The Glass Menagerie Lesson Plan

What repeats in the final scene from earlier in the play? If so, what is the expressive effect of the repetition?

After Jim has left the Wingfield apartment, Tom and Amanda become embroiled in an argument very similar to that in Scene 3. Students can think about whether this iteration of the argument is different or more intense. They might observe that for the first time, Amanda calls Laura crippled, a word she has dogmatically avoided to this point. While Tom accidentally knocked over Laura's glass animals in Scene 3, he deliberately throws down a glass in the final scene, and unlike any previous argument, this final fight between Tom and Amanda sets up the play's...