Tom Wingfield's Tragedy

Arthur Miller, an American playwright, outlines his criteria for a tragedy in his essay entitled “Tragedy and the Common Man”. He writes that a tragedy results from both a man’s urge to examine himself and his disapproval with his seemingly secure environment, and thus his attempt to alter his surroundings. According to Miller, a tragedy also has the potential to end positively, and by the end of a tragedy, a lesson has been learned. These criteria are demonstrated by Tom Wingfield, in Tennessee Williams’s play, The Glass Menagerie. Tom Wingfield, a conventional shoemaker, lives in a small St. Louis apartment with his mother and sister in 1937. Tom defends his sense of dignity, tries to bring truth into his life, and ultimately escapes, but is held back by his sense of guilt. The Glass Menagerie meets Miller’s criteria and therfore can be catagorized a tragedy.

According to Miller, a tragedy results from a man’s desire to analyze himself. Miller writes, “Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.” Tom Wingfield demands

His mother pesters him; she claims that he compromises his job, because he goes out late every night. Tom evaluates his conditions and his desires and stands up for them. He says that he hates his job and would much rather escape. According to Miller, therefore, tragedy comes with an element of hope. The result of a character's evaluation himself, and therefore him standing up for himself, leads to the audience to believe that the character will act and change his condition. Tom defends himself and hints to his desire to abandon the family. He does not merely act passive about his conditions, but instead defends himself, leading the audience to believe that he might bring about a positive outcome for himself. Tom therefore possesses a quality that according to Miller is essential in a character of a