A
list of characters, a setting, a clear problem, characters interact until the
problem is solved -- this is the manner in which the routine play unfolds and
the way that viewers have become accustomed to expect; no inference, no
speculation, just straightforward telling of a fictional story for
entertainment purposes. However, this is clearly not always the path that
playwrights take when composing a new play, understandingly enough, because
predictable almost always leads to boring, eventually. To avoid this boredom,
playwrights often add elements to their plays that deviate from the traditional
manner to shock and confound the readers, causing them to have to offer an even
greater deal of thought to the inner workings of a play to understand its true,
underlying meaning. In Tennessee Williams' A
Glass Menagerie, Williams uses a variety of unusual approaches to
playwriting, such as having the play be in the form of a memory, including the
narrator as an actual character within the play as well, and having relevant
words and images projected onto an onstage screen both preceding and succeeding specific scenes; the latter is what I
feel is the most important, symbolic, and unusual of these, however.
At
first glance, the words and images that were being projected onto the screen,
to me, were vague and did not resonate with the play at all and it took a while for me to
realize that they were in fact relevant to the action of the play, sometimes preceding
it and sometimes succeeding it. I believe that Williams chose to employ
this technical element because it was a way for him to place emphasis on
certain aspects of the play so that the audience would easily be able to pick
up on them without having to pick apart the play and waste time speculating
about the importance or unimportance of a certain statement, facial expression,
or allusion. However, a confounding principle still remains because although he
is letting the audience know what is
important, he does not let them know why
it is important; he leaves that for the audience to decipher and interpret on
their own. Here is an example:
Scene Three, between Lines 137-140
(Music.)
(Screen legend:
"The Glass Menagerie.")
LAURA: (Shrilly.) My glass!
---menagerie…(She covers her face and turns away.)
In
this instance, the words preceded the action, which was part of Laura's glass
menagerie falling and shattering. This is one a bit more obvious than others
because we already know that the glass menagerie must be important as it's the
namesake of the play, yet we have no apparent reason as to why it is so
important, both to Laura and in general. Is it because her father started the
collection with her and that’s why she treasures it? Is it a metaphor for
something else in the Wingfields' lives? Or is it because Laura feels so
worthless in all other respects of her life that she finds comfort in the
glass?
Although
my initial reaction was that of annoyance at something that interrupted the
flow of reading, I later found myself relying on the words and images to aid in
my reading. If I saw a word/image, I stopped to briefly consider what the
importance of it could be to the whole of the play and then continued reading
with speculation and inference that made the play more exciting as I could
actively dispel or expand on any theories that I had formed as a result of
having that importance prematurely pointed out to me. Therefore, at least looking at it from my own experience,
I do believe that Williams achieved what I saw as his goal of coercing the
reader into thinking more deeply about the meaning of the play by drawing
attention to those words/images. Think about it: how many times have you had a
conversation about an issue with someone and they make a statement that makes
you say, "Oh, I hadn't thought about it that way." That is precisely
what I think Williams was trying to do by inserting these words/images in the
play when and where he did. Had he not, it is very possible that we would not have
paid the due amount of attention to what are obviously some of the most
significant matters in the play.
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