Williams, Tennessee: 1911-1983

The Glass Menagerie, 1945 - Thematic Parallels: Illusion

Illusion is something that appears to be different from reality, usually because your senses or mind interpret information in a misleading way.
Williams, Tennessee: The Glass Menagerie, 1945
The play explores themes of illusion and escape, the weight of unmet expectations, and the pain of abandonment.
The following books are thematically simliar. They lend themselves well to being read in groups, compared with one another, or used to teach a similar topic over an extended period with a class:
- Hansberry, Lorraine: A Raisin in the Sun, 1959, ~150pp
  This play deals with family struggles and hopes, sharing thematic resonance with Williams’ exploration of family and dreams.
  - Both works center on seemingly ordinary families whose lives are disrupted by an overwhelming, abnormal force. Both collapse the boundary between personal crisis (Lessing) and world crisis (Wilder), using domestic space as the staging ground for humanity’s broader anxieties. They envision human life as an ongoing struggle against forces beyond control, yet show families persisting through turmoil, however fractured.
- Jaku, Eddie: The Happiest Man on Earth, 2020, ~140pp
  This novel's central theme is choosing happiness and humanity despite unimaginable suffering in a concentration camp.
  - Both works explore how individuals endure suffering and create personal coping mechanisms. They share themes of memory, resilience, fragility, hope, and the centrality of personal narrative. They each explore how humans process trauma and navigate life in the shadow of the past.
- Miller, Arthur: Death of a Salesman, 1949, ~110pp
  This play shares motifs of illusion, family drama, and mid-20th century societal critique similar to “The Glass Menagerie."
  - Both texts present survival as a core aspect of the human experience—individual survival (Copper Sun) and collective, mythic survival (The Skin of Our Teeth). Both highlight that humanity is capable of both horror and goodness, depending on circumstance. They conclude by reaffirming that hope persists even after immense suffering.
- Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye, 1970, ~170pp
  This novel addresses psychological struggles and family dynamics, which also resonate with themes of fragility and illusion.
  - Both works examine how people respond morally, emotionally, and socially in the face of ongoing harm. Even amid suffering, there is hope for renewal—moral, spiritual, or civilizational.
- Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men, 1937, ~100pp
  This work portrays loneliness, dreams, and harsh realities affecting characters, akin to the emotional struggles in the play.
  - Both works explore the human capacity to endure hardship and maintain hope, albeit in very different ways—Williams through intimate family drama, Wilder through allegorical, larger-than-life catastrophes. Both challenge strict realism. Williams uses memory and symbolic objects; Wilder uses direct theatrical experimentation. In both cases, audience perception is guided as much by imagination as by literal events.
List of general discussion questions on Illusion (pdf)
List of essay prompts on Illusion (pdf)