The Glass Menagerie Play Quiz: Trivia

1.

From her original entrance on stage through her leaving to bring dessert, Amanda reveals that, despite her current living conditions, she has at some time known a more genteel life. This is indicated by all of the following EXCEPT her

A.

Encouraging Tom to show better table manners
B.

Insisting that “grace” be said before a meal begins
C.

Referring to the situation between mistress and servant
D.

Telling Tom he smokes too much
E.

Using a rather sophisticated vocabulary

Correct Answer
D. Telling Tom he smokes too much

Explanation
telling Tom he smokes too much. This line expresses a common worry for mothers regardless of their station in life. Here, Amanda shows no careful wording or genteel phrasing as she does with her request that Tom slow down his eating. The other choices show that Amanda has not been the product of the tenements since birth. She wants “grace” said before each meal (not a blessing or a returning of “thanks” – more common terms for the same thing); she requests that Tom exert better table manners and gives him reasons why he should eat more “leisurely,” using learned and euphemistic language, despite Tom’s taking offense and indicating that her instructions have been disgusting. Her reference to “lady” and “darky” would be out of place for a common tenement dweller. Obviously, Amanda has been in a situation where she did, in fact, have servants to attend to her.

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2.

The first interaction in the play between Tom and Amanda, beginning with Amanda’s speech “[to her son]” and extending through Tom’s rising from the table and walking toward the living room indicates that

A.

This is a replay of an on-going discussion between mother and son
B.

Tom would like to argue the issue of Amanda’s constant attention to his manners and eating habits
C.

Amanda diffuses the situation, refusing a confrontation with her son
D.

This is a replay of an on-going discussion between mother and son and Tom would like to argue the issue of Amanda’s constant attention to his manners and eating habits
E.

This is a replay of an on-going discussion between mother and son, Tom would like to argue the issue of Amanda’s constant attention to his manners and eating habits, and Amanda diffuses the situation, refusing a confrontation with her son

Correct Answer
E. This is a replay of an on-going discussion between mother and son, Tom would like to argue the issue of Amanda’s constant attention to his manners and eating habits, and Amanda diffuses the situation, refusing a confrontation with her son

Explanation
this is a replay of an on-going discussion between mother and son, Tom would like to argue the issue of Amanda’s constant attention to his manners and eating habits, and Amanda diffuses the situation, refusing a confrontation with her son. Tom’s heated response to Amanda’s instructions to eat more slowly indicates that this is not a new conversation: “It’s you that make me rush through meals with your hawklike attention to every bite I take.” Tom, no doubt, is caught in the bind that accompanies adult children living at home with their parents. Amanda sees the mother-son relationship as she saw it in her son’s childhood. Tom, wanting to be treated as the adult he actually is, would like to “have it out” with his mother, as his angry challenge to her indicates. However, Amanda diffuses this situation, unwilling to verbally spar with her son. She simply says “lightly” that he has a “Temperament like a Metropolitan star!”

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3.

The most likely reason that Williams included the racial slur in Amanda’s memory of her seventeen gentlemen callers is to

A.

Make Amanda’s memories less believable
B.

Help establish Amanda’s former status as a Southern Belle
C.

Reveal that Blue Mountain is located in the deep South
D.

Lessen the audience’s sympathy for Amanda
E.

Reveal Williams’ personal bigotry

Correct Answer
B. Help establish Amanda’s former status as a Southern Belle

Explanation
help establish Amanda’s former status as a Southern Belle. Amanda’s memories reveal that she is the product of her upbringing. As a young, pretty, girl of marriageable age in the reconstruction era of the South, she would have been raised in a sheltered environment, protected from ideas other than those of her family. No doubt, she heard this term from the time she was born. She shows no other signs of being actively racist, nor do any of Williams’ other lines of dialogue or stage direction suggest racism on the playwright’s part. The term could help establish the location of Blue Mountain. However, readers and viewers are told outright that Amanda grew up on the Mississippi Delta, so Amanda’s use of the slur is not a revelation regarding her hometown. Williams appears to be presenting Amanda as a total package – coming alive in the memories of her “belledom” and refusing to shake off the idea that girls, including her daughter, WILL be courted once they are of marriageable age by nice, wealthy young men.

