A main theme of The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, is Gender, which relates to the song Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore. In the society set in The Glass Menagerie, women were not worth much, except for what men thought of them. “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain – your mother received – seventeen! – gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t enough chairs to accommodate them all. We had to send the nigger over to bring in folding chairs from the parish house. ” (1. 21, Amanda).
In this quote, it is made clear that Amanda sees a woman’s worth bases on her attention from men. Laura has a hard time getting attention from men, because she does not care to seek it. “Well you built up a world of magic / Because your real life is tragic / Yeah you built up a world of magic. ” Brick By Boring Brick talks about a girl who lives in a world of her own, not caring about what is actually happening around her, much like Laura. A main theme of The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee, is Dreams, Hopes, and Plans, which relates to the song Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind) by Panic!
At the Disco. “Oh! I felt so weak I could barely keep on my feet! I had to sit down while they got me a glass of water! Fifty dollars’ tuition, all of our plans – my hopes and ambitions for you – just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that. ” (2. 16, Amanda). Amanda expects things from her children that they do not want to fulfill. Laura dropped out of college and Tom wants to leave home and go find something greater.
Ready to Go has the lyrics, “You’ve got these little things / That you’ve been running from / You either ove it or guess you don’t / You’re such a pretty thing / To be running from anyone / A vision with nowhere to go” which tell the story of someone who has been looking for a way to start a new life and what they have to do is get away from their current life. A main theme of The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, is Duty, which relates to Before You Start Your Day by twenty one pilots. “They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn’t enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure – although I wasn’t slighted in either respect.
She also needed to have a nimble wit and a tongue to meet all occasions. ” (1. 27, Amanda) Amanda talks about the duty of a young woman with her gentleman callers, even though this is not something Laura would like to do. Before You Start Your Day has the lyrics, “Look in the mirror and ask your soul if you’re alright / Put out the glitter that your soul hides behind” This is about a person who, everyday, they have to continue doing their duty even though it is not what their soul was meant to do. A main theme of The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, is Love, which relates to the song Nothing Without Love by Nate Ruess. I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren’t prepared to occupy a position.
I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South – barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband or brother’s wife! – stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room – encouraged by one in-law to visit another – little birdlike women without any nest – eating the crust of humility all their life!… Is that the future that we’ve mapped out for ourselves? I swear it’s the only alternative I can think of! [She pauses. ] It isn’t a very pleasant alternative, is it? She pauses again. ] Of course – some girls do marry. ” (2. 34, Amanda). As Amanda sees it, love is not a key factor in marriage, because marriage is just a way to relieve your family of a burden. She pushes Laura to believe that without marriage, she is nothing and she will be stuck at home forever. Some lyrics from Nothing Without Love are, “I am nothing without love / I’m but a ship stuck in the sand / Some would say that I’m all alone / But I am, I’m nothing without love” these lyrics describe how Laura feels, being a ship stuck in the sand.
A main theme in The Glass Menagerie is Memory and the Past, this theme relates to the song Suburbia by Troye Sivan. “The audience hears and sees the opening scene in the dining room through both the transparent fourth wall of the building and the transparent gauze portieres of the dining-room arch. It is during this revealing scene that the fourth wall slowly ascends, out of sight. This transparent exterior wall is not brought down again until the very end of the play, during Tom’s final speech. ” (Stage directions, Scene One).
This stage direction sets the scene of a memory or the past. The song Suburbia has the lyrics, “Swallow nostalgia / Chase it with lime / Better than dwelling / And chasing time / Missing occasions/I can’t rewind /Can’t help but feel I’ve lost what’s mine” this relates to the Wingfield’s, because they have all lost something that they now sadly look back on. The memories follow them around. A main theme in The Glass Menagerie is Drugs and alcohol, this theme relates to the song Bloodstream by Ed Sheeran. “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. ” (3. 31, Amanda).
From this quote, we see the fear Amanda has that Tom will continue to drink. His drinking will only hold him in a life where nothing will get better. “Oh, coloured crimson in my eyes / One or two could free my mind / This is how it ends. /|| feel the chemicals burn in my bloodstream” This quote relates to Tom, because he goes to drink to forget how awful his life is. Tom is probably aware that his drinking will only cause him problems in the future. A main theme from The Glass Menagerie is Freedom and Confinement, which relates to to song Birds by Coldplay.
The Wingfield apartment is in the rear of the building, one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units that flower as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers of lower middle-class populations and are symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass of automatism. ” (stage directions, 1. 1). Tennessee Williams describes the Wingfield household as very prison like.
The residents of this home live under the restrictions of their own fears. Some lyrics from Birds are, “Been standing in the corner / Studying the lights / The dreaming of escape / Will keep you up at night. ” Being cooped up like they are has them all waiting to be free someday. A main theme of The Glass Menagerie is Abandonment, which relates to the song Skinny Love by Birdy. “There is a fifth character in the play who doesn’t appear except in this largerthan-life-size photograph over the mantel. This is our father who left us a long time ago.
He was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances; he gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the light fantastic out of town… The last we heard of him was a picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, containing a message of two words: ‘Hello – Goodbye! ‘ and no address. ” (1. 1, Tom). Tom speaks of his father who abandoned their family so many years ago. He is only a distant memory.
Skinny Love has the lyrics, “And in the morning I’ll be with you, / But it will be a different kind, / ‘Cause I’ll be holding all the tickets, / And you’ll be owning all the fines. This set of lyrics relates to the Wingfield household, because they all miss the father that doesn’t miss them. They hope that they could all be together, though it will never happen. A main theme of The Glass Menagerie is Marriage, which relates to the song Love by Daughter. “There is a fifth character in the play who doesn’t appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel. This is our father who left us a long time ago. He was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances; he gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the light fantastic out of town…
The last we heard of him was a picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, containing a message of two words: “Hello – Goodbye! ” and no address. (1. 1, Tom). ” When Tom and Laura’s father left, he did not consider the wife and family he was giving up, nor did he care. Some lyrics from Love are, “I can’t erase it from my mind / I just replay it, love, / Think of it all of the time. ” Amanda’s marriage failed, and now all she can think about for her children is finding them someone to marry.
A main theme in The Glass Menagerie is Weakness, which relates to the song All I Want by Kodaline. “I wonder,’ she said, ‘If you could be talking about that terribly shy little girl who dropped out of school after only a few days’ attendance? ‘… “And she said, ‘No – I remember her perfectly now. Her hands shook so that she couldn’t hit the right keys! The first time we gave a speed test, she broke down completely – was sick at the stomach and almost had to be carried into the wash room! After that morning she never showed up anymore. We phoned the house but never got any answer. ” (2. 16, Amanda)
Laura has a weakness of being extremely shy. Her shyness has got in the way of her going to college and making a life for herself. After Jim comes in and kisses her, she craves that he would love her even though he is engaged. This also become one of her weaknesses. The song All I Want has these lyrics, ‘When you said your last goodbye /I died a little bit inside /I lay in tears in bed all night / Alone without you by my side” Laura is alone and it does not help that Amanda is constantly trying to push her with somebody.