The Glass Menagerie

In the 2017 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie, Madeline Ferris, a performer in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy, played Laura. She is believed to be the first disabled performer in a wheelchair to play a leading role on Broadway. How does this choice affect the meaning of the play? How does it color the ways that the characters describe or interact with Laura? Do you agree with this choice? Why or why not?

How does the play formulate disability? What does disability mean to the various characters in the play? What does it mean to Laura? Considering that the play premiered in 1945, how do you think the play’s depiction of disability would play to an audience today?

Tom tells the audience that as a poet, and he likes to speak in symbols. What symbol do you think is the most prominent? What does it mean? How does each character relate to that symbol? Why did you choose that symbol as the most important? Use evidence from the text to support your analysis.

At the end of the narrative, Tom leaves his mother and sister. Do you think his actions are justified? If it’s clear that Tom will escape from the beginning of the play, how does Tom’s story influence your response to his leaving? What specifically makes it seem justified? What makes it seem unjustified?

Since Tom has cut himself off from his family, he doesn’t know what happened to them after he left. Therefore, we don’t know. What do you think happens next for Amanda, Laura, and Jim? What evidence in the text supports your prediction? How do you wish the play would end?

Although the characters never mention it, the action occurs at the end of the Great Depression. How does the Depression manifest in the play? Where do you see its effects? How does the recent experience of the Great Depression influence the characters’ motives and actions?

How do reality and fantasy become intertwined in this play? What fantasies do the characters hold onto, and how does reality seep in? Which character do you think is most steeped in fantasy? Why? Who is the most realistic?

What is the meaning of Laura’s glass menagerie? What does it mean to her? What does it mean to other characters? What might it symbolize? Consider Scene 7. How does what happens between Laura and Jim affect the meaning of the glass figurines?