What is the relationship between confidence and timidity? A lady named Laura with an unusual personality is presented in Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie. Laura’s family characterizes her as being nervous in front of people. The Wingfield family is very dysfunctional but typical at the same time. Amanda, Laura’s mother, is worried about the future of her children; although this feeling of protection is not enough to perceive Laura’s need for additional attention. Tom, Laura’s brother, is preoccupied with his job and he is busy thinking about how to change his life. Laura struggles to fit into society until she decides she is better off if she stays at home. No one notices how strange and unhappy this is for her except for an unexpected …show more content…
When Laura leaves school, she hides it from Amanda. As Amanda is reproaching her, Laura explains to her that “[She] couldn’t face it” meaning that she could not tell her mother that she had quit (Williams 931). Laura does not trust her family enough to tell them what she thinks and why she constantly stops doing activities. She is even scared of talking to herself about it. Laura is insecure and she feels everyone hates her. She even says to Amanda, “I’m crippled!” (Williams 932). The escape Laura uses is a glass collection. In a conversation she has with Jim, she tells him, “Glass is something you have to take good care of” (Williams 966). Laura identifies herself with the glass. They represent her fragility. She is frustrated and scared of showing herself to the …show more content…
Laura manifests her personality in the many occasions she helps Amanda and Tom to be content. She does not care for what her family says about her but more about fixing the relationship they have. This is noticeable in many parts of the play. For example, in one of the scenes, Laura tells Tom after him fighting with Amanda, “Tom, speak to Mother this morning. Make up with her, apologize, speak to her!” (Williams 938). Laura wants them to be talking again because that fight makes her mother anxious. Laura also feels a lot of pressure from her mother because she wants Laura to behave in a desire manner. Laura expresses that when she says to Amanda “Mother: I’m just not popular like you were in Blue Mountain….Mother’s afraid I’m going to be an old maid” (Williams 928). Amanda pressures Laura in many occasions and she tells Laura to be successful; this something that every mother wants for their children. However, Amanda is not paying attention to the signs that Laura is presenting. Amanda knows that Laura has a “little defect” but she prefers to avoid it rather than deal with it. For Amanda, the solution is to get Laura married. Tom also says that Laura is different. However, it is Jim who makes Laura understand that this uniqueness is what is more beautiful about her because everyone is alike but her. Laura is one in a
To start, Amanda Wingfield displays different characteristics from Troy. Amanda lives with her son and daughter who are in their 20’s and are supposed to be starting their lives. Amanda wants Laura to succeed in life and be a remarkable wife to one of her future gentleman callers. When Amanda discovers Laura has stopped going to her typewriting class, Amanda realizes her dreams of Laura succeeding are flickering away, “My hopes and ambitions for you”(Williams 14). Through this quote Williams incorporates heartache into Amanda’s voice depicting her ambition for Laura to succeed. She also feels, “So weak I could barely keep on my feet!”(Williams 14). These two quotes illustrate that Laura’s own being is extremely important to Amanda and to an extent, acts as if Laura’s failure is her own failure. This sense of care that Amanda shows is essential to help Laura make something of herself and appears to the reader as a deep aspiration of Amanda’s conscious. While Troy only cares for Cory because , “It is my job...cause it’s my duty”(Wilson 38). Another way Amanda wants Laura to be blissful is through her efforts in trying to get Laura a gentleman c...
"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.
The characters inhabit their private realities in order to detach themselves from a world that confuses and alienates them. Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim prefer to immerse themselves in their narrow view of time rather than embrace the flow of time. Laura remains isolated as she has failed to find love. Amanda judges Laura as she imposes her own narrow expectations on her. Tom believes that he can escape reality and become inseparable from the imaginary worlds of movies. Jim's idealistic view of Laura suggests that he is out of touch with reality. The play demonstrates that the characters desire to escape reality due to their inability to live in the present and embrace the flow of
As Amanda and Tom do dishes in the kitchen, Laura warms up to Jim, who is charming enough to put her ease. She reminds him that they knew each other in high school, and that he used to call her "Blue Roses." Jim feels ashamed that he did not recognize her at once. They reminisce about the class they had together, a singing class to which Laura, because of her leg, was always late. She always felt that the brace on her leg made a clumping sound "like thunder," but Jim insists that he never noticed it.
Laura unable to survive in the outside world - retreating into their apartment and her glass collection and victrola. There is one specific time when she appears to be progressing when Jim is there and she is feeling comfortable with being around him. This stands out because in all other scenes of the play Laura has never been able to even consider conversation with a "Gentleman Caller."
