Conversation Analysis Of The Glass Menagerie: The Turn-taking Perspective

The present study is intended to research the conversations in The Glass Menagerie from three perspectives:turn length, turn type and preference organization to analyze the power relationship and personality of the characters in this play. The research method of the present study is a balanced mixed design. The conversations between Amanda and Tom, Amanda and Laura, Laura and Jim will be researched. First of all, the quantitative method is used to analyze these conversations to obtain the data and then based on the result qualitative method is used to study the power relationship among the characters and their personality. The use of the two designs together, compared with the use of a single design, can produce more powerful, more objective and more convincing results.Through the analysis of the data, in most of the conversations Amanda has the longest turn length, the most initiations of the topic and most dispreferred answers. Therefore, Amanda has more power in her family than Tom and Laura. Though she can not support herself by her self and has to depend on her son, Tom, she always treats herself as the master of this family. She is a victim of southern tradition, so she relied on her husband in the past and now depends on her son. In life she is strict with her son in the hope of that Tom can support his family all the time. In the family Tom's power is only below Amanda. Tom challenges Amanda's power in third scene, because of his long oppression of his emotion, but in the next scene his power becomes less than Amanda again. Tom loves poem and adventures, but in order to support his family he has to desert his dream to work in a warehouse until he leaves his home never to return in the last scene, which shows that Tom loves his mother and sister very much and wants to raise his family, but in his deep heart he is also eager for poems and adventures. Therefore, Tom is a romantic man, and a good son and brother which results in that he will live in self-reproach and obtain no complete freedom when he abandons his family. Laura has little power in her family. In this play she has the least turn number, the shortest turn length and the most preferred answers, which indicates that Laura is shy, self-abased, introverted and pessimistic. In the conversation between Jim and Laura Jim has more power, which shows that Jim is confident, optimistic and good at communication.