The Glass Menagerie Symbolism

Making matters worse is the fact that Amanda is a very powerful, strong willed character, which seems to provoke Tom’s desire to leave. In the background of this story lies a character often mentioned but never available to answer claims. The mentioned but absent character is Tom and Laura’s father, who left their mother in an attempt to free himself from the bonds of matrimony and the title of father. Tom is representative of his father in this story. Tom favors his father’s passion for freedom from the overstretching, imposing will of his mother, but Tom also differs in that he can not justify the abandonment of his sister without insuring his sister’s well being.

However, even Joy's mannerisms prove unsatisfactory to her mother. Mrs. Hopewell thinks that her daughter is rude. Consequently, she feels obligated to offset Joy's poor behavior by being extra hospitable and courteous to visitors. Also, Mrs. Hopewell refuses to take any pride in her daughter, even though Joy has become an extremely accomplished woman by going to college and earning a degree in psychology. As a result, the relationship between Joy and her mother beco... ... middle of paper ... ...omeone, whoever it may be.

Amanda definitely wants the best for Laura but she does not understand that her daughter is very different from herself. Amanda constantly tells love stories and tells tales of many gentleman callers. She constantly tells her daughter to stay pretty for her gentleman callers even though Laura does not expect any. After, Laura drops out of school Amanda tries to get Laura’s brother Tom to set her up with a man. Amanda forces her daughter to dress the way she thinks is appropriate.

Caitlin has always felt as though she was in her sister’s shadow, and is forced into the forefront when her sister disappears. She soon meets Rogerson, and see’s a way to reinvent herself as completely different from her sister, through him. In the beginning, they are inseparable, her coming along with him when he sells drugs, and becoming immersed in his danger. However, he soon starts to become controlling, and begins to hit her when she is late, or talked to a male classmate. Caitlin never tells a soul about what was happening; because she loved the way he makes her feel, like she hasn’t always been in second place her entire life.

Like the glass, her schemes are very transparent, and people can see straight through them to the other side, where ... ... middle of paper ... ...Laura. If he had been what Amanda had wanted him to be, Laura would have become happy and so would have Amanda, and then Tom would have been able to go his own separate way, being freed of his duties to his mother and sister. However, as it turns out, the shelf seems to have broken, because the gentleman caller actually ignites the greatest fight of all between Tom and Amanda, and Laura is left shattered after she loses whatever she had left within her because the gentleman caller turned out to be a disappointment. 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.

Laura is nothing like her mother. Her brother uses the word crippled to describe his sister Laura and Amanda despises such talk. Laura is not like the other girls and is painfully shy. Her mother still pushes her to become something more than just a home girl who listens to records and plays with glass figurines Laura is enrolled in the Rubicam's Business College where her mother believes will give Laura another asset to present to her gentlemen callers. Amanda becomes unnerved when she finds out Laura has dropped out and spent her days strolling and wandering around by herself.

… I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s the past… I did love him once – but I loved you too”, then Tom states “Even that’s a lie… She didn’t know you were alive. Why there’re things between Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can forget” (108, Fitzgerald). Gatsby was trying his best to be with her once again, but when Tom was brought into the picture it was a battle for Gatsby to win her over. In this quote, Daisy disclosed she loved both of them while Tom tries to put Gatsby down, which emotionally destroyed his character.

On the outside side she tries to be the happy homemaker, and plans dinnners for the prestge of her husband, Hugh. She tries to get in touch with her rebelious teenage daughter, and play the friend figure, but whatever she does nothing seems to make them as close as they used to be, bot even buying her gifts seems to work anymore. Her son, who is going through a rough time, because he recently broke up eith his girlfriend, won’t allow her to help him through his problem. Inside Eleanor is dying from the lcak of love she recieves. Even what used to be a young vibrant even beautiful face, has been washed out by the stress she feels.

Perceived to be a nurturing mother, she uses guilt to guide the very existence of her children. Amanda is crippling her children emotionally by continually critiquing their eating habits, career paths, social behaviors, how they should dress, talk, and entertain (1632; sc. 1). Insisting that Tom’s behavior is too much like his father’s, she believes his actions are keeping him from being successful. While believing that badgering him to behave the way she expects, will make a difference.

Tom, Amanda's son, resents his role as provider for the family, yearns to be free from him mother's constant nagging, and longs to pursue his own dreams. A futile attempt is made to match Laura with Jim, an old high school acquaintance and one of Tom's work mates. Jim is very self-assured and attempts to help Laura with her problems of self-esteem and shyness. Laura seems to be responding to his efforts of help when he unexpectedly announces his engagement to be married. Of course, this brings an end to the well-planned evening.