Glass Menagerie: An Uncertain Reality

This essay will examine the ways in which the three main characters in "The Glass Menagerie" soften with harshness of day-to-day living with an insulating blanket of self-deception.

This play is one of Tennessee Williams's earliest and most biographical plays (Patterson, 27).

"The Glass Menagerie" was written by Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams (1911-1983) in 1944, incorporating his short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" with the unproduced screenplay "The Gentleman Caller" (Williamson, 184).

It was first presented on December 26, 1944 (Williamson, 141).

The initial ticket sales were so poor that a closing notice was prepared following the early performances.

Williams himself expected it to last for only a few presentations.

E. Influential theatrical critics were impressed by the play, however, and began to champion its virtues in their regular newspaper column.

F. The audiences quickly picked up, so that mid-January of 1945, it...
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