Character Analysis of the Glass Menagerie

Toms double role in The looking glass Menagerieas a character whose recollections the melt down documents and as a character who acts within those recollectionsunderlines the functions tension between objectively presented dramatic truth and memorys distortion of truth. different the other characters, Tom sometimes addresses the audience directly, seeking to provide a more detached news report and assessment of what has been happening onstage. But at the same time, he demonstrates real and sometimes juvenile emotions as he takes part in the plays action.This duality can frustrate our understanding of Tom, as it is hard to decide whether he is a character whose assessments should be trusted or iodine who allows his emotions to happen upon his judgment. It also shows how the nature of recollection is itself problematic memory often involves confronting a past in which superstar was less virtuous than one is now. Because The Glass Menagerie is partly autobiographical, and becaus e Tom is a stand-in for the playwright himself (Williamss given name was Thomas, and he, like Tom, spent part of his youth in St.Louis with an unstable set about and sister, his father absent much of the time), we can apply this comment on the nature of memory to Williamss memories of his own youth. Even taken as a single character, Tom is full 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 cope that he reads D. H. Lawrence and follows political developments in Europe, but the content of his intellectual life is otherwise hard to discern.We mother no idea of Toms opinion on Lawrence, nor do we name any version of what Toms poetry is about. All we learn is what he thinks about his mother, his sister, and his w arehouse job scarcely the things from which he claims he wants to escape. Toms attitude to ward Amanda and Laura has puzzled critics. Even though he clear cares for them, he is frequently indifferent and even cruel toward them. His speech at the close of the play demonstrates his whole feelings for Laura.But he cruelly deserts her and Amanda, and not once in the course of the play does he be absorb kindly or lovingly toward Lauranot even when he nocks down her glass menagerie. Critics have suggested that Toms confusing behavior indicates an incestuous attraction toward his sister and his shame over that attraction. This surmisal casts an interesting comfortable on certain moments of the playfor example, when Amanda and Tom discuss Laura at the end of burst Five. Toms insistence that Laura is hopelessly particular(a) and cannot survive in the extracurricular world, while Amanda (and after Jim) claims that Lauras oddness is a positive thing, could have as much to do with his jealous trust to keep his sister to himself as with Lauras own quirks. Amanda WingfieldIf th ere is a signature character suit that marks 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 prominent Southern family, has received a traditional upbringing, and has suffered a change of mind of economic and social fortune at some point in her life. Like Amanda, these women all have a hard time coming to terms with their new status in societyand indeed, with advanced society in general, which disregards the social 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 upkeep of genteel manners in very ungenteel surroundings can appear tragic, comic, or downright grotesque. Amanda is the plays nigh extroverted and theatrical character, and one of modern American dramas most coveted female roles (the acclaimed stage a ctress Laurette Taylor came out of semi-retirement to play the role in the original production, and a flake 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 in truth is are certainly reprehensible, but Amanda also reveals a willingness to sacrifice for her loved ones that is in many slipway unparalleled in the play. She subjects herself to the humiliating drudgery of subscription sales in order to enhance Lauras labor union prospects, without ever uttering so much as a word of complaint. The safest conclusion to draw is that Amanda is not dark but is deeply flawed.In fact, her flaws are centrally responsible for the tragedy, comedy, and theatrical flair of her character. Like her children, Amanda withdraws from pragmatism 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 out side her family. Amandas monologues to her children, on the phone, and to Jim all reflect quite clearly her moral and psychological failings, but they are also some of the most colorful and unforgettable words in the play.Laura Wingfield The physically and emotionally gamy 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 consummate glass menagerieall in some sense represent her. Laura is as rare and peculiar as a blue rose or a unicorn, and she is as delicate 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 emphasize the catch of her own youth and to fuel her hope of re-creating that youth through Laura.Tom and Jim both see Laura as an exotic creature, completely and rather quaintly foreign to the rest of the world. Yet Lauras crush on the high school hero, Jim, is a rather ordinary schoolgirl sentiment, and a girl as supposedly little(a) as Laura could hardly handle the days she spends walking the streets in the cold to avoid going to write class. Through actions like these, