Tennessee Williams - The Glass Menagerie

[ TOM is unmoved by the thought .]

TOM: I’d rather smoke. [ He steps out on the landing letting the screen door slam. ]

AMANDA [ sharply ]: I know! That’s the tragedy of it. [ Alone, she turns to look at her husband’s picture. ]

[ DANCE MUSIC: “ALL THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE SUNRISE!” ]

TOM [ to the audience ]: Across the alley from us was the Paradise Dance Hall. On evenings in spring the windows and doors were open and the music came outdoors. Sometimes the lights were turned out except for a large glass sphere that hung from the ceiling. It would turn slowly about and filter the dusk with delicate rainbow colours. Then the orchestra played a waltz or a tango, something that had a slow and sensuous rhythm. Couples would come outside, to the relative privacy of the alley. You could see them kissing behind ash-pits and telegraph poles. This was the compensation for lives that passed like mine, without any change or adventure. Adventure and change were imminent in this year. They were waiting around the corner for all these kids. Suspended in the mist over Berchtesgaden [12] Berchtesgaden: Hitler’s favorite resort in the German Alp , caught in the folds of Chamberlain’s umbrella [13] Chamberlain: Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister, 1937-1940; often caricaturized with his umbrella, he symbolized efforts to satisfy Hitler’s ambitions by “appeasement”. . In Spain there was Guernica! But here there was only hot swing music and liquor, dance halls, ban, and movies, and sex that hung in the gloom like a chandelier and flooded the world with brief, deceptive rainbows. …All the world was waiting for bombardments!

[ AMANDA turns front de picture and comes outside .]

AMANDA [ sighing ]: A fire-escape landing’s a poor excuse for a porch. [ She spreads a newspaper on a step and sits down grace and demurely as if she were settling into a swing on a Mississippi veranda. ] What are you looking at?

TOM: The moon.

AMANDA: Is there a moon this evening?

TOM: It’s rising over Garfinkel’s Delicatessen.

AMANDA: So it is! A little silver slipper of a moon. Have you made a wish on it yet?

TOM: Um-hum.

AMANDA: What did you wish for?

TOM: That’s a secret.

AMANDA: A secret, huh? Well, I won’t tell mine either. I will be just as mysterious as you.

TOM: I bet I can guess what yours is.

AMANDA: Is my head so transparent?

TOM: You’re not a sphinx.

AMANDA: No, I don’t have secrets. I’ll tell you what I wished for on the moon. Success and happiness for my precious children! I wish for that whenever there’s a moon, and when there isn’t a moon, I wish for it, too.

TOM: I thought perhaps you wished for a gentleman caller.

AMANDA: Why do you say that?

TOM: Don’t you remember asking me to fetch one?

AMANDA: I remember suggesting that it would be nice for your sister if you brought home some nice young from the warehouse. I think that I’ve made that suggestion more than once.

TOM: Yes, you have made it repeatedly.

AMANDA: Well?

TOM: We are going to have One.

AMANDA: What?

TOM: A gentleman caller!

[ THE ANNUNCIATION IS CELEBRATED WITH MUSIC. AMANDA rises IMAGE ON SCREEN: CALLER WITH BOUQUET. ]

AMANDA: You mean you have asked some nice young man to come over?

TOM: Yep. I’ve asked him to dinner.

AMANDA: You really did?

TOM: I did!

AMANDA: You did, and did he – accept?

TOM: He did!

AMANDA: Well, Well? Well, well! That’s – lovely!

TOM: I thought that you would be pleased.

AMANDA: It’s definite, then?

TOM: Very definite.

AMANDA: Soon?

TOM: Very soon.

AMANDA: For heaven’s sake, stop putting on and tell me some things, will you?

TOM: What things do you want me to tell you?

AMANDA: Naturally I would like to know when he’s coming!

TOM: He’s coming tomorrow.

AMANDA: Tomorrow?

TOM: Yep. Tomorrow.

AMANDA: But, Tom!

TOM: Yes, Mother?

AMANDA: Tomorrow gives me no time!

TOM: Time for what?

AMANDA: Preparations! Why didn’t you phone me at once, as soon as you asked him, the minute that he accepted? Then, don’t you see, I could have been getting ready!

TOM: You don’t have to make any fuss.

AMANDA: Oh, Tom, Tom, Tom, of course I have to make a fuss! I want things nice, not sloppy! Not thrown together. I’ll certainly have to do some fast thinking, won’t I?

TOM: I don’t see why you have to think at all.

AMANDA: You just don’t know. We can’t have a gentleman caller in a pigsty! All my wedding silver has to be polished, the monogrammed table linen ought to be laundered! The windows have to be washed and fresh curtains put up. And how about clothes? We have to wear something, don’t we?

TOM: Mother, this boy is no one to make a fuss over!

AMANDA: Do you realize he’s the first young man we’ve introduced to your sister? It’s terrible, dreadful, disgraceful that poor little sister has never received a single gentleman caller! Tom, come inside! [ She opens the screen door .]

TOM: What for?

AMANDA: I want to ask you some things.

TOM: If you’re going to make such a fuss, I’ll call it off, I’ll tell him not to come!

AMANDA: You certainly won’t do anything of the kind. Nothing offends people worse than broken engagements. It simply means I’ll have to work like a Turk! We won’t be brilliant, but we will pass inspection. Come on inside. [ Tom follows, groaning .] Sit down.

TOM Any particular place you would like me to sit?

AMANDA: Thank heavens I’ve got that new sofa! I’m also making payments on a floor lamp I’ll have sent out! And put the chintz covers on, they’ll brighten things up! Of course I’d hoped to have these walls re-papered. … What is the young man’s name?

TOM: His name is O’Connor.

AMANDA: That, of course, means fish [14] Assuming that he is an Irish Catholic and will observe the usual rule against eating meat on Fridays – tomorrow is Friday! I’ll have that salmon loaf – with Durkee’s dressing! What does he do? He works at the warehouse?

TOM: Of course! How else would –

AMANDA: Tom, he – doesn’t drink?

TOM: Why do you ask me that?

AMANDA: Your father did!

TOM: Don’t get started on that!

AMANDA: He does drink, then?

TOM: Not that I know of!

AMANDA: Make sure, be certain! The last thing I want for my daughter’s a boy who drinks!

TOM: Aren’t you being a little bit premature? Mr. O’Connor has not yet appeared on the scene!

AMANDA: But will tomorrow. To meet your sister, and what do I know about his character? Nothing! Old maids are better off than wives of drunkards!

TOM: Oh, my God!

AMANDA: Be still!

TOM [ leaning forward to whisper ]: Lots of fellows meet girls whom they don’t marry!

AMANDA: Oh, talk sensibly, Tom – and don’t be sarcastic![ She has gotten a hairbrush. ]

TOM: What are you doing?

AMANDA: I’m brushing that cow-lick down! What is this young man’s position at the warehouse?

TOM [ submitting grimly to the brush and the interrogation ]: This young man’s position is that of a shipping clerk, Mother.

AMANDA: Sounds to me like a fairly responsible job, the sort of a job you would be in if you just had more get-up. What is his salary? Have you any idea?

TOM: I would judge it to be approximately eighty-five dollars a month.

AMANDA: Well – not princely, but

TOM: Twenty more than I make.

AMANDA: Yes, how well I know! But for a family man, eighty-five dollars a month is not much more than you can just get by on…