Discuss The Glass Menagerie
as an Expressionist Play.
The Glass Menagerie was
first written for the screen .Originally titled as Gentleman caller, there were
the elements of film in the design of the play. In a degree of stylization it
is like the film more or less on naturalistic grounds . Williams is particular
about the setting and he does not leave any detail to chance. Infact, all the
matters related to setting are minutely detailed in all his plays, not to say
of The Glass Menagerie itself.
In The Glass Menagerie
Williams borrows heavily from the “epic” form of Picastor and Brecht, the
famous expressionist. Like Brecht, he employs a screen for the projection of “memory”. But Williams’ use
of the screen as the symbol of consciousness differs , however, from the
Brechtian employment of the same device for the formulation of political and
social ideographs.
Being a “memory play”, The
Glass Menagerie employs the double vision , both realistic and romantic. The
flashback, the narrator, and the
playwright’s autobiography- all contribute to the novelty of technique in it.
Structurally the play is a
combination of both expressionism of the Post World War-I and the day cinematic
vision of reality. The double setting , with its interior and exterior
apartments divides the world of the characters. The interior setting is in the
mind of Tom and that is the place where Laura sits in all her sorrow and
fragility.
The depiction of the
Wingfield’s apartment also follows the dicta of expressionism . The ugly
uniformity of the tenements depresses Tom and makes him frantic to escape . Of
the characters in the play, only Tom seems aware of this grotesque uniformity and since the whole
story takes in his memory , he would naturally exaggerate the dismal reality he
sees.
