The World of The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie is set in 1937 in St. Louis, MO and is centered around a struggling working class family with more issues than just enough money to go around. With the depression getting closer to being over and the end being just on the forward horizon the audience sees the effects of what happened eight years prior to our story taking place. The stock market crash in 1929 directly coincides with the problems the Wingfield’s are experiencing at the current time of the play and ultimately leads to the family being torn apart because of the scarcity of money.
Tom is a factory worker in a very unstable if not the most unstable economy the United States has ever seen, during this time unemployment was not uncommon and had Tom not run away after losing his job at the shoe warehouse he would have just been one of the many people standing in the unemployment/strike lines but he would have been standing in a bread line as well. Times were hard for blue collar workers such as Jim and Tom, an opportunity to work was something that was valued and many times the only way a family could stay afloat. Even people with jobs were still not able to live comfortably, the apartment the Wingfield’s live in is an inner city apartment and of course small and not in the nicest conditions. Even though the lights turning off in the show is a big thing, this was not uncommon for people that lived in the inner city and slums to have their electricity go out regardless of if they paid the bill. Most apartment buildings had thousands of people living in them with multiple families in one household.Things like the glass figurines to these people were precious possessions and very important keepsakes. Things like these were not incredibly common which is why they are such prized possessions to Laura and Amanda.
Some explanations for Tom’s sometimes irrational thinking can come from people saying it was the money issues, the alcohol, the pent up rage and all of these are valid points but this was a time when people who couldn’t make money the right and legal way were making money and becoming famous for robbing banks and being notorious thieves throughout the nation. These things were especially popular in the Midwest and South were our play takes place so a valid argument could be that Tom running away could be sparked by interest in current events with famous criminals such as John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde. Alcohol was also a big issue at this time in the United States and also played a major role in the behavior of Tom.
Not all workers were like Tom however, there were men like Jim that were stand up guys just trying to make it through the hard times. The gentleman caller idea is more like a modern day dating website that had to be set up through people like matchmakers. This was not uncommon for a mother like Amanda from her background to be pushing for Laura to find a boyfriend and eventually get married so the man can take care of her. This was a social norm throughout the 1930’s and was the way most people met their partners in this time. The thing that isn’t normal is that Jim who is the gentleman caller currently has a fiancé. Most gentleman callers were single already and looking for a partner just as much as the mother is looking for one for her daughter.
As it is a big deal in the production people like Tom running away from their families and basically abandoning them was not an uncommon practice. Mostly men in the same situations as Tom would set out to find something new in their life to try and start over, people were heading North to New York City or West to California in search of finding a new life. Some were able to do it and some were faced with even more adversity than the life they had before leaving. We as the reader and audience member do not know exactly what happened while Tom was away but we know he returns out of guilt for leaving his sister which was something that was way more uncommon than him leaving.
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