Analysis Of To Be Named: The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams

To Be Named: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams The title, The Glass Menagerie, is the first “name” that is encountered, and a menagerie is “A collection of wild animals in cages or enclosures, esp. one kept for exhibition, as in a zoo, etc. Also: a place or building in which such a collection is kept.”(OED). By this definition, the characters are like the wild animals as they are trapped together because of financial reasons, family bonds, and because they are stuck in Tom’s memory. By being a memory, “It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart” therefore the names that Tom recalls are influenced by his own desires and dreams …show more content…
By misunderstanding what Laura said, it is as though Jim was choosing to overlook her disease which can also represent her disability. The chance of being able to overlook her disability so easily is unlikely because she was forced to wear a brace that causes her to walk loudly. The only people who would be accustomed to this disability would be her family. The name Blue Roses gives insight into how Tom views his sister. Blue means “Of a person, the heart, etc.: depressed, low-spirited, sad, sorrowful; dismayed, downcast; (of a state or feeling) miserable, melancholy, dejected. In early use often in to look blue; now frequently in to feel blue (orig. U.S.)” which shows that Laura is not the happiest all the time (OED). This is also a reflection of how Tom feels as though he were trapped in that apartment. It also shows that he is not entirely satisfied with his decision to leave her as he is in love with her. The word roses farther supports this as the definition of a rose is “A peerless or matchless person; a paragon; esp. a woman of great beauty, excellence, or virtue” (OED). By this definition, he sees his sister in a more romantic way than most would expect between a brother and …show more content…
Hence as collect. sing.: things made of glass: e.g. vessels or ornaments of glass, window-panes or lights” which shows that he sees her as being an ornament rather than a real person (OED). He is able to elevate her onto this pedestal of being a great beauty but acknowledges the reality that this beauty is momentary. By knowing she is nothing more than a fragile piece of glass fragmented in his memory he knows she will never be anything more than his sister. The memory is the light that touches Laura and Tom’s influence over how she looks is what makes the beauty unreal. As he gives these names to Laura, he makes her into a fictional character and compares her to a