Friday, March 14, 2014

From Foucault's viewpoint, how can you elaborate on the discourse of social class in Glass Menagerie? Please provide me with examples.

I think that Foucault would have some interesting insights
on the characters in Williams' work.  In my mind, I think that he would seize on Laura
and how she is treated by Amanda in the play.  Amanda seems to be the one who is able to
"judge" her because of her own belief that she knows what will constitute success in the
modern setting.  This conception of success takes on professional and sexual forms,
evidenced in enrolling Laura in typing school and constantly reminding her of the
"gentlemen callers" Amanda had when she was her age.  The fact that Amanda is able to
assess and judge Laura is a reflection of power constructions.  Consider what Mall
reflected on some of the most essential elements of Foucault's thoughts, in "... the
ways in which the social order classifies, manipulates, and isolates certain elements of
itself: madness, illness, criminality, sexuality, etc."  The fact that Amanda either
believes or puts off the image of being the font of classification would be extremely
interesting to Foucault and his conception of power.  Along these lines, Foucault might
also argue that Laura's method of dealing with reality is a way to exercise her own
conception of power in a situation where Amanda has done much to wrestle away the power
dynamic.   Consider Laing's thoughts on Foucault's views on the dynamic of sanity and
insanity here:  "The madness of Europe is revealed not in the persons of the madmen of
Europe, but in the actions of the self-validated sane ones, who wrote the books,
sanctified, and authorised by State, Church, and the representatives of bourgeois
morality."  This is a very good way to explain how the dynamic that exists between Laura
and Amanda.  The latter continues to see the latter in this light, and Williams explores
both characters to fully evoke this Foucault- like reality.

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