Fragile as Escaping into the Glass World—Analysis of The Glass Menagerie from the Perspective of Cognitive Domains

摘要

The Glass Menagerie is one of Tennessee Williams’ most well-known tragic plays, which is to a large degree the autobiography of the play writer. It’s one of Williams’ most accepted plays and won recognition both from his own times and the current society. Three key phrases are singled out from the play and analyzed from the encyclopedic perspective of cognitive grammar. The theme of the play and the tragic personalities of the main characters are revealed explicitly during the process of analysis. From the analysis, it can be safely drawn that cognitive grammar is conducive to literature interpretation and can serve as a handy tool in literature criticism.