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Critical Essay on The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie is about undergoing the transition from childhood to adulthood and the decision to leave home and become independent. The decision is made with the understanding of the difference between reality as well as illusion.

Tom makes the decision to leave home, aware that there are things in life he can control and others which are beyond his control. This story revolves around persons who are not aware of themselves or their true identity.

Paul tries to encourage his family members to be more aware of their true selves. People tend to run away from reality and create illusions that they believe in. These illusions blind them, encouraging them to live in a dream world. So many people live this kind of life, and by the time they become aware of reality, they are too late or unable to revert to their true selves.

A major them in Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is that people live a dream life by making any effort to understand their potentials and capabilities.

Throughout the play, the characters try to create illusions because they find reality very painful. This makes the characters believe too much in their illusions, which results in them being accepted by their society in a way that they should not be accepted. Believing in illusions is a psychological problem because these people are no longer in control of their senses.

Illusions cause, people to become more of dreamers and this can affect their relationship with the family members who perceived life from a different perspective. A dreamer is unlikely to agree on many issues with a person who bases his life on reality. A dreamer will always remain a dreamer, and his or her ideas are unlikely to produce anything important.

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