The Glass Menagerie

Written by Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie was a play about past experiences from one of the characters in the play. Right from the beginning of the play you are left with many questions. Laura is a shy girl whose mother struggles to find her the love of her life. The entire beginning of the play is written so the reader does not truly understand why laural is shy and does not interact with the outside world, she holds onto the things that she is familiar with and never steps out of her box. Her life is so not intact with the world to the point her mother and brother have to step in and find her a man to love. You soon find out in the middle of the play that laura is crippled and this has scared her life deeply. Williams wrote this play carefully and open endings are seen right from the start. You ask you’re self so many questions like why is Tom reflecting on the past and how come he is not with Laura and his mother but alone. This foreshadows on the ending of the play. Williams finishes it up with a heart breaking ending, having to see Laura fall into a deep liking for this so called “gentlemen caller” and this man is snatched right out of her life. When reading the play you begin to grow this gentleness and feel bad for Laura and her life and the ending just makes it more heart wrenching. Open endings are found at the end when Tom walks out on his family, to live the life he wants. Do we know if he gets there or if he ends up finding a love of his life? How about what happens to Laura and her mother? Do they find a man for Laura that will come into her life and take over the house? There are so many possibilities that are left for exploring at the end of this play. Many may think that Laura will go back to her life that she had once lived and never find the love of her life. Her mother would be heart broken and the family would struggle for survival. It was all apart of Williams’s genius plan to this play. Open endings were perfect because is brought a new beginning to a different chapter in this family’s life.