Draft

Amanda Wingfield
Laura and Tom’s mother. A proud, vivacious woman, Amanda clings fervently to memories of a
vanished, genteel past. She is simultaneously admirable, charming, pitiable, and laughable.

She clings to memories of a vanished wonderful past. She is charming, pitiable.

Laura Wingfield

Amanda’s daughter and Tom’s older sister. Laura has a bad leg, on which she has to wear a
brace, and walks with a limp. Twenty-three years old and painfully shy, she has largely
withdrawn from the outside world and devotes herself to old records and her collection of glass
figurines.

Tom’s sister and Amanda’s daughter. Laura is deeply fragile, both emotionally and

physically: she is painfully shy, and a childhood illness has left one leg slightly
shorter than the other, making her walk with a limp. 

Tom and Laura’s mother. Amanda was a Southern belle in her youth, and she clings to this
romantic vision of her past rather than accepting her current circumstances of poverty and
abandonment. 

Jim O’Connor
An old acquaintance of Tom and Laura. Jim was a popular athlete in high school and is now a
shipping clerk at the shoe warehouse in which Tom works. He is unwaveringly devoted to goals
of professional achievement and ideals of personal success.

Tom Wingfield
Amanda’s son and Laura’s younger brother. An aspiring poet, Tom works at a shoe warehouse to
support the family. He is frustrated by the numbing routine of his job and escapes from it through
movies, literature, and alcohol.

Tom plays a dual role in the play as both the narrator and protagonist. The play is from the
perspective of Tom’s memories.
Amanda Wingfield The mother whose husband deserted her years ago leaving her
with a son and daughter to raise. She lives partially in the world of her youth and her
gentlemen callers in order to escape the brutalities of today's world.

Tom Wingfield A son who is employed in a shoe warehouse in order to support the
family. He is a poet by nature and feels that his environment is destroying his creative
abilities.

Laura Wingfield The daughter who is slightly crippled. She has retreated from this
world and lives in a world of old phonograph records and little glass animals.

Jim O'Connor The "emissary" from the world of reality. He is the average or ordinary
young man who brings a touch of the common world into the Wingfield world of dreams.

Tennessee Williams was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

Thomas Lanier Williams III, known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American
playwright and screenwriter. On March 31, 1945, his play, The Glass Menagerie, opened on
Broadway and two years later A Streetcar Named Desire earned Williams his first Pulitzer Prize.
Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three
foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.

They had the untouchable sound, the look, the rhapsodic rhetoric, and the strangeness.
a. Unhappy
b. Elated
c. Agonizing
d. Neutral
The large bronze candelabrum in the left transept is said to be 13th-century work.
a. Taper holder
b. Music Box
c. Jewelry Box
d. Violin
Many policemen and women feel beleaguered and misunderstood.
a. Disgusted
b. Sad
c. Encircled
d. Untroubled
Lisa gingerly settled her body on the couch. 
a. Carefully
b. Recklessly
c. Quietly
d. Strangely
Afternoons at Wellesley, they cranked the Victrola and gyrated to ragtime.
a. Jewelry Box
 b. Television
c. Stereo
d. Guitar
The father is well known for his menagerie of rare creatures.
a. Collection of fish
b. Collection of monsters
c. Collection of dinosaurs
d. Collection of animals

The celebrity sent his assistant as an emissary to pick up the movie contract.
a. Saleslady
b. Spy
c. Delegate
d. Bodyguard

Plot

Exposition - As dinner is ending, the lights go out as a consequence of the unpaid electric bill. 

Rising Action - Amanda lights candles, and Jim joins Laura by candlelight in the living
room.

Laura slowly warms up and relaxes in Jim’s gently encouraging company.

 Laura reminds Jim that they knew each other in high school and that he had
nicknamed her “Blue Roses,” a mispronunciation of her childhood attack of
pleurosis.
 Jim tells Laura that she must overcome her inferiority complex through
confidence.
 Laura shows Jim her glass collection and lets him hold the glass unicorn, her
favorite.
 They begin to dance to the strains of a waltz coming from across the street. As
they dance, however, Jim knocks over the unicorn, breaking off its horn.
Climax - Jim kisses Laura but immediately draws back, apologizing and explaining
that he has a fiancée.

Falling Action - Laura is devastated but tries not to show it. She gives him the broken
glass unicorn as a souvenir.
Denouement - Laura blows the candles out as Tom bids her goodbye.

Memory and nostalgia: The Glass Menagerie takes place in Tom's

memory. Tom, Laura, Amanda, and Jim each feel the pull of both
painful memories and nostalgia.

Gender roles: Amanda clings to traditional notions of femininity

and masculinity and tries to impose these roles on her children,
expecting Tom to act as head of household and Laura to marry.

Laura’s collection of glass animal figurines represents a number of facets of her personality. Like the
figurines, Laura is delicate, fanciful, and somehow old-fashioned. The glass unicorn represents her
peculiarity. As Jim points out, unicorns are “extinct” in modern times and are lonesome as a result of
being different from other horses. Laura too is unusual, lonely, and ill-adapted to existence in the world in
which she lives

Laura’s Glass Menagerie specifically the glass unicorn

Laura's glass animal miniature collection reflects various aspects of her personality -- delicate, fanciful.
While the glass unicorn represents her peculiarity. Unicorns are "extinct" in modern times, as Jim points
out, and are lonely because of their differences from other horses. Laura, too, is out of the ordinary,
lonely, and ill-suited to life in the world she inhabits.

It's a matter of perspective, sir. How do we see things? If we see those flaws as our weaknesses, then it
could hinder us to be better. But if we just accept those and turn those what others labeled as our flaws
into our identity or motivation to be better. Then these flaws may be the reason why we are beautiful.

Each of us is beautifully unique in our own way. With our God-given skills, abilities,
personality, and character we are truly a masterpiece. It's a matter of perspective --be confident,
do your best and follow your purpose. You’ll live a much happier life.

We live in a society where everything is compared to other people’s lives as if our own is
not unique and blessed itself. Each person’s blessings and gifts are different but it is
constantly subjected to where what they have, is what we should have and the blessing s we
have are just not enough or worthy enough to be thankful for.

Every human being is born unique. Human becomes unique when they find their own
strengths and capabilities.

EN9LT-IVe-17: Analyze literature as a means of understanding unchanging values in a

changing world

EN9LT-IVe- 2.2.2: Explain the literary devices used

EN9RC-IVe-2.18: Relate text content to particular social issues, concerns, or dispositions in

real life

The learner demonstrates communicative competence through his/her understanding of British-American

Literature, including Philippine Literature and other text types for a deeper appreciation of Philippine
Culture and those of other countries
__________ 1. They stumble against the table and they break the horn off the unicorn.

__________ 2. Laura shows him her glass collection.

__________ 3. Jim hears some music from the neighboring dance hall and asks Laura to dance.

__________ 4. Just as the others are finishing dinner, the lights go out.

__________ 5. Laura blows the candles out.

__________ 6. He then says that someone should kiss Laura, and he leans over and kisses her.

__________ 7. When Laura asks him if he has kept up with his singing, Jim then remembers that
they knew each other in high school.

__________ 8. He tells her that he shouldn't have kissed her because he is engaged.

__________ 9. Mr. O'Connor keeps Laura’s company.

__________ 10. Laura gives him the broken unicorn.

Hemingway Team -
Austen Team -

Shakespeare Team -

Woolf Team -