『유리동물원 』에서 극작가의식을 지닌 내레이터

Abstract

Narrator with the Playwright’s Consciousness in The Glass Menagerie In The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams shows that characters perform for themselves and others. The framework that inner performance is going on within the outer frame play is formed by the existence of a role-playing actor and audience who watch him on the stage. The Glass Menagerie as memory play shows that the work has the structure of play within the play: Tom's memory forms outer play in which Amanda's memory forms inner play. By these two devices, characters reminds the audience in the seats not that they are representing reality but that they are only in the middle of performing on the stage. It leads us, the audience to see that this play is just a play, not real reality. The aim of this paper lies in looking into Tom with the playwright's consciousness in The Glass Menagerie marked by the device of 'role playing within the role' and 'play within the play.' Williams imposes Tom the consciousness of playwright to reflect his problems as a playwright in making the work aesthetically great and maintaining distance to Laura and Amanda in Tom's past. Tom acts like playwright, employing the consciousness of playwright. When Williams has to create the play from his memory, he need to escape from the painful burden of sense of guilt caused by leaving Laura and Amanda. To make his play go beyond the autobiographical and sentimental levels, Williams uses metatheatrical devices such as 'role playing within the role' and 'play within the play.' When the play is going on, screen image and title are shown on the wall of stage 44 times all through the play. Screen image and title are also related to the-above-mentioned metatheatrical devices in the sense that screen image and title are used to prevent audiences from empathizing too easily with the characters from Tom's past.