Disintegration and Reconstruction

A Study of the Communities in The Glass Menagerie

Abstract

The Glass Menagerie is a work by American playwright Tennessee Williams that "opens a new chapter in the history of Western theater". It tells the tragedy of an ordinary family's confrontation with the real society in the background of the Great Depression after the First World War. In this play, Williams follows the realistic principle and uses the symbol “the glass zoo” to signify the whole family in the play, which shows the fragility of the family community under the social background at that time, and also implies the possibility of community reconstruction. Through analyzing the community in The Glass Menagerie, the author explore reasons for the collapse of the community and the possibility of its reconstruction in the course of social development.