The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a play founded on illusion. Williams uses the devices of illusion and metaphor to illustrate the truth, which he sometimes reveals through the use of irony. In the production notes preceding the work, Williams writes that "expressionism and all other unconventional techniques" in a work "should attempt to find a closer approach, a more penetrating and vivid expression of things as they are " and that "truth, life, or reality, is an organic thing that the poetic imagination can represent or suggest.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The role of Tom, the poet, is that of a maker or conveyor of illusions: Tom functions as a narrator of the work and "as an undisguised convention of the work" (Sc. 1). He states in his introductory monologue: “Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have tricks up my sleeve. But I'm the opposite of a stage magician. It gives you an illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you the truth under the pleasant disguise of illusion” (Sc. 1). His statement removes any doubt that he is the show's main illusionist, controlling his family's memories like puppets on strings for the audience to witness. Critic Joven indicates that the Wingfields' isolation and their "unsustainability" in relation to the modern world requires their removal into something more illusory: "The Wingfields cannot coexist with the real world around them because to live as they wish is to deny the 'existence of the [external] world." Furthermore, he points out that the entire family has fallen victim to worlds of their own making: "Amanda's dreams deny the passage of time. Laura's life completely denies the external world" (54 ) Tom, as messenger of memory (“This scene is memory and is therefore unrealistic”), and bearer of poetic devices, he is accused by his frustrated mother of precisely what he has already admitted (Sc. 1), after his efforts to find Amanda a partner for Laura have been frustrated, blames Tom: “You live in a dream; you build illusions!” (Sc.7) Amanda's accusation is both appropriate and ironic. The reader of the play has already been informed that this is Tom's function, but his mother fails to see the truth behind the illusions, perhaps. because it is within the work and therefore part of Tom's past and memory. Joven notes that “[it is] Tom the poet who associates Laura with pieces of colored glass and familiar musical phrases. It is the poet's mind that perceives the ironic contrast between Amanda and Laura's hopes and the harsh reality of the Paradise Dance Hall” (60). Likewise, Amanda's accusation is ironic; on the one hand she is a practical woman, a planner of occasions, and it may not be hers scope to understand the underlying truths that Tom attempts to project. On the other hand, the irony is partly that she creates her own illusions and accuses Tom of something that she is also guilty of : “Ironically what the playwright reveals it is a cast of characters caught up in illusions of their own making. All of them…have built their lives on flimsy premises of deception” (34). Their deception is an intentional self-deception created by necessity and self-preservation. But what is the truth that Tom intends to convey? The answer could be multifaceted. One aspect could be social commentary. Williams indicates in the notes for scene 1 the harsh conditions in which the family lives. Their building is, he describes, “one of those vast hive-like conglomerates of cellular living units that flourish like outgrowths, 1990.