Menagerie pt. 2

I came across one of Husain’s blog comments where he asked to what extent Tom in the Glass Menagerie served as the “husband” figure in the family.  While there is plenty of textual evidence in the Menagerie to support Husain’s claim, we can look at this from a historical standpoint as well.  Looking back at the Great Depression, we see that the destitute conditions often thrust people out of their traditional family roles.  In the Wingfields’ case, when Tom’s father is gone, Tom is forced to pick up the slack by contributing financially to the Wingfield household.  Amanda is not employed, and thus she and Laura depend on Tom as their male breadwinner.  Tom is clearly old enough and completely able to live by himself, but he lives with his mother, probably due to financial considerations.  This is another example in the Glass Menagerie of how societal conditions seem to “box in” people into certain roles, whether they like those roles or not.  Tom clearly does not enjoy laboring at the warehouse all day, but due to the situation, is forced to do so.  When Tom makes his grand exit at the end of the novel, he leaves Amanda and Laura alone, similar to what his father ended up doing.  At the same time, though, not conforming to his traditional familial role allows him to escape the doomed situation.  So perhaps Williams is creating a parallel between Tom and his father in the Wingfield family in order to ultimately break that parallel by the end.  In any event, it’s an interesting family dynamic to consider, and I think that it would be very difficult to portray such a parallel in any other historical situation than the Great Depression.  This foes to show that overall, the historical setting of a novel can really have an impact on not only the plot but also the character developments and dynamics of the novel.