While Tennesee Williams' play may seem like a normal late 19th century play as you begin to read it, it definitely ends up surprising the reader. Generally speaking, you expect a play to have an introduction, rising action, a climax, falling action, and an ending. The Glass Menagerie however doesn't fit that mold. The play seems to be written in a very bland, monotonous tone that contains no excitement. The main surprise related to the plot and overall setup of the play is the ending, because there basically isn't one. Well, there isn't a significant one anyway; it leaves you hanging and questioning what exactly has happened.
Williams' play opens up with a pretty normal introduction that provides a solid background and introduces the characters that the reader will focus on throughout the play. Many small events happen during the play, like Tom arguing with his mother, Tom always leaving the house, Tom inviting one of his coworkers over for dinner, Jim kissing Laura, Laura's favorite animal breaking, etc. The problem is that none of these events have much of a significance and therefore don't really bring much interest to the play. Also, many of the events almost seem strange and unexpected. The most unexpected part of the entire play is the ending.
The final scene opens with descriptions of dinner, contains Jim and Laura's dancing and kissing, includes Jim's telling of his engagement and why he must rush off, Amanda's confrontation with Tom about him playing a "joke" by inviting Jim over, and then it ends in a completely unexpected way. Tom's final monologue informs the reader of several things: he was fired from his job at the warehouse, he wants to be like his father, he has been traveling in order to accomplish his goal (though he does not inform us of the goal), and he truly misses his sister because he sees so many things while he is gone that somehow remind him of her. Most of these things Tom discusses are being introduced to the reader for the first time. The fact that almost everything he sees reminds him of his sister really stood out to me, because it didn't seem like she meant that much to him in the play. After Tom finishes his monologue, the play simply ends. There's no rebuttal from Amanda (like there usually is when Tom speaks), there's no indication of how Laura feels, and it's just over. Like I said earlier, it's like Tennessee Williams wanted to leave you hanging and waiting for more, although you were never going to get that.
There is no doubt in my mind as to why Tennessee Williams chose to end this play in the way that he did. He wrote this play as a "memory play" which simply portrayed a memory, through Tom's eyes in this particular case, so it must begin when his memory begins and end when his memory ends. Reading this type of play would not be my preference, because it is like a small "chunk" has been taken out of time and you are never really informed about what went on in the time surrounding the "chunk" that was taken out. I would much rather read a play that had a normal plot structure so there would seem like there was more of a point to the play. However, Williams accomplished his goal of writing The Glass Menagerie as a "memory play" because basically the entire play was told through Tom's eyes and opinion. It is easy for the reader to realize that it is his memory that was important, because his actions seem to take over the majority of the play. The ending also solidifies Williams' efforts in writing this particular type of play, because when his memory is over, the play is over; there is nothing else included to make the play have a normal ending. You can also tell the focus is on Tom, because he is the main character involved with the beginning and ending of the play.
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