In the theater, the narrator laments the loss of the "glass menagerie" . He feels that he has "resigned from the role" , and that he is now free to be himself. He wonders how he can act so well when he is "swamped by the role," and wonders if he will ever be able to act like a real woman. He compares his role in the play to the role of a "dead's thirst" : "the dead's hunger" ; "fear , weight, i want . . be that too," he muses. He wants to be like her, for whom beauty, acting, and all of it were in order to "live," but he knows that he must get his act together for his next role.