Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known as Tennessee Williams, is an American playwright. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1948 and for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1955. “The Glass Menagerie” is considered to be his first successful play.
“The Glass Menagerie” is a play, which Tennessee Williams reworked from his short story ”Portrait of a Girl in Glass.” In this extract we can see that the play contains more informal than formal register. However, in the play formal register is not omitted. Formal register mainly is used by Laura and Tom’s mother. Laura is using formal question “how do you do?” and the answer should be the same, but Jim is answering “okay!” which shows that he is using colloquial speech and he is not very intelligent person. Tom’s mother is using formal speech addressing her son. She is using formal phrases like “make yourselves comfortable” and “if he would like to wash his hands,” which is used as an euphemism for visiting bathroom.
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