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4.

In response to Tom’s questioning what Amanda talked about with her many callers, Amanda replies “Things of importance going on in the world! Never anything coarse or common or vulgar.” Within the context of the play at the time this line is delivered, the best paraphrase of the second sentence would be

A.

Never anything real or significant.
B.

Never anything that was not amusing or light.
C.

Never anything that would cause controversy.
D.

Never anything too complicated for us to understand.
E.

Never anything trivial or petty.

Correct Answer
A. Never anything real or significant.

Explanation
Never anything real or significant. In keeping with the Southern tradition of sheltering all women, especially young ones, reality was often left out of polite conversation. “Things of importance” to young Amanda would have included items on the social agenda, the well-being of neighbors, acceptable writers, painters, and music – all of the topics young belles were encouraged to be conversant with. Politics and civic controversy would be avoided, as would the living conditions of the poor, any scandals that might have occurred, any controversial or unconventional artists. As Amanda recites the fates of her former beaux, the details she remembers were no doubt passed to her in backroom gossip among young women her own age. Many of the details are not those that would be found in newspaper accounts – Bates Cutrere having Amanda’s picture with him when he died, the exact amount and numbers in the legacies the gentlemen had bequeathed their widows.

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5.

After Amanda’s line, “Things of importance going on in the world! Never anything coarse or common or vulgar,” Tom moves from his role as character and assumes the role of

A.

Audience member
B.

Critic
C.

Director
D.

Musician
E.

Narrator

Correct Answer
C. Director

Explanation
director. Although Tom admits to serving as narrator and character, here, his actions indicate that he is directing a scene with which he is extremely familiar. He removes himself from the stage and “plays this scene as though reading from a script.” Much of what he says serves to prompt Amanda’s memories. Also, he “cues” the music with a motion of his hand. These are actions of a director, not a narrator or character in the play.

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6.

Amanda’s description of her beaux is characterized by

A.

Amplification
B.

Bathos
C.

Hyperbole
D.

Rhetorical questioning
E.

Synecdoche

Correct Answer
A. Amplification

Explanation
amplification. Amanda lists her beaux by introducing each one by name. She then inserts a phrase or two elaborating on the status, character, or beauty of each man – amplifying the character of each. For example, Champ Laughlin “later became vice-president of the Delta Planters Bank.”

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7.

In this passage, a sharp contrast is drawn between Amanda’s reminiscence and Laura’s. All of the following point to Laura’s position EXCEPT

A.

Laura “nervously” echoing Amanda’s laugh
B.

Laura’s line: “I’m just not popular like you were in Blue Mountain.”
C.

Laura’s slipping “in a fugitive manner” through the portiers
D.

The legend on the screen, which translates to “Where are the snows of yesterday?”
E.

The shaft of very clear light that is thrown on Laura’s face “against the faded tapestry of the curtains”

Correct Answer
D. The legend on the screen, which translates to “Where are the snows of yesterday?”

Explanation
the legend on the screen, which translates to “Where are the snows of yesterday?” The legend is in reference to Amanda’s reminiscing on the past and has nothing to do with Laura. Laura’s motif becomes the theme music of The Glass Menagerie. However, Williams has taken many obvious opportunities to show that Laura is very different from her mother. While Amanda’s memories have been seen through the misty and inaccurate candlelight of memory, Laura sees herself in the sharp, clear light of reality. She knows no gentlemen callers will come, and we see from the stage directions that this is not a happy realization for her. She is “nervous” when her mother discusses her anticipation of the callers; Laura slips “in a fugitive manner” from one room to the next, no doubt hoping to avoid her mother’s scrutiny. Her “apologetic” smile to Tom when she tells him that Amanda fears Laura will become “an old maid,” is almost heartbreaking. She feels a disappointment to her once-beautiful and popular mother.

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