Character Analysis in The Glass Menangerie

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People live their lives often with a false sense of reality. We do this to ourselves most often though what we are taught is right and what’s normal while we are growing up, or just simply lying to ourselves to make scene of our discontent or to fulfill an obligation to a loved one. “Some people walk through a hallway with covered mirrors– the hallway is lined with mirrors but there are blankets covering each of them. They go through life believing in an image of themselves that isn't real, and an image of themselves standing in the world and relative to the world, that isn't real. {C. JoyBell}. This quote I found during the coarse of my research can almost sum up my thoughts of the charters in the story. In the story the Glass Menagerie we have a handful of charters who seem to be simply living a lie. Some feel trapped or imprisoned by burden, others secretly are discontent with their lives and trying to become something that they are not due to what is considered normal by society. In this paper I plan to find out and outline if these characters lives are an illusion or a reality.

First lets take a look at the three charters the mother Amanda, the son Jim and the sister Laura. Who are they and what kind of life doe they live. First we have the son named Tom who is not only a charter but also the narrator of the story. Tom works a dead end job to support his family a burden left to him by his father who left then some years ago. While tom performs this obligation, as he grows older he also want to grow free of his family and mind more meaning in his life. These conflicting ideals often lead to fights with his overbearing mother who wants him to stay and take the place of his father permanently as she has no means to support her...

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...ass-menagerie-at-loeb-drama-center-cambridge-mass.html?pagewanted=2

http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/arts-literature/theater/theater-review-the-glass-menagerie/article_aefc5e74-0c65-5208-b307-09bc8c772ecd.html ( TONY FARRELL
Special correspondent)

http://www.tennesseewilliamsstudies.org/archives/2000/4debusscher.pdf (Gilbert
Debusscher)

Gilbert Dehusscher- Secerts and lies in the glass menaerine- http://www.tennesseewilliamsstudies.org/archives/2000/4debusscher.pdf

http://classiclit.about.com/od/glassmenagerie/fr/aa_glassmenager.htm (James Topham)

http://redmondaplit.blogspot.com/2012/02/characters-trapped-by-illusion-glass.html (Rachael Redmond)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/theater/reviews/the-glass-menagerie-at-loeb-drama-center-cambridge-mass.html?_r=0

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2010/04/05/100405crth_theatre_lahr

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