Narrative Devices
·
Flashback
This narrative device is dominant in the play.
The whole story is from the memory of Tom. He used this device to narrate his
past experiences in his house with his mother, Amanda and sister, Laura.
“Tom: To begin with, I turn bark time. I
reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of
America was matriculating in a school for the blind.”
Another flashback occurred when Amanda was
recalling and romanticizing about her past when fame and wealth was hers. She
had many gentlemen callers back then.
“Amanda: One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain
– your mother received – seventeen! – gentlemen callers!”
·
Foreshadowing
This narrative device is evident when the
glass unicorn’s horn was broke by Jim. It foreshadows the breaking of the heart
of Laura.
·
Coincidence
Tom got Jim O’Connor as the gentleman caller
for Laura not knowing that Jim and Laura knew each other from high school.
“Laura: There was a Jim O'Connor we both knew in high school -
[Then, with effort.] If that is the one that Tom is bringing to dinner - you'll
have to excuse me, I won't come to the table.”
Style
·
Informal (Dialogue)
Since the evaluated piece is a play, it is expected
to be in a dialogue form using informal words to incorporate a natural scene
from everyday life.
·
Sentence Structure:
Simple – “Tom: His name is O’Connor.”
Compound – “Amanda: My devotion
has made me a witch and so I make myself hateful to my children.”
Compound - Complex – “Amanda:
When I was a girl in Blue Mountain and it was suspected that a young man drank,
the girl whose attentions he had been receiving, if any girl was, would
sometimes speak to the minister of his church, or rather her father would if
her father was living, and sort of feel him out on the young man's character.”
·
Figures of speech:
Simile – “…Creamy thighs, eyes
like wood smoke in autumn, fingers that soothe and caress like strains of
music, bodies as powerful as Etruscan sculpture.”
Metaphor – “All girls are trap,
and all men expect them to be.”
Allusion – “Amanda: He had the
Midas Touch, whatever he touched turned to gold!”
Oxymoron – “Amanda: [She slowly removes her hat and
gloves continuing the sweet suffering stare.]”
Synecdoche – “Amanda: She also
needed to have a nimble wit and a tongue to meet all occasions.”
Hyperbole – “Amanda: I bet your
ears were burning.”
·
Imageries:
Visual – “Amanda: Oh, I can see
the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face.”
Kinaesthetic – “Laura: [She
makes a nervous gesture toward the chart on the wall.]”
Auditory – “Narrator: From the
outside there is a steady murmur of rain, but it is slackening and soon stops.”
Thermal – “Amanda: So warm
already.”
Tactile – “Tom: Their eyes had
failed them or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their
fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving
economy.”
Symbolism:
Glass Menagerie/ Unicorn
The Glass menagerie symbolizes
the fragile world of the characters. All of the Wingfields live
in a world of dreams and illusions. They are strange characters who are fragile
enough to break easily
Fire Escape/Movies/Alcohol
These are the means of Tom’s escape from reality. These are the symbols that have a different meaning and function for each character. For example, fire escape is a means of escape from fire, not the type of fire that was considered in its building, but "the slow and implacable fires of human desperation."
