The Glass Menagerie Memory and the Past Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Scene.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a big long monologue.

Quote #4

To begin with, I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, where the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy. (1.1, Tom).

Because of the narrative nature of the play, issues of the past and future necessarily dominate.

Quote #5

Legend on screen: "Ou sont les neiges." (Scene One, stage directions).

The legend reading, "Where are the snows of yesteryear," in French underscores Amanda’s longing for the past.

Quote #6

To begin with, I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, where the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy. (1.1, Tom).

The elaborate and flowery descriptions in the play can be attributed to the nature of its narrator, Tom, who recalls the scenes, poeticized, from his memory.