Arguing the Human Element for the Glass Menagerie

A play is a literary composition consisting of dialogue between characters. A play is "trapped" in the pages of the script and reader's mind, when only read as prose or poetry. Although a reader may be content with lending his or her own bias, experience, and interpretation to the script, the lifeblood – drama - of which a play draws upon to transcend from vision to reality, is inherently lost in text. Drama is intended to explore and express human feelings through performance, verily involving conflicts and emotions demonstrated through action and dialogue. Tennessee Williams's, The Glass Menagerie, is a memory play dedicated to following a broken family who struggles with the past, present, and future. His drama is a worthy example of how the human element of performance positively impacts character and narrative on stage in order to vividly express things as they are, elevating the piece of literature to greatness.

Drama relies heavily on characters to strike a chord with the audience, as characters are the essences of human behavior. It is the actor's job to embody the character and bring the character to life on stage utilizing the performing elements: acting, speaking, and nonverbal expressions. Acting is how speaking and moving help to create character. In Tennessee Williams's, The Glass Menagerie, none of the characters' personalities are straight shot cookie cutters. They each have their own complicated setup as described wonderfully by Williams, in the dramatis personae. Take the mother for example: "Amanda Wingfield, the mother. A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place. Her Characterization must be carefully created, not copied from type. She is not paranoiac, but her life is paranoia. There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person." (Williams 972). She is a woman of great but confused vitality, clinging frantically to another time and place. Though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person. These are paradoxes in text, and may be hard for the reader to truly understand the character, by reading alone. Which is why Williams calls for Amanda's movement to be seen by the audience as well as her speech heard. A perfect example of this "movement" is when Amanda directs Laura to study her typewriter chart all the while staying fresh and pretty for it was soon time for the "gentleman callers to start arriving. (She [Amanda] flounces girlishly toward the kitchenette.)" (Williams 976). Amanda's "flouncing girlishly" on stage contrasted with Laura's "nervous echoes [echoing] her laugh. She slips in a fugitive manner through the half-open