A Marxist analysis of disability in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie | ||||
| Journal of Languages and Translation | ||||
| Article 7, Volume 10, Issue 1, January 2023, Page 101-115 PDF (297.2 K) | ||||
| Document Type: مقالات بحوث مبتکرة | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jltmin.2023.277608 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| Marwa Abd El-Baeth Yadak | ||||
| Department of English, Faculty of Al-Alsun (Languages), Kafr El-Shiekh University, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Drawing on Karl Marx's theory of Marxism and Kirsty Johnston’s Theory of disability, this paper attempts to read Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie by examining how Laura, the disabled protagonist, struggles to uncage herself from the shackles of disability at the time of the Great Depression. In the 1930s, American society was divided into many strata by the Great Depression which drove every family to take action. The Wingfields, likewise, decided to fix Laura in an arranged marriage with the help of her brother Tom but to no avail. Laura is the center of attention here and her setbacks, loneliness, and excessive shyness due to her disability are investigated through the lens of Kirsty Johnston’s disability theory, as expounded in her book Disability Theatre and Modern Drama: Recasting Modernism. The paper attempts to find answers to the questions: How did the economic recession become the main motivator of the action in the play? What did Laura do to resist the materialistic conditions and uncage herself from the shackles of disability? In addition, the paper examines how the techniques used to magnify the harsh economic conditions and the numerous attempts by Tom and Amanda to get Laura out of her psychological cage. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Disability theatre; Tennessee Williams; The Glass Menagerie; the Great Depression; Kirsty Johnston | ||||
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