An Exploration of Fear, Anxiety, and Isolation of the physically challenged: Psychological and interpersonal underpinnings as represented in Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie.

Abstract

Disability, in all of its forms, hinders an individual's opportunities to grow and flower into an "all-rounded personality," causing stress, an inferiority complex, depression, and dissatisfaction in interpersonal relationships (Reynell, 1970). Extending on this premise, this research article primarily aims to critically examine the underexplored ambit of fear, anxiety, and isolation of the differently-abled as represented in the character of Laura Wingfield in Tennessee Williams' masterpiece, The Glass Menagerie, in the context of interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. The secondary objective of this scholarly attempt is to find out the psycho-genesis and factors contributing to fear and anxiety by means of a qualitative and descriptive analysis of the play’s text. Through a critical analysis of the play's texts, the researcher not only attempts to unearth the dormant fear, anxiety, and depression of the lead character, Laura Wingfield, and her neurotic mother Amanda, Wingfield but also advances some practical suggestions that could possibly have helped avoid a pathetic lot of the protagonists and maintain their mental health.

Full text

An Exploration of Fear, Anxiety, and Isolation
of the physically challenged: Psychological
and interpersonal underpinnings as
represented in Tennessee William’s The
Glass Menagerie.
Ramesh Kumar.M, PhD. Research Scholar,
School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
Abstract:
Tennessee Williams is one of the very few literary wizards who struck an
immediate chord with the geo-cultural and socio-political "mindscape" and the "intra-psychic
milieu" of the post-war generation.As such, most of his works explore deep-seated fear,
anxiety, and possible maladies of the mind, such as narcissistic personality disorder,
schizophrenia, paranoia, attachment anxieties, , and borderline, to cite a few. There has been
a renewed interest in the investigation of disability and rehabilitation studies of late, with some
suggesting bodily impairment leads to inadequacy and incompetence in the execution of day-
to-day tasks. This dysfunctionality suggests that a person is unable to function independently.
Disability, in all of its forms, hinders an individual's opportunities to grow and flower into an
"all-rounded personality," causing stress, an inferiority complex, depression, and
dissatisfaction in interpersonal relationships (Reynell, 1970). Extending on this premise, this
research article primarily aims to critically examine the underexplored ambit of fear, anxiety,
and isolation of the differently-abled as represented in the character of Laura Wingfield in
Tennessee Williams' masterpiece,
The Glass Menagerie,
in the context of interpersonal and
intrapersonal relationships. The secondary objective of this scholarly attempt is to find out the
psycho-genesis and factors contributing to fear and anxiety by means of a qualitative and
descriptive analysis of the play’s text. Through a critical analysis of the play's texts, the
researcher not only attempts to unearth the dormant fear, anxiety, and depression of the lead
character, Laura Wingfield and her neurotic mother Amanda, Wingfield , but also advances
some practical suggestions that could possibly have helped avoid the pathetic lot of the
protagonists and maintain their mental health.
Index words: intra-psychic milieu, fear, anxiety, interpersonal relationship, disability,
rehabilitation, and mental health.