Humans have a tenuous grip on the concept of time. In some cases, one may live in the past as an indication of emotional distress due to preconceived perspectives and can be a nostalgic experience used by individuals to captivate fond memories of past, or the past being better than the present. The Wingfields from Tennessee Williams’ written text, The Glass Menagerie and persons such as Miss Havisham, Pip and Estella from Joseph Hardy’s visual text, Great Expectations are characters who are succumb to the illusionary world.Through characterization, actions of characters, symbols and camera techniques in the visual text, both authors uniquely display the detrimental factors of living in the illusionary world and highlight the long term effect through the characters’ actions.
The disposition of Amanda Wingfield in text one and Miss Havisham in text two displayed the dangers of living in a state of illusion. In text one, Amanda’s relationship with reality was the most complicated in the play.She was partial to real-world values and longed for social and financial success. However her alternating fantasy and her attachment to these values prevented her from perceiving truths about her life. In contrast to this, Miss Havisham’s long-term seclusion and idiosyncrasy in text two was defined by a single tragic event –her jilting at the alter on the day of her wedding.
Unlike Amanda, Miss Havisham’s delusions encouraged vengeance in which she aimed to pursue destructively through a “diversion” she used to “wreak vengeance on the whole male sex.”Contrastingly in text one, when visited by the supposed gentleman caller -Jim O’connor, - Amanda’s memories of her multitudinous “gentlemen callers” become responsible for the tactless moves which in which she puts herself at the centre of attention and in turn becomes a symbol of the her past -signifying her thoughtlessness of creating a favourable atmosphere for Laura and Jim. Similarly, in text two by adopting Estella “to be loved,” Miss Havisham ironically diminished the chances of Estella finding love.Her suppression however caused her to secret herself in her enormous mansion due to emotional distress. In text one, Amanda contrastingly equated the “gracious living” of the Old South to be the delusional by the pampered belle she was, and her rejection of reality and constant retreat to illusion implicated her ability to overcome difficulties and in turn, constructed a wistful distortion of reality.
Similarly, Miss Havisham’s intense nostalgia for a bygone world associated with her incapability of success and in turn reasoning her family to live “on the hope that [she will] never see another anniversary.”The nature of memory and living in the state of illusion was not only a central theme, but was also dictated through the actions of the characters. Throughout text one, Tom Wingfield being a narrator and a character in the play could be juxtaposed to Phillip Pirrip (Pip) in the visual text who in attaining advancement, lead him to narrowly perceive the world and superficially value people. Both these characters underlined the play’s tension between objectively presented dramatic truth and memory’s distortion of truth.
In text one Tom explained that memory “[omitted] some details… exaggerated according to the emotional value of the articles it [touched]. ” The recollection of his problematic life caused him to appear inextricably bound to the “two by four situation” of the Wingfield household –which was also similar to Pip’s captivation by the poverty and no education. In text two, Pip’s desire for advancement overshadowed his goodness and after receiving his mysterious fortune, his idealistic were justified, by becoming a gentleman.Similarly, Tom’s need for “adventure” revealed that escape from reality was imperfect and that was impossible to “get yourself [out of] a nailed-up coffin… without removing one nail” this was additionally contrasted to Pip who in turn entered the illusionary world of being a gentleman. The juxtaposition of both these characters revealed the inescapability of reality and portrayed the characters’ individual struggles in accepting the “world of reality” as an increase their deluded perception.The theme of illusion could also be elucidated through symbology.
In text one, Laura was perceived to be a symbolic character -defined as being exotic yet quaintly foreign to the rest of the world. Her character could also be juxtaposed to Estella in text two, who ironically symbolized salvation for Miss Havisham. In text one, Laura ventured in idolizing her glass collection of animals, -incredibly fanciful and delicate- which in turn brought out her “fragile, unearthly prettiness which usually [escaped] attention.”Like the significance of her name “Blue Roses” and the “extinct” glass unicorn in her collection represented her peculiarity and her ill-adapted existence in which she lives. When kissed, Jim’s advances endow Laura with a new normalcy; the unicorn’s horn breaks off and becomes “like the other horses” symbolising Laura inability to become normal without shattering.
This was conjunctively exemplified by Estella who illusively “breaking their hearts,” she breaks her own.The effects of Estella being disillusioned prevent her from having a successful marriage with “Drummel” and instead enforce her to physically replace Miss Havisham in the visual text. Similarly, as a “souvenir” for Jim, the hornless unicorn becomes even more appropriate representing all that he has taken from her and destroyed in her. Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Joseph Hardy’s Great Expectations both highlighted the importance of memory and thematically presented the detrimental effects of living in the past.
Through the characterization both authors displayed the will of their protagonists to be defiant to others’ perceptions. Although secluded, both characters had separate dispositions but suffered the same consequences by allowing the “illusion that has the appearance of truth” to be a dominance on their lives. Both texts identified the conquest of reality by illusion as a vast aspect of the human condition and further illuminated the idea that by living in the past, it becomes difficult to appreciate the present, making it more difficult to prepare for the future.
