Character Analysis of the Glass Menagerie

turkey cocks double role in The Glass Menagerieas a compositors case whose recollections the hunt documents and as a character who acts within those recollectionsunderlines the plays tension between objectively presented dramatic truth and computer memorys distortion of truth. Un standardized the other characters, tomcat sometimes addresses the earreach directly, seeking to provide a more detached explanation and mind of what has been happening onstage. solely at the same time, he demonstrates real and sometimes juvenile emotions as he weighs part in the plays action.This duality groundwork frustrate our understanding of Tom, as it is austere to see whether he is a character whose assessments should be trusted or unitary who all toldows his emotions to affect his judgment. It also shows how the nature of recollection is itself problematic memory frequently involves confronting a past in which unmatchable was less virtuous than one is now. Because The Glass Menagerie is partly autobiographical, and because Tom is a stand-in for the playwright himself (Williamss given name was Thomas, and he, like Tom, spent part of his young in St.Louis with an unstable mother and sister, his father absent a good deal of the time), we can apply this comment on the nature of memory to Williamss memories of his hold youth. leveling taken as a single character, Tom is entire of contradiction. On the one hand, he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of escape, adventure, and higher things. On the other hand, he seems inextricably bound to the squalid, petty world of the Wingfield household. We know that he reads D. H. Lawrence and follows policy-making developments in Europe, but the content of his intellectual life is otherwise hard to discern.We have no idea of Toms opinion on Lawrence, nor do we have any indication of what Toms poetry is about. All we learn is what he thinks about his mother, his sister, and his warehouse job simply the things from wh ich he claims he wants to escape. Toms attitude toward Amanda and Laura has puzzled critics. Even though he happenly cares for them, he is frequently indifferent and even cruel toward them. His speech at the close of the play demonstrates his strong feelings for Laura.But he cruelly deserts her and Amanda, and not once in the parentage of the play does he behave kindly or lovingly toward Lauranot even when he nocks d avow her glass menagerie. Critics have suggested that Toms confusing behavior indicates an incestuous attraction toward his sister and his shame oer that attraction. This theory casts an interesting light on certain moments of the playfor example, when Amanda and Tom discuss Laura at the end of Scene Five. Toms force per unit area that Laura is hopelessly peculiar and cannot survive in the outside world, while Amanda (and ulterior Jim) claims that Lauras oddness is a positive thing, could have as much(prenominal) to do with his jealous desire to keep his sister to himself as with Lauras own quirks. Amanda WingfieldIf there is a signature character type that tag Tennessee Williamss dramatic work, it is undeniably that of the faded southern belle. Amanda is a clear representative of this type. In general, a Tennessee Williams faded belle is from a self-aggrandizing Southern family, has received a traditional upbringing, and has suffered a reversal of economic and complaisant fortune at some point in her life. Like Amanda, these women all have a hard time coming to terms with their new-sprung(prenominal) status in societyand indeed, with modern society in general, which disregards the affectionate distinctions that they were taught to value.Their relationships with men and their families are turbulent, and they staunchly defend the values of their past. As with Amanda, their caution of genteel manners in very ungenteel surroundings can take care tragic, comic, or downright grotesque. Amanda is the plays most extroverted and histrionics c haracter, and one of modern American dramas most coveted female roles (the acclaimed stage actress Laurette Taylor came out of semi-retirement to play the role in the professional production, and a number of legendary actresses, including Jessica Tandy, have since taken on the role).Amandas constant nagging of Tom and her refusal to see Laura for who she really is are for sure reprehensible, but Amanda also reveals a willingness to sacrifice for her loved ones that is in numerous ways unparalleled in the play. She subjects herself to the humiliating drudgery of subscription sales in order to enhance Lauras marriage prospects, without ever uttering so much as a word of complaint. The safest conclusion to draw is that Amanda is not ugliness but is deeply flawed.In fact, her flaws are centrally responsible for the tragedy, comedy, and representation flair of her character. Like her children, Amanda withdraws from reality into fantasy. Unlike them, she is convinced that she is not doing so and, consequently, is constantly making efforts to engage with people and the world outside her family. Amandas monologues to her children, on the phone, and to Jim all reflect quite clearly her moral and mental failings, but they are also some of the most colorful and unforgettable words in the play.Laura Wingfield The physically and emotionally crippled Laura is the only character in the play who never does anything to hurt anyone else. Despite the weight of her own problems, she displays a pure compassionas with the tears she sheds over Toms unhappiness, described by Amanda in Scene Fourthat stands in stark contrast to the selfishness and grudging sacrifices that characterize the Wingfield household. Laura also has the fewest lines in the play, which contributes to her aura of selflessness.Yet she is the axis around which the plot turns, and the most prominent symbolsblue roses, the glass unicorn, the entire glass menagerieall in some sense represent her. Laura is as ra re and peculiar as a blue rose or a unicorn, and she is as subdued as a glass figurine. Other characters seem to assume that, like a piece of transparent glass, which is colorless until light shines upon it, Laura can take on whatever color they wish. Thus, Amanda both uses the contrast between herself and Laura to underscore the glamour of her own youth and to fuel her hope of re-creating that youth by means of Laura.Tom and Jim both see Laura as an exotic creature, completely and or else quaintly foreign to the rest of the world. Yet Lauras crush on the high school hero, Jim, is a rather ordinary school girlfriend sentiment, and a girl as supposedly fragile as Laura could hardly handle the years she spends walking the streets in the cold to avoid going to typing class. finished actions like these, Laura repeatedly displays a will of her own that defies others perceptions of her, and this will repeatedly goes unacknowledged.