Alienation In The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams is one of the most important playwrights of America. The Glass Menagerie is one of his masterpieces, which describes the living situation of a family during the Great Depression. When the family members are confronted with the conflicts of their dreams and reality, they try to strive for the achievements of their dreams. Unfortunately, the cruel reality finally fails their wishes.Anxiety and illusion, past and present, desires and repression are the aspects in many plays of Tennessee. Desperation is even the typical feature of Tennessee's principal characters. From psychological critiques to the feminism perspectives, the previous researchers mainly concentrated on the personality analysis of these characters. However, the author of this paper considers that the desperation of the characters conveys more social significances. In accordance with Bigsby, "the actual world" is the origin of threat and a destructive banality. (Bigsby, 2000: 32)The first chapter of this paper gives a general introduction of Tennessee Williams and previous research on his literary works. The originality and objective that the author wants to achieve in this paper are also stated in Chapter One.The author starts with the concept of alienation in Chapter Two. In 20^th Century, alienation is a universal topic. When the society had stepped into the industrial era, many artists began to be concerned about the dehumanization of people.In Chapter Three, the author analyzes the alienation in The Glass Menagerie from three aspects. Firstly, the Wingfields have been alienated from their species being during the Great Depression. Because they can't pursue the creative labor in which they are interested and any superior requirements, they are manipulated by the external things. Secondly, as a reflection of social situation, the play isn't limited to the self-alienation of the individuals. The playwright is also concerned about social alienation. The relationship between father and son is alienated, so is the spouseship. Besides, the relationship between people has become reified. "Money" is the standard of social evaluation. Finally, the characters are alienated with the times they live in. They can neither forget the past, nor face the reality, so that they won't have a bright future.In Chapter Four, the author discusses the dramatic tactics of the play. The author doesn't focus on the poetic artistic of Tennessee as the previous researchers did. However, on the basis of the theme, the paper focuses on how these tactics apply to strengthening the alienation theme. By analyzing the multiple characters of one actor, the fragmentary plot, and the distant gestures, this chapter proves that the dramatic devices can strengthen the theme and help the audience to have a better understanding of the play.Like the title of this play, people in the industrial society are reduced to fragile animals, existing in the menagerie without freedom and mutual understanding. Through the analysis of the alienated phenomena in this play, this paper aims to prove that the theme of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie is about alienation, namely, human has been self-alienated and estranged from the society. Hopefully this paper can make a contribution to the fuller understanding on Tennessee's works.