The Glass Menagerie Summery

Class notes on Scene 1
* Tom finishes talking to the audience directly and becomes a cast member.
* Amanda nags Tom about his eating habits and his smoking.
* Laura acting as apeacemaker rises to bring in the dessert.
* Amanda becomes nostalgic for her time when single in blue mountain. She received 17 gentleman callers whereas Laura has not received any.
* As Amandadiscusses the wealthy white society she used to mixed in it becomes clear that she is racist, classist, and has come down socially in the world because she married badly.
* Clearly, Tom and Laura haveheard this story many times before. Laura becomes increasingly pressured to be like her mother.
* Music: The GM(title) tune played is associated with Laura and has a mocking effect.
Scene 2
*Laura's fragility is emphasized by the delicate ivory chair, the soft violet kimono, and the glass she is polishing.
* Amanda's clothes and her imitation fur collar show her desire to keep upappearances.
* The D.A.R. is the Daughters of the American Revolution. For upper class white women who could trace their family to that time (1776).
* The huge pocket book she carries symbolizesher desire to control or organize people and their lives.
* Amanda enters deliberately over-acting and rips ups Laura's typewriter and shorthand charts.
* Laura admits she stopped going toSecretarial School.
* When you cross the Rubicon means to make a step than you cannot take back.
* Compare Julius Cesar to Laura. Ironic contrast comparing her to Julius Cesar(Great man ofhistory) to a quiet, shy girl that dropped out of school.
* Rubicon's Business College is used to create an ironic contrast between Julius Cesar crossing the Rubicon and Laura failing and droppingout.
* When stressed by her mother Laura puts a record on the Victrola symbolizing how she takes refuge on the memory of her father.
* Laura identifies with the penguins in the zoo as...