First Scene Of The Play example essay topic

One of the main purposes of an introductory scene is to familiarise the audience with the play's characters. How far has Williams achieved this in your opinion? I think that Tennessee Williams has achieved his purpose of introducing the play's main characters who are Tom, Amanda and Laura Wingfield's to the audience during the first scene of the play. Tom Wingfield is introduced to us in the play as the narrator as well as one of the main characters. He says: "I am the narrator of the play, and also a character in it". As the narrator of the play, we see Tom as a levelheaded and mature character.

He addresses the audience directly seeking to provide a more detached explanation and assessment of what has been happening on stage. Therefore, Tom first appears as a cool, objective character who earns the audience's trust with how he introduces his family and the way he talks about current political issues that were happening during the 1930's. As a character in the play, Tom changes completely. Within minutes, Tom changes into an irritable young man who is embroiled in a small petty argument with his mother over how he chews his food.

We learn a lot about Tom and his relationship towards his mother Amanda. We see Tom's frustration, annoyance and intolerant attitude towards her. Tom is aggravated by her habitual talk of "gentle-men callers" for his crippled sister Laura and we see how he responds sarcastically towards anything that his mother says especially when she talks about the times she was a young girl and when gentle-men callers came to see her in Blue Mountain. For Tom this every day talk is like a ritual of which he is tired of listening to and to which he responds by groaning and acting annoyed and impatiently. Amanda Wingfield is the typical faded Southern belle and when she first appears in the scene, she calls Tom to the dinner table and once he sits down, she repeatedly tells him to chew his food.

I think that her behavior here and later on with Laura shows that she is too over-protective and she treats her children like kids and this is perhaps what Tom wants to escape from. Amanda constantly nags Tom at every little thing that he does and she detests the idea of Tom smoking and going to the movies all the time. She also simply refuses to see Laura for who she really is and this behavior is seen throughout the scene and also throughout the play. I think that we learn a lot about Amanda's character in the first scene, like her attitudes towards her children and her behavior in which she acts like a typical Southern belle with her genteel manners and the way she speaks to her children. We see Amanda get very nostalgic as she reminisces about her youth and she seems to cling on to the past and refuses to let go of her old memories which could be one of the flaws in her character. In the first scene of the play, we hardly see Laura talk a lot but we learn a lot about her character.

Tennessee Williams presents her to us as a meek, quiet and bland character. Her mother wants her to stay "fresh and pretty" for gentlemen callers. We see her always trying to divert her mother's attention and diffuse a situation every time her mother begins to start bickering with her brother Tom. After the end of this scene we can't but have pity on Laura because of the way her mother treats her of trying to get gentlemen callers for her. Laura displays sadness at the situation but she does not get very discouraged. Laura is very realistic and is aware of her limitations and she is upset at what her mother does.

She just wants to escape from her mother's fantasy world and be brave enough to do it. I think that what I like about Laura in this scene is that she indulges her mother. She does not want conflict and does not want to upset her. She urges Tom to listen to attentively to what her mother has to say. Therefore I think that by the end of the introductory scene we learn a lot about the characters and their behaviors and attitudes towards each other.