The Opening of Glass Menagerie Essay -- Glass Menagerie Plays Themes E

The Opening of Glass Menagerie The opening of Glass Menagerie is key in establishing themes, relationships, dramatic conventions character symbolism and style. Discuss. The opening of the play ‘Glass Menagerie’ let the audience know about various elements of the play such as themes, relationships, characters and dramatic conventions. This was done by detailed description of the setting and the narrator, Tom informing the audience. The main themes of the play could be found in the opening. The fact that the play was about memory had been made clear in the beginning with the line, â€Å"the scene is memory†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Once again confirmed very clearly by Tom who said, â€Å"the play is memory.† The audience could easily interpret that this play was Tom’s memory of his life with Amanda and Laura in St Louis. At the end of the play the audience found out that Tom could not erase the memory of leaving Laura. â€Å"Oh, Laura, Laura I tried to leave you behind me but I am more faithful than I intended to be.† This theme of memory influenced Amanda also as the play progressed. It became evident that she could not escape from her memories of living in the â€Å"Blue Mountain† where she had a pleasurable and an abundant life. Few minutes after the play began the audience already hears Amanda babbling about it â€Å"I remember one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This happened throughout the play consistently. She would talk about her life in the â€Å"Blue Mountain† whenever she got a chance to. So it would be quite true to say that Amanda was living in her memory, which caused her to deny the reality. The idea of accepting the reality was also evident in the opening of the play. Tom spoke of gentleman caller who â€Å"is the most realis... ...When she had one finally, he turned out to be the greatest disappointment and left her devastated in the end. So Amanda had to awkwardly sum the whole incident up by saying â€Å"things have a way of turning out so badly,† and blame it all on Tom. The unusual dramatic conventions were set in the opening. The narrator, Tom directly addressed the audience, â€Å"I am the narrator of the play†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which was unusual. Also by using the screens to produce appropriate images and music frequently, the play was made more interesting and accessible to the audience. The opening of the play was the key in establishing themes, characters and their relationships and dramatic conventions as it revealed them effectively to the audience. So the audience could easily understand what was happening, guess what would happen and receive the message that was meant to be delivered.