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What is the main theme in the glass menagerie
Analysis of the glass menagerie
What is the main theme in the glass menagerie
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Laura's Missed Opportunity in The Glass Menagerie
"The Glass Menagerie" is a play about intense human emotions; frustration, desperation, sadness, anger, shyness, and regret. Perhaps the most intense scene in the play is when a gentleman caller, Jim O'Connor, finally does come. All of their futures hang in the balance during this scene. Laura is actually drawn out of her shyness with someone besides her family, and she actually begins to feel good about herself.
If Jim had not been engaged to someone else the outcome of the play may have been different. If he had been free to love her, he may have continued to call on her, drawing her out of her shell and raising her self-esteem. They may have eventually married, giving Laura a husband to love her, making Amanda happy, and making Tom free to leave and live his own life. Laura is very nervous when Jim comes to the door. Amanda pleads with her to open it. Besides her words differing somewhat from the play text, she does not try to stall Jim and Tom by calling out lyrically, "Coming! Just one second."
Laura's meeting with Jim at the door is just as I imagined it while reading the play, his demeanor casual and friendly, and her shyness painfully obvious. After entering the house Tom goes out on the terrace, but he does not light his cigarette before going out as the play directs, and he also continues to read his paper once he is on the terrace, which the play says nothing about.
Another difference that was instantly apparent in the movie was the absence of the images that pop up every couple of pages during the play. I think the absence of these images slightly undermines the aura of unreality. The presence of the images represents dreams and imagination, which we know are made up, fantasy. The absence of the dreamlike images helps us forget what Tom says at beginning of the play, "the play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic."
As Tom is still speaking to Jim in the movie, he does not lean over the rail with the appearance of a voyager as he says, "I'm planning to change.", as he is supposed to in the play, neither does he wave his hand toward the movie theatre as he speaks of it.
At the beginning, Tom is very self-centered and preoccupied with his work. He finds what he wants to do more important than what his wife wants to do that night. Once faced with the reality of death, he realizes how important his wife is to him. This forces him to be strong and stay alive, for her sake. The only reason he made it back into his house was because of how much he cared for her. Tom then decides to go find her at the movies, which shows that he has become less self-centered and more aware of his wife’s feelings.
Although the glass menagerie is meant as a direct metaphor for Laura, it also serves as a metaphor to the other characters in the play through various means. They are all interconnected in some way, depending on each other, and when things don’t turn out right, everything begins to fall into a downward spiral, with little or no hope for improvement.
She is a shy, quiet girl who keeps herself at a distance. She loves glass figurines and prides herself on them. To her brother, she is seen as crippled because she cannot walk well and is socially awkward. This results in Laura’s reality being different than the rest of the family’s because she closes herself off into a space where it is only her. Amanda wants the best for Laura, for her to have a husband or finish business school, because she wants Laura to get out of the house and get living. However, Laura does not want to live in that world, and it is shown when she skipped her business classes and through her interaction with Jim, her high school crush. Jim is the only person who is able to take Laura out of her own weird reality, and bring her into the reality of an ordinary girl. Laura breaks through her reality when she talks about the unicorn horn that Jim broke off her glass figurine, she tells Jim that, “It doesn’t matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!” (Williams, 2009). Therefore, Laura being with Jim makes her feel a little less odd. This brings Laura out of her own reality for a bit, but then she retreats back into it when she finds out that Jim is engaged to someone else right after he kisses her. He broke her free of her own reality for a bit, just like how he broke the horn off of the
She wants Laura, if not herself to be taken care of. At that moment in the play Tom is the breadwinner in the family and up to this point Tom is the underpriviledged child that wants to move on. He wants to pursue his dream, a more adventurous life. Tom was a likable character until we find out he didn't pay the electric bill with the intended money. When Jim is over and he says "I paid my dues this month, instead of the light bill".
