The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams

In this play the there was no clear protagonist or antagonist, or really any type of character that I could pick up on. The physically present characters (Laura, Tom, Amanda, and Jim) were all major characters, the minor characters included Laura and Tom’s father, who had left them, Jim’s fiancée Betty, and the woman whom Laura thought Jim had married, but he had not. The conflict of the story was between everyone, Tom wanted to go travel and be adventurous, Amanda wanted a caller for Laura, Laura was battling her shyness, and Jim was fighting to get Laura out of her shell and not be so shy. Conflict in itself was a very vicious circle for Laura in particular. She suffered from such shyness that she could not even go to school, and Jim and her mother bring in that education is key to doing anything in life. I thought a neat symbolism occurred with the glass unicorn that was Laura’s favorite. It was different from the others because it had a horn, and as Laura warmed up and started being more social and talking to Jim, he hit the table as they danced and broke the horn off of the unicorn. I thought it symbolized Laura becoming less shy, or getting rid of her shyness around Jim.

I really loved this play because I could connect to the shyness that Laura has, even though I’m not shy to that extent, and how adventurous and dream oriented Tom is. He wanted something amazing for his life, something that he loved. I couldn’t help but laugh at Amanda sometimes, she seemed so silly, her highest priority is finding a caller, more importantly a husband, for Laura, which is crazy to have as a priority, especially when Amanda had no real hold on reality. As much as I liked the play, I was really disappointed in the end, when Jim said he was dating Betty, I was so hopeful for Laura!!

Act Two - Death of a Salesman

This play isn't something I really liked. It continually goes over that being well-liked is the key to everything, even though Biff and Happy already realize this, it kind of got annoying. Willy annoyed me for that reason, I know a lot of people think in really irrational ways like that, and it drives me nuts. So I think thats why I disliked it. Although I did dislike it, I must admit that it had a ton of good morals, and positive things to take away from the story and use in everyday life. The theme could be so many things, but I think the most obvious one is that being well-liked is not everything, or that it does not make a person successful.
I felt a little bad for Willy in the end, he just seemed like he could never get it right, from the way he thought, to being fired, to his sons flat out leaving him in the restuarant, it made me a little sad, because even though he is basically a crazy old delusional man, he shouldn't be treated like that.

Act One - Death of a Salesman

The major characters are Willy (the father), Linda (Willy’s wife), Biff and Happy (their sons). The minor characters are Charley (Willy’s brother, and neighbor), Bernard (Charley’s son), and Bill Oliver (Biff’s former boss). The protagonist of this play is obviously Willy; he is the focus of the action. The antagonist could be a few different people, but I think Biff, Willy’s son, is the character who goes against Willy the most. Willy talks about Biff a lot, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way, they both seem to butt heads equally with each other. Linda is a stereotype character, she does not really change, and she seems to be the typical housewife of the time period, stereotypically. The conflict is coincidence conflict, because Willy is constantly contradicting himself, with Biff being lazy and talking about how the car is worthless one minute and the best thing ever made the next minute. Willy is always talking to himself, and letting the audience hear him as he goes back into his fantasy’s or the past in his life, so the audience is the confidant. I’m not sure on what theme is for this story yet.

I really dislike this story/play, it is very confusing. Especially when Willy is contradicting himself, I just kept having to stop, and think “didn’t he just say the opposite?!”. I just seems like Miller jumps back and forth a lot between present and past, and not being able to visualize it makes it difficult to follow. I kind of feel bad for Biff, because he knows what he wants, but on the other hand he wants to make Willy proud of him so he stays at home instead of going out west.