Show Plot Glass Menagerie

Authors: Tennessee Williams

Time Period: late 1930s

Setting:  A dingy tenement apartment in St. Louis, Missouri

Summary: Tom works a mind-numbing job at a shoe warehouse to support his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura.  Amanda is terrified for Laura's future because Laura walks with a limp, is pathologically shy, and dropped out of business college.  To encourage Laura, Tom invites his coworker Jim O'Connor over for dinner.  Jim and Laura share a tender moment, but Jim then reveals he is engaged to be married. Enraged and exhausted, Tom finally abandons the family for good, though he remains haunted by his sister's memory