.
In fact, examining the similarities of the characters of the play and the real characters in Williams life gives a deeper insight into their personality. Tennessee Williams" actual first name was Thomas and he gave it to his narrator. Williams, just as Tom, worked for a shoe company but detested his job and wrote poems. Both deserted their families in the end. Like his characters, Tennessee Willliams frequently, and without any explanation, changed the location of his inhabitance. Both felt guilty for leaving a beloved, troubled sister. Tom's sister Laura who is physically impaired and terminally shy is to some extent a representation of Tennessee's beloved sister Rose, whom the family had lobotomized in an ill-fated attempt to cure her psychological problems. Amanda Wingfield, the energetic and manipulative southern belle, is also a dramatic portrait of Williams' own mother, Edwina.
The Glass Menagerie deals mainly with the mental life of the characters rather than their physical life and in this regard Williams uses the memory structure. At the beginning of the play, Tom introduces the play as being told from his memories. Tom claims that the play's lack of realism, its high drama, its overblown and too-perfect symbolism, and even its frequent use of music, are all due to its origins in the memory. Therefore, although the play is considered by many critics as being a non-realistic play, there are some undeniable realities in Tom's recollections. "Williams demonstrates, through Tom's recollections, how powerful memories revolve around characters whose actions reflect the inner turmoil of the person doing the remembering" (Haley "phenomenon").According to R.B. Parker:.
This memory play is often spoken of as an exorcism of the past, but, if so, it is no more than an attempt to exorcise. It is better understood as an obsessive reliving of the experience in an attempt to come to terms with it, which recurs to Tom against his will.