Repetition as trapped emotion in Tennessee Williams’s "The Glass Menagerie"
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Date
2016
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
Repetition as a linguistic and stylistic device extensively used in Tennessee Williams’s plays has
been noticed by many. At the same time, more psychologically-inclined scholars have frequently
drawn parallels between Williams’s plays and his own experiences and emotional conflicts. In an
attempt to combine the two perspectives, this article will explore the function of repetitions as
indicators of trapped emotions in Williams’s celebrated and award-winning play The Glass
Menagerie. Starting from the stylistic theoretical background, but at the same time taking into
account the psychological insights into the link between Williams’s life and work through some
basic concepts of Freud and Lacan, an attempt will be made to demonstrate that in this play
linguistic repetition appears as an obsessive expression of the characters’ emotions as well as
those of the dramatist himself, making him repeat and relive both his experiences and his
emotions. The authors will first introduce the concept and functions of repetition as a linguistic
and stylistic device and then explore its representative instances in individual characters and their
meanings, ending with the parallels which can be drawn between the characters’ and the
dramatist’s own experiences and emotions expressed or intensified through repetitions.
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Keywords
Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, repetition, repetition compulsion, trapped emotions
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 51.4(2016), pp. 29-51