Very often, the characters in Tennessee Williams' plays are extensions of individuals from his own family, with the most characteristic example being the figures in The Glass Menagerie.

The mother Amanda, with her supposed perfectionism and her garrulousness, closely resembles the author's mother, Edwina. The daughter Laura, born with a disability, introverted and permanently sad, is a mirror image of Williams' sister, Rose, who showed signs of schizophrenia early on and later underwent a lobotomy.

The son Tom, a shoe warehouse employee with a hidden nightlife and indifference towards his family, is undoubtedly the author himself during the time the family lived in St. Louis and the young Williams worked as a shoe warehouse clerk, while simultaneously discovering his homosexual preferences.

Finally, the visitor Jim O'Connor is a real person and was a friend of the young Tennessee.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]