Glass Menagerie Blog Post 1

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

1. In presenting scene 1, the author says: "The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic." To whose memory does he refer? Why should memory be nonrealistic? List the different ways in which the play is nonrealistic. What, according to Tom in his opening speech, is the ultimate aim of this nonrealistic method of presentation?

 I believe that all the memories are from Tom Wingfield who is also the narrator. Tom is in all the scenes because he was either there in the memories or is telling the memories as a narrator in the play. This is why I can logically think that he is the one who's memories are telling the story. Memory should be nonrealistic because, "memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart." (Williams 1235). So, I think memory should be nonrealistic because something realistic would be the event actually happening. It is unrealistic for an event to reoccur in real life and happen again in a play. The play itself is nonrealistic because of the fact that it is a memory play. Also, the narrator is also a character and tells about all the stage directions, music, and lighting that happens in the play while still being a character in the play. His ultimate aim of this nonrealistic method is to give the truth "...in the pleasant disguise of illusion" (Williams 1236).