Bigsby's essay opens with a reference to Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and how Williams may have been influenced by Chekhov's work and his drive in trying to find a new form of theatre. Bigsby makes a connection between Chekhov's use of poetry of Russian life and William’s use of poetry of American life and further explains that both playwrights are more concerned with the internal action of characters than external action. The essay also points out a particular essay Williams wrote for The New York Times about his life prior to The Glass Menagerie and what led him to write the play. In this essay, Williams also writes about his life with fame and money and how it changed him and his interactions with others, particularly those he considered inferior. Williams also makes a point of saying that 'security is death' in this essay and Bigsby applies the idea of this notion to The Glass Menagerie - the characters in the play are searching for security in Great Depression America, but Williams is disgusted by the idea of security.

Bigsby elaborates on The Glass Menagerie and makes a point of stating that it is a memory play and extracts the words Williams uses to describe the play in the production notes attached to the script. The essay talks about the time and place in which the play takes place and what the means for this lower middle-class family during the Great Depression. The article also explains that he origin of The Glass Menagerie comes from a short story Williams wrote around 1941 titled "Portrait of a Girl in Glass." However, the most influence on the play came from Williarns's own life, as the characters in the play seem to mirror people like his mother, his sister and himself. The essay briefly talks about what the past means for Amanda, Laura and Torn and how they each inhabit their own world inside of the one they are living and stresses that the world of the play is 'constructed by the imagination out of memory and desire' and that the world of the play also revolves around performances by each of the characters.