Essay on Stage Directions in The Glass Menagerie -- Glass Menagerie e

importance of Stage Directions in The Glass Menagerie In Tennessee Williams melt, The Glass Menagerie, def give the sack directions are as important to the theme of the escape as the confabulation itself. Detailed stage directions intensify the unrealistic telescope, foreshadow and underline events, and break-dance the characters. Dim colored lighting and symbolic melodies create the unrealistic setting for the memory play. In his opening narration Tom says, Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the run in the wings (699). Throughout the play the stage directions call for a turgid smokey red glow, gloomy gray lighting and deep mettlesome dusk which create the hazy images of a memory. For a short while, as Jim enters, there is a delicate lemony light (688), and a slowly light from the new lamp brings out Lauras unearthly prettiness (695). Yet, at the end of the play, and throughout its majority, the set is grim, characteristic of Toms sad memory. Music in the play can be symbolic or simply add to the sense of a scene. In scene four, Ave Maria plays softly in the background, represent Amandas duties as a dumbfound. Throughout the play, music swells and recedes with the rising and falling of the characters emotions. For example, as Tom is confronting his mother with the reality of his sisters handicap, the music changes to a tango that has a minor and somewhat ominous tone (687). Describing characters appearances and presenting messages upon the screen, the stage directions foreshadow and emphasize events. The description of Tom standing on the fire escape face like a voyager (692) foreshadows his escape to th... ... actions of Amanda and Laura, an audience might believe that Laura has flummox out of her shell for good or that Amanda is simply an overprotective mother who cannot face reality. Yet, with the elaborate stage directions, Tennes see Williams creates a distinctive memory play with each character tragically failing to reach his or her goals. flora Cited Jolemore, Nancy. Lecture Notes and Study Guide Questions for Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. Old Dominion University. 18 January 2000. Accessed 29 June 2002. . Reser, Rob. A Touch of Glass. 29 June 2002. . Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Literature and The committal to writing Process. 5th ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. Upper Saddle River, NJ Prentice, 1999. 693-734.