His mother frequently mentions how he cannot quit the job he despises because he is making the money for the house. She also laments about Lauren does not have heaps of “gentlemen callers” throughout the story. Amanda enlists Tom to search for men at his work that would be nice and suitable suitors for Laura. Tom, in response, invites Jim over. Jim was the high school crush of Laura, and he was excellent in many high school things- basketball, singing, and debate. It sounds like a perfect fit, and it was meant to. While Tom of the future is narrating in the very beginning of the play, he outright claims that Jim is a symbol of “the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for” (922). [PP4] Jim is the way Tom can leave, a way to get Amanda to stop hounding about gentlemen callers, and a way to get Laura away from her bleak, husbandless future. Jim was the key to the happiness of the Wingfields. HE talks with Laura and gets her out of her shell, and it all seems so perfect. Life, however, is not perfect. Jim was going out and even engaged to another woman, and he could not be the Wingfield’s saving grace. Amanda was angry at Tom, saying, “what a wonderful joke you played on us” (970) in a tone that could be nothing other than drenched in outraged sarcasm. She blames the horrible ending of the night on Tom and his lack of knowledge of Jim’s romantic life. This outrages Tom in turn, and he
Tom's acts in love are childish and immature. At first, Tom's love for Becky Thatcher is just a crush. He tells Becky about his "marriage" to Amy and it starts a fight. After that, they both play a game of "hard to get". After this, Tom is too proud to apologize. Also, Tom makes good decisions. First, when Becky accidentally rips Mr. Dobbins' book a, Tom takes the blame, and this ends their feud. Another mature event takes place in McDougal's cave. When Tom and Becky are in the cave, they become lost. Then Tom takes responsibility for himself and Becky's life. These events are part of becoming a young man.
Additionally, in the book US FOREIGN POLICY, Michael Cox (2012) concluded that “China’s peaceful rise has largely consoled its neighbors and the United States that it remains a status quo power. However, as it has risen, there are some (perhaps an expanding number) who predict this will lead to increased regional and global competition” (p.266). Clearly, Michael Cox indicated the point that there might be more competitions in the future relation between China and the rest of the world no matter China rises peacefully or not. In particular, China and the United States will face many intense issues since they are the two giants in th...
In Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie, we are given opportunity to see and understand that even truth can be cloaked by illusion. There are four main characters, we have Tom Wingfield whom is the narrator of the play. By day is a warehouse worker in a shoe factory, often absent minded for he would must rather be focusing on his passion for poetry and writing. By nightfall he often finds refuge from his mother's constant berating in the local movies. Laura Wingfield is Tom's beloved sister. Crippled since childhood from a disease known as plurosis, Laura is also emotionally crippled as an adult, in the sense that she is so incredibly shy attending business school was simply too much for her. To others it is no issue but to her it's all than she can see. Instead of fulfilling her mothers wishes she spends her days carefully attending to her delicate glass animals and listening to her father's record collection.
Everyone has a family, rather it is with your biological relatives or long-time friends. A lot of people have been raised in different types of households rather it is with a grandparent or a foster parent. Everyone has their own individual story of their particular support system. In most cases, people have been raised with both parents, which is ideal in this society. As years gone by, a lot of changes have occurred within raising a family, whether it be getting raised by a LGBT couple or being raised by a sibling. The most common change that has occurred is single-parenting. A lot of children are being raised by either just their mother or father. In most cases, the mother is the single parent. Being a single parent can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. In this essay, I will explain the ups and downs that come with being a single-parent.
‘Single parents have a high level of emotional maturity, have a high capacity to tolerate frustration, and are not overly influenced by the opinions of ot...
Fifty years ago, the typical American family included a mother, father and their children. However today, “One in every four children in the United States are being raised by a single parent. Experts point to a variety of factors to explain the high US figure including a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of single parent rearing.”(Armario). As these numbers continue to rise due to modern day ideas and the increasing divorce rate, the children of single parents struggle. “Today 41% of all births were to unmarried women.”(Hymowitz). Single parent families have a detrimental effect on the psychological development of children because single parent families lack financial stability and quality parenting, in addition to lacking a stress free environment.
There are almost 13 million single parents today in the U.S. (Lauer, 2012). Each single-parent family is different and faces individual trials, including testing the limits of family and what it means to be related. No matter the causes of single parenthood—whether it be from a parent passing away, divorce, or someone simply choosing to have a child without being married—the conflicts plaguing these families are very similar. The statement “single parenting is the toughest job in the world” is a bold one that highlights the struggles of single parents everywhere, and it is one I happen to agree with.
In the story Laura, the sister of Tom, has a special glass menagerie that she entertains herself with. A glass menagerie is a collection of small, glassed shaped animals, that are usually put on a shelf as decoration. From the title of Williams story, it shows what the one of most important symbol in the play is, Laura’s glass menagerie.
According to information disclosed in the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau, the number of children raised in single-parent households continues to skyrocket. Children with two parents in the home, earning two separate incomes, tend to have better financial, societal, educational advantages. The effects of a single-parenting on a child’s behavior can be extensive and impact multiple ranges of life in a negative or positive way. In the United States alone, the effects of single-parenting on children fall into two categories: (1) those credited to the lower socioeconomic standing of single parents and (2) the short-term repercussions of divorce that temperate over time. The passage of time, the quality of the relationship with the parents, and the magnitude
DeFrancis, B. (1994). The Art of Discipline. Never hit a child. Retrieved June 9, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.neverhitachild.org/artodis1/