COMPARATIVE STUDY:

THE GLASS MENAGERIE v/s MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS

Master Harold and the boys by Athol Fugard is a play written in 1982 which depicts

apartheid in south Africa. As shown in the play, apartheid was an official system

where people were racially segregated and blacks were denied certain rights, the

whites had superiority over the blacks. The play written by Fugard depicts his real

life where his own family employed black people for assistance. The play is written

as a form of apology as he felt remorseful after the ill treatment given to the blacks

during the period of racial discrimination. The play has raw and true emotions due to

the author himself coming from this time. On the other hand, The Glass menagerie

written by Tennessee Williams in 1930s in America is based on the great depression

and the impact it had on the Wingfield family. During this economic condition the

societal roles had took a turn and like men, women too had to work and fulfill their

family needs.

Comparing the characters of the play we could relate Sam and Willies condition in

Master Harold and the Boys to Toms condition in The glass menagerie. In both the

plays the reader could observe how these characters were deprived of freedom;

where Sam and Willie lacked the freedom to certain rights and were racially

discriminated while Tom was not able to follow his dreams and being the bread

earner of the family felt like a burden on him. Another character which could be

related is Laura Wingfield of The glass menagerie as she lacked confidence and was
ashamed of the limp she had. While reading the plays, one can observe that both the

plays lack the presence of father, they are only characters acting in the background.

The lack of father is replaced by Sam in Master Harold and the boys and Mr.

Wingfields photo frame in the glass menagerie.

Protagonists are key to any play, they are the narrators of the story and lead the

story throughout the play. In master Harold and the boys we can see Hally as the

protagonist, Hally is a 17 year old white, south African boy. Being a young boy at the

start of the play we are shown his goodness towards Sam and Willie who he has

group up with. As the play progresses we come across Hallys change in attitude

towards his same old friends/employees- Sam and Willie, we see hall ill-treating

them by imposing racism towards them. This is due the societal pressure Hally had

to withstand as he grew up. In glass menagerie we see Tom as the protagonist and

her mother Amanda Wingfield is the antagonist.

A key difference that the glass menagerie is a memory play and thus its aim is not to

be realistic at all, it is aimed at portraying what the narrator remembers and how he

remembers it. The mood and messages are solidified by addition of screen device,

lighting and music. Music is significant in glass menagerie a it adds to dramatic effect

of events. Music is contrasting in master Harold and the boys as it is rarely used, it

might be so to display the social situation of the play. one similarity between the

glass menagerie and master Harold and the boys is that both end with big conflicts

without any resolutions. Both the plays have climax right at the end and show

breaking down of relationship i.e. Hally and Sams in Master Harold and the boys
while in Glass menagerie it is toms relationship with his family. Further more both

plays have a suppression by the society, where Sam and Wille are suppressed by

the apartheid practices in south Africa. In the glass menagerie the whole family is

oppressed by the economic downturn, tom was oppressed because he was the sole

bread earner of the family. Laura was oppressed because she was shy to survive in

the society due to her limp. Amanda was oppressed because she could not support

her family. Another similarity could be how characters in both plays who are not

physically involved in the play have a great influence on the characters. For

example, in Glass menagerie the audience is introduced to Toms fathers portrait on

the wall, with him gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say I will be smiling

forever. Although he is no longer a part of the family, his decisions still influence

Tom i.e. him abandoning his family just like his father which is shown by "followed,

from then on, in [his] father's footsteps" (97)1. In master Harold and the boys it is

Hallys father who influences his decisions. Although at first Hally seems to abhor his

father, we later realise that he has changed his opinions towards his friend/employee

Sam.

