Dysfunctionality - Drama Blog 2 (Glass Menagerie)

"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 Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams

I haven't gotten all the way through The Glass Menagerie yet, so I'm still unaware of some finer details. I also don't really understand the point of the play; yes, it's about a dysfunctional family (as my aunts say, "we put the "fun" in "dysfunctional" "), but "why" is the big question. However, I feel like some family issues stem from the father leaving the family. Actually I'm sure of it.

First of all, the man (in the forties and in many cases today) was the main provider for the family. He worked and brought in all the money. But when he left, someone had to take over his place as the worker; naturally, that was the son, Tom. Tom has to take care of the family, but he absolutely hates his job. It isn't mentally stimulating for him, and he wants to be creative and write poetry. That doesn't bring in money, so he must settle. This obviously makes Tom resent his family and creates a desire in him to leave and be free of his responsibilities, which creates more tension.

Second of all, I think that Amanda has an inferiority complex where she thinks that she wasn't pretty or interesting (as in having an appealing personality) for her husband - maybe she thinks he ran away because of her? - so she only values herself as how others see her and how good she looks. I think it also makes her long for a time in her life when she had options and she wasn't "weighed down" by an angry child and a crippled child. She is still so focused on herself that she can barely think of her children.

And finally, Laura has some issues. Obviously, from childhood, she was going to be insecure about her condition that cripples her. But not only does she have to deal with her defect, but she has to put up with her mother constantly deriding her and saying she should have gone to college and that she needs a man to make her life complete.