Crossing the 4th Wall

#1: Does the play employ realistic or nonrealistic conventions?
From Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, the drama tones down drastically, making some wonder if there's more to The Glass Menagerie. The fact that the story is so common to the point where people search for meaning not there indicates the realism of the drama itself. Composed of fights and make-ups and fights again, fragile people, mother versus son, mother's constant worries, and abandoning fathers, The Glass Menagerie relays Tom's memory in a way both accepted and shared by many. A break from realism occurs when Tom steps outside his memory- which in and of itself presents nonrealistic elements: the music indicating emotions, the lighting of the father's picture- and crosses the fourth wall. By staying within the "walls" of the apartment and ally, the audience experiences a real feeling as they are immersed in the memory, but as soon as Tom morphs from character to narrator, the element of realism also changes with the audiences perception and snap back into reality. Reality in the case of a drama, takes away from the realistic nature of the drama.