The Glass Menagerie

The Author should read the passage and answer the 5 questions at the bottom in about 4 to 5 sentences. If any questions arise please message me.

From the Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams

Amanda: What is the matter with you, you – big-big-IDIOT!
Tom: Look!-I’ve got no thing, no single thing-
Amanda: Lower your voice.
Tom: In my life here that I can call my OWN! Everything is-
Amanda: Stop that shouting!
Tom: Yesterday you confiscated my books! You have the nerve to-
Amanda: I took that horrible novel back to the library-yes! That
hideous book by that insance Mr. Lawerence. [Tom laughs
wildly.] I cannot control the output of diseased minds or
People who cater to them- [Tom laughs still more wildly.]
BUT I WON’T ALLOW SUCH FILTH BROUGHT INTO MY
HOUSE! No, no, no, no!
Tom: House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes a slave of
himself to-
Amanda: [fairly screeching]: Don’t you DARE to-
Tom: No, no I mustn’t say things. I’ve got to just-
Amanda: Let me tell you-
Tom: I don’t want to hear any more! [He tears the portieres open.
The upstage area is lit with a turgid smoky red glow. AMANDA’s
hair is in metal curlers and she wears a very old bathrobe, much
too large for her slight figure, a relic of the faithless Mr. Wingfield.
an upright typewriter and a wild disarray of manuscripts is on the
drop-leaf table. The quarrel was probably precipitated by AMANDA’s
Tom (cont’) interruption of his creative labor. A chair lies overthrown on the floor.
Their gesticulating shadows are cast on the ceiling by the fiery glow.]
Amanda: You will hear more, you-
Tom: No, I won’t hear more, I’m going out!
Amanda: You come right back in-
Tom: Out, out, out! Because I’m-
Amanda: Come back here, Tom Wingfield! I’m not through talking to you!
Tom: Oh, go-
Laura: [desperately]: – Tom!
Amanda: You’re going to listen, and no more insolence from you! I’m at the
End of my patience.
Tom: [comes back toward her]: What do you think I’m at? Aren’t I supposed
To have any patience to reach the end of, Mother? I know, I know.
It seems unimportant to you, what I’m doing-what I want to do- having
a little difference between them. You don’t think that-
Amanda: I think you’ve been doing things that you’re ashamed of. That’s why
you act like this. I don’t believe that you go every night to the movies.
nobody goes to the movies night after night. Nobody in their right
minds goes to the movies as often as you pretend to. People don’t
go to the movies at nearly midnight, and movies don’t let out at two
A.M. Come in stumbling. Muttering to yourself like a maniac! You
get three hours’ sleep and then go to work. Oh, I can picture the way
you’re doing down there. Moping, doping, because you’re in no
condition.
Tom: [wildly]: No, I’m in no condition!
Amanda: What right have you got to jeopardize your job? Jeopardize the
Security of us all? How do you think we’d manage if you were-
Tom: Listen! You think I’m crazy about the warehouse? [He bends
fiercely toward her slight figure.] You think I want to spend
fifty-five years down there in that-celotex interior! With-
fluorescent-tubes! Look! I’d rather somebody picked up a
crowbar and battered out my brains-than go back mornings!
I go!

Essay Question:
Analyze the complex nature of Tom’s conflict and the clues provided by the passage that foreshadow how he will resolve it.

Using Skills to Understand the Passage
1. What do the stage directions for the actor’s speaking parts add to your understanding of how the scene would be performed? How do these directions illuminate the emotional content of the words and the attitude with which they should be spoken?
2. Stage directions also help us image what we would be seeing the actors do on stage. How do directions about movements and gestures increase our understanding of the scene?
3. Directions are also given about scenic design, stage properties, and costumes as well as gighting. How do these technical directions establish the mood of the play and determine our reactions to the scene?
4. Characterize Amanda. What does her language tell you about her personality, her values, and her motivations? How do these factors clarify Tom’s conflict and point toward its resolution.

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