The Glass Menagerie: Existentialist Responsibilities Conveyed Through t

The story of a young Tennessee Williams is poetically portrayed through a 1945 Broadway Play, The applesauce menagerie. The main character, Tom Wingfield, lives in his familys flatbed with his mother, Amanda Wingfield, and sister, Laura Wingfield. Their father left the family, and he remains a silent character appearing as a portrait on the apartment wall. Throughout the septet scenes, the immaturity of each family member is revealed. In search of adventure, Tom has dreams of being a writer and wishes to leave his family and factory job, like his father, to join the Merchant Marines. Laura lets her disability, a braced leg, hinder her finding a job or a husband, while Amanda stays in denial of her childrens failure by animateness in the past with her gentlemen callers. Toms main responsibilities, created by Amanda, are to take care of Laura and the family. Amanda and Tom are constantly fighting about their unlike views of what they wish the future to bring. To cope with h is problems, every night Tom ventures off to probably a bar, gets drunk, and then tells his family he was at the movies (Plot Summary The Glass Menagerie). Williams tries to express a personal struggle about trying to leave his family with out feeling guilt (John Lahr) through fictional characters paralleling his family. These struggles are seen as failed responsibilities in the view of an existentialist. The responsibility of being an existentialist is conveyed through Tennessee Williams autobiographical character Tom and his failed responsibilities, guilt of the past, and denial of reality in The Glass Menagerie. The runaway takes place during the Great Depression in the 1930s, but America was in World War II when Williams wrote the play. The ... ...ge. Sartres Philosophy through 1945 Phenomenology and Ontology. Jean-Paul Sartre. Boston Twayne, 1983. 36-38. Print. Clinton, Craig. The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams. The Facts on File Companion to American Drama. Ed. Ja ckson R. Bryer and Mary C. Hartig. New York Facts on File, 2004. 178. Print.Crowell, Steven. Existentialism. The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Winter 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.Existentialism-A Philosophy. AllAboutPhilosophy.org. AllAboutPhilosophy.org, 2012. Web. 03 May 2012.The Glass Menagerie. Drama for Students. Ed. David Galens and Lynn Spampinato. Vol. 1. Detroit Gale Research, 1998. Print.Lahr, John. Telling It standardized It Isnt. The New Yorker. 06 May 2010. Web. 2 May 2012.Plot Summary The Glass Menagerie. DISCovering Authors. Detroit Gale, 2003.Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.