The glass menagerie character analysis. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie 2019-01-11
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Analysis and Plot Summary of “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams
After much prodding from her mother, Laura finally confesses that she once liked a boy named Jim, and Amanda convinces Tom to bring Jim home to hook him up with Laura. He dreams of adventure and leaves his responsibilities in order to find it as his father did. The Glass Menagerie fascinated audiences for its presentation of one man's vision of his past. He tries to please Amanda by being the sole supporter, but only gets rewarded by Amanda's constant nagging and suspicion. It was called 'the memory play' because the story is told through the reflections and memories of its main character, Tom. The father is the most successful in his escape - he leaves the family and doesn't look back.
Her character is extremely complex and each one her actions reveals more of her overwhelming personality. Amanda reminisces often about her days as a Southern Belle. Surprisingly, Laura is able to laugh about the situation. As a parallel to Rose, then, Laura becomes helpless and impossibly passive - rendered to a fate entirely dictated by Tom's own decisions. She chides both of her children about being odd wears a brace on her leg and is painfully shy while Tom writes poetry and disappears every night to go the movies and get away from the depressing house. He tells the audience of how he was fired from his job at the shoe factory after writing a poem on a shoebox and that he left the family in search of something unknown.
The most obvious symbol in this play is Laura's glass menagerie, representing the world she lives in. Alternatively, he appears to be inextricably bound to the filthy, insignificant environment of the Wingfield family. She comments 'Oh, be careful! Similar to her children, Amanda pulls out from the real world into fantasy. As the mother of the family unit the audience expects her to hold some kind of responsibility over her children as well as providing for them. Even viewed as a distinct person, Tom is full of inconsistencies.
Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments Kirszner and Mandell 1807. That is why the announcement that Jim has a fiancée is such a disappointment to her. Elements of Style: Social Realism The Glass Menagerie is also an example of social realism for its portrayal of cultural transitions in the South. . Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! Donald Spoto described the new apartment building that Williams and his family relocated to in St. This is especially true in the drama The Glass Menagerie. Candles and rainbows are often mentioned in the play and carry a variety of meanings.
Amanda, Tom, and Laura achieve this disillusionment by resorting to separate worlds where they can find sanctuary. She does devote herself to her children. When he arrives, she hides for most of the evening until Jim brings her a glass of wine and the two sit and talk. The most outstanding symbols such as a glass unicorn, the glass menagerie and the blue roses, in all ways, symbolize her. When her mother discovers Laura hasn't been going to school, her hope for their future is destroyed, and she becomes obsessed with the idea of Laura marrying some nice man to take care of the family. Love is about what you feel to the one who gives you space. The theme of this play were about the It also showed that her character had the hardest time accepting reality because her shyness sheltered and kept her from exploring the world outside of her home.
Lawrence , but she is ill equipped to cope with their situation. The glass menagerie itself is a symbol Williams uses to represent the broken lives of Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield and their inability to live in the present. At age 28 is when he moved to New Orleans and actually changed his name to Tennessee Williams because that is where his father was from. It was not a hypocritical two-facedness, but more of a reclusion. We, therefore, see not an objective portrayal but one that is colored by his personal experiences as he retells us the story. When she began confiscating the books which he had brought home, his life became almost intolerable.
Their problems, however, stem from their inability to effectively communicate with each other. One such framework is Buddhism with its analysis of suffering and its causes. Amanda continually attempts to live in the past. He spent years traveling abroad, yet something still haunted him. Nature and lifestyle of each character plays a vital role in creating events and setting the theme of the story. Instead of talking out their differences, they resort to desperate acts. She enrolled Laura in a business school in vain.
He tries to tell her to be more confident as he examines one of her favorite figurines—a glass unicorn. He often stays out late at night, claiming to go to the movies. In this part, you see his frustration and his desire to be somewhere else. He was forced, then, to leave his mother and sister or to be destroyed and consumed by their worlds of illusion, deception, and withdrawal. Everyday life is so oppressive that each character, through their dreams, retreats into a fantasy world.
