Coping Despair with Creativity in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie

Abstract

Life in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is chaotic but the protagonists try to seek order in chaos with their creative force. Such a force provides psychological equilibrium during the intense moments of their existence. Tom, narrator – actor in the play, is faced with the most critical crises of his life but he enacts and reenacts them in such a masterful manner that his life story turns into a piece of art. Guilty conscience pricks Tom but it is his art that provides him much needed cathartic and therapeutic effect to come to terms with agonizing guilt. It is because of his sensitive poetic nature that Tom creates a thing of beauty by changing and transforming the unpleasant events of his life. His mother, Amanda, also pours out all her creative faculties to sustain her lonely life. His sister, Laura, is broken from within but her glass collection of extinct animal in itself reflects plain artistic/aesthetic taste. Reality is bitter and uncontrollable but they try to have a hold over it with their imaginative power. They are trapped in the dark world of pain and anxiety and try to find some light at the end of tunnel with their artistic creation. It is due to their creative ability with which they turn the negative aspects of their life into something bearable. The buffets of life are too heavy for them but they make their life endurable and create meanings with their creativity.