For any play to be significant and leave a mark on audience, it is vital for the

playwright to use language suitable for its ethos. taking glass menagerie, Toms use

of language is continuous and metaphorical. For example, "the middle class of

America was matriculating in a school for the blind2, here tom has used metaphor in

the play which contributes to the literary style. The language which tom uses is

1 http://readerib.blogspot.fr/2015/04/the-glass-menagerie-v-master-

haroldand.html
alliterative as can be seen in the quote fingers pressesfiery braille... 3On the

other hand Amanda seems to specific in selecting her words. She thinks that the

work cripple is offensive and tells Laura to avoid using it when describing he limp.

Amandas overprotective nature towards he children controls her choice of words

when speaking to them. Considering master Harold and the boys, in the early stages

of the play when Hally is in friendly terms with his employees due to less societal

pressure, the audience is shown Sam and Willie are preparing for their dance

competition. It is all easy banter and old jokes. The confrontation between Hally and

Sam represents the dilemma within Hally, whether to follow his fathers legacy or the

real values that he has imbibed from Sam. The political tension plays a major role in

deciding the words which Hally chooses when talking to Sam. The turmoil in the

African society has always supressed the blacks and overpowered the whites. This

is being reflected in Hallys change in attitude towards Sam and he is showing his

superiority by throwing harsh racist words at Sam.

One of the most important techniques the playwright uses is the symbols. The glass

menagerie is replete with symbols, the most significant symbol is Lauras glass

2 http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/globaldrama/style-of-williams-in-the-glass-

menagerie.html#.WKl2kTt97b0

3 http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/globaldrama/style-of-williams-in-the-glass-

menagerie.html#.WKl2kTt97b0
menagerie itself, because it represents Lauras personality in many ways. just like

the glass figurines Laura is fragile and fanciful. The menagerie also represents the

illusionary world that Laura would like to live in a universe which is bright and

tempting. The glass unicorn in Lauras collection is her favourite figure. Jim says that

unicorns are extinct in todays world. Just like unicorns inexistence, Laura is also

peculiar. When jim accidentally knocks out the unicorns horn, it becomes an ordinary

horse. By this event Laura realises that she is just like a normal human being. The

broken figurine also symbolises lauras broken heart when she got to know that jim

was engaged. Another important symbol to be noted is the magic show that tom talks

about, just like malvolio the magician frees himself from the coffin without taking any

nails out, tom also ants to escape from his current life and wants to follow his

dreams. Here the nails could represent toms family, how they are unknowlingly

pulling him back from his life full of adventure. Considering master Harold and the

boys we realise that the symbols are pretty different compared to glass menagerie.

In this play the audience is introduced to Hallys childhood being bleak and dull. The

audience realises that Hally hated his parents and living with them was nearly

unbearable to him. The only happy memory that he had was of kite flying, hence

kite 4is a significant symbol for this play. Here we realise that Sam, his employee

made a kite for hally out of scrap which shows his love for him I was so proud of

us! It was the most splendid thing I had ever seen. I wished there were hundreds of

kids around to watch us. 5Just like the kite soars high up in the sky, Sam wants the

4 http://www.shmoop.com/master-harold-and-the-boys/summary.html

5 http://www.litcharts.com/lit/master-harold-and-the-boys/symbols
same for hallys future as well as for africas future. Another symbol is the bench it

symbolises the racial segregation that is prevelant in society at that time. It drew a

line between sam and hally however hally is not aware of it when he was first flying

the kit. Only after Hallys uncivil explosion of emotions Sam explains to him that the

reason why he did not sit with him was that it was a white only bench. When Sam

says you know what that bench means now away from it, here sam is giving

hally another life lesson where he has two options, either embracing the segregation

that the bench represents or walking away from it and reaffirming his stance on

equality.

The glass menagerie has autobiographical elements in it where Tenessie Williams

represents Tom and his sister is Laura. This is also seen in master Harold and the

boys because it is the describes Fugards terrible relationship with his father and he

too like Hally has two African servants so he wrote this play as an atonement

towards the black. Both the plays involve heavy tension due to the economic

conditions persisting and is consolidated by the playwrights effective use of literary

techniques.