time does not really play an important key in the events. Everything occurs as he remembers it and not necessarily how it actually occurred. As the play is being performed, the action seems rushed. For example, at the end of one scene Amanda is talking to Tom about bringing home someone from work for Laura to meet. Then, in the beginning of the next scene, Tom asks Laura if she remembers asking him to find a gentleman for Laura. This small detail leads the audience to believe that time has passed since they last had the discussion; however, it appears only lines apart in the progression of the play.

"The Glass Menagerie" p. 1119 #6

The various theatrical components of the sets help to reinforce the meanings and contribute to the emotional effects of the play. The picture of the father is always grinning from the living room wall. "It is the face of a very handsome young man in a dough-boy's First World War cap. He is gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say, 'I will be smiling forever'" (scene 1, page 1234). Throughout the play, this picture is the only presence of the father. However, it is symbolic of his constant influence on the family. After Tom returns from the theatre, he tells Laura of Malvolio the Magician. His trick was to escape from a nailed-up coffin without removing one nail. The stage direction that follows is for the father's grinning photograph to light up. The irony of this question is made apparent through the stage directions. Without all the theatrical components of this play, much of the meaning and irony would be lost.

"The Glass Menagerie" p. 1119 #1

This play combines a variety of realistic and nonrealistic conventions. The characters seem to be mostly realistic in a sense that the family's situation is possible in real life; a mother, son, and crippled daughter could have been abandoned by their father. Laura is realistic because her handicap has left her shy and self-conscious. However, her actions are sometimes slightly nonrealistic when she overreacts to certain situations. For example, she attended one day of business college, but she was able to trick her mother for a long time that she was still attending. "The first time we gave a speed-test, she broke down completely - was sick at the stomach and almost had to be carried into the wash-room! After that morning she never showed up any more. We phoned the house buy never got any answer" (scene 2, page 1242). The picture is nonrealistic. It is always proudly displayed in the home of the family he left; one would think he would be forgotten and never spoken of again due to the pain at being abandoned. However, his grinning picture is ironically seen throughout the play. The time of the play is also nonrealistic. It cannot be set in a certain time period because the whole play is told as Tom's memory. This also means that there is a biased narrator who was not even present in all of the "memory" scenes of the play. The entire play may or may not be factually true; it all simply occurs as Tom perceived it to be.