It is said in the character description that Laura “[has] failed to establish contact with reality” (Glass 83). This illustrates how Laura is childlike and naive, in that, Williams literally says that she has not established contact with reality. Laura is naive because she refuses to face life and all that comes with it, she is also childlike because she has sheltered herself and is unaware of her surroundings much as a child would be. Early on in the play the reader discovers that Laura had affections towards Jim when they were in high school. This, of course, will prove to be part of Jim’s easy manipulation of Laura. Shortly after this discovery, Laura’s gentleman caller, Jim, is invited over for dinner with the family. After having completed their evening meal, Laura and Jim go to another room and being
Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son Tom's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.
Amanda is a very controlling mother who is very proud of her past with gentleman callers. Laura is constantly reminded of her high standard her mother set for her. Tom is tired of hearing his other control both him and his sister and constantly nagging. Much like Gatsby, Amanda talks about her past, and would love to go back and relive it. Amanda tries too much to live through her daughter, and it is creating a big problem. Amanda is afraid of denial that her daughter just isn't one of the girls who attracts all the men, and knows how to talk to men.
The family in Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, faces various dilemmas. One of the most prominent is the issue of anxiety. Throughout the play, the family focuses their attention mainly on Laura and her struggle with both her physical disability and social anxiety. However, closer analysis reveals that Laura is not the only character suffering, each family member displays signs of being affected by anxiety. Their interactions with one another trigger feelings of nervousness, unhappiness, and anger. The issue of anxiety extends beyond Laura, affecting the whole family, and ultimately leads to tragedy.
When he asks what she gives it to him for, she replies, “A—souvenir.” Then she hands it to him, almost as if to show him that he had shattered her unique beauty. This incident changed her in the way that a piece of her innocence that made her so different is now gone. She is still beautiful and fragile like the menagerie, but just as she gives a piece of her collection to Jim, she also gives him a piece of her heart that she would never be able to regain. Laura and her menagerie are both at risk of being crushed when exposed to the uncaring reality of the world.
The typical plot format of literature and theater is comparable to an equation. Calculate the humble introduction of a hero plus the malicious obstacles set forth by a villain. Multiply this by a series mental and physical strife, such as the loss of an arm or respect. Once you have this product, add a suspenseful climax and subtract by a tension relieving resolution. For purposeful reason, this equation’s answer cannot be found within the plot of The Glass Menagerie. Tennessee Williams establishes a setting of familial dysfunction, free of heros and villians. Some argue that Laura’s disability grants her the label of the hero. However, the unhealable wound archetype in this case is not a symbol of a low point present in the “hero’s journey”,
The three family members are adults at the time of this play, struggling to be individuals, and yet, very enmeshed and codependent with one another. The overbearing and domineering mother, Amanda, spends much of her time reliving the past; her days as a southern belle. She desperately hopes her daughter, Laura, will marry. Laura suffers from an inferiority complex partially due to a minor disability that she perceives as a major one. She has difficulty coping with life outside of the apartment, her cherished glass animal collection, and her Victrola. 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.
People have the tendency to block out the things that aren't going well in their lives, this can be called denial. No member of the Wingfield family has a perfect life, they each have various issues. In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, every member of the Wingfield family denies reality and withdraws into their own private world of illusion. Amanda denies how her life turned out, Tom denies the fact his life is boring, and Laura denies herself; they each have a way of coping.
Scene seven in The Glass Menagerie is critical for the audience to fully understand Laura. In this scene, Laura begins to show a different side...
Amanda, like Laura, wants Tom to strive for is full potential and be all that he can be. Their relationship is strained because Tom reminds Amanda of her husband. He just does not quite fit in with the rest of his family. He aspires to travel and see the world. He does not want to just get by; he wants to live and experience life. Amanda sees this in his and acknowledges that he has the same flighty attitude as his father. Mrs Wingfield snaps at her son and exclaims, “Oh, I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It’s terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation—Then left! Goodbye! And me with the bag to hold. He is the major breadwinner in the family. He brings in all the income and if he leaves Amanda and Laura will not be able to make it. Amanda takes it upon herself to mold Tom into the man that she wished her husband was. Of course, he takes it upon himself to be anything but. He spends every night at the movies. Tom uses the movies as a form of escape form his home life and satisfy his urge to leave and explore. He says, “People go to the movies instead of moving.” Tom is more of a realist compared to Amanda’s hopeful view on life. He knows life will never measure up to his mother’s expectations. The world has changed and he feels his mother needs to wake up. His personality is a direct contrast