Glass Menagerie Blog 5

                Similarly to A Raisin in the Sun, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie incorporates a great deal of irony into its plot in order to enrich the drama and entertainment of the play. Perhaps the most evident example of irony which can be detected in the context of the play is the dramatic irony in the dilemma concerning the electricity bill. While Amanda is toiling away in the kitchen, Tom secretly confers with Jim and confides in him his secret that he is planning to leave his mother and sister behind in pursuit of a more adventurous lifestyle, just as his father did many years previously. Tom’s first bold step in abandoning his family was to use his paycheck from the warehouse to purchase his membership to the Union of Merchant Seaman rather than pay the electricity bill for the apartment. Because the reader has witnessed this conversation, he understands that Tom has intentionally chosen not to pay the bills in exchange for following his own dreams and desires. Dramatic irony occurs, however, because Amanda is unaware of the fact that Tom has disregarded the bill for these specific reasons and is instead under the impression that Tom simply forgot to pay the bill out of pure irresponsible negligence. This sample of dramatic irony is surprisingly significant to the play, for it illuminates characterization of both Amanda and Tom and also elicits symbolism. To begin with, the fact that Amanda was willing to believe that Tom merely forgot to pay the bill due to a distracted or whimsical mind rather than ascertain the true reason for his negligence- his selfish plans to abandon the family in a time of great need- reveals to the reader that Amanda has a genuine heart underneath her delusional and overbearing personality. While Amanda may have been somewhat uncompassionate in regard to Tom’s dreams and ambitions, and insensitive to Laura’s shyness, this dramatic irony reveals to the reader that fact that her intentions for her children genuinely were for the obtainment of their happiness. Amanda may have appeared to have been a little strict on her children, but the reader can now understands that she acted in this manner purely out of her strong desire to prevent her children from making the same mistakes that she and their father made in the past. While Amanda certainly nagged Tom about his habit of escaping to the movies on a regular basis, the dramatic irony present in this scene proves that she never truly doubted his dedication to the family of his commitment to the well-being of the family. Unfortunately, the reader understands long before Amanda does that Tom places his own selfish desires above the prosperity of his family.

                In addition to helping characterize Amanda as genuine and trusting and Tom as selfish, this instance of dramatic irony serves a second purpose of revealing symbolism to the audience. Tom’s choice to allow his own personal ambitions to transcend the needs of his mother and sister literally sent the family into plunging darkness; after all, his failure to pay the electricity bill resulted in the entire apartment shuddering in the darkness of the night. However, the fact that Tom’s negligence also drove Amanda and Laura into a kind of metaphorical darkness is also true. When Tom leaves his family, Amanda, who is elderly and delusional, and Laura, who is painfully shy and crippled, will be left to make money for themselves. Their ability to sustain themselves will be highly questionably, and the likelihood of Laura finding a husband to marry dramatically decreases. Consequently, Tom’s choice to pursue his own dreams essentially dooms his mother and sister to a life of poverty and unhappiness; therefore, Tom is, in a sense, sentencing his family to metaphorical darkness. As the power in the house flickers out, Amanda laments that they have been “plunged…into everlasting darkness” (Williams, 1272). While this comment may be literally somewhat melodramatic, I could not help but be struck by this comment when reading the play, for I realized that, with such a vile act, Tom genuinely had, in fact, forced his mother and sister into unending difficulty.