The Glass Menagerie Scene Three Summary

  • There’s been a fiasco! Which we know, because the screen says "After the Fiasco."
  • Tom chills out on the fire escape and narrates:
  • He explains how Amanda wants gentlemen callers for Laura, and an image of...yep, you got it, a gentleman caller appears on the screen.
  • Turns out Mrs. Wingfield (that would be Amanda) sells magazine subscriptions.
  • Then we see Amanda making these ridiculous phone calls trying to get people to subscribe.
  • Screen says, "You think I’m in love with Continental Shoemakers?"
  • OK, this is really important: for the next whole conversation, the stage light is on Laura, not the people talking. Got it?
  • Amanda and Tom argue because he’s been reading the trashy romance novels of D.H. Lawrence. Oh, he also escapes to the movies.
  • Tom makes it clear that he hates his job and life in general and wishes someone would come along and bash his brains out. No, literally, he wants someone to bash his brains out, and preferably with a crowbar. Check it out, because we are not making this stuff up.
  • He wants to skip town like his father did. Oh, the apple doesn’t fall far from the abandonment tree.
  • When accused that he’s not actually going to the movies, Tom tirades on all the Satan-worshipping, alcohol-consuming, prostitute-soliciting things he is really doing. That’s sarcastic, by the way.
  • In a rage, he accidentally breaks several of the glass animals.
  • Laura is sad. In a far more eloquent way than this.
  • "The Glass Menagerie" music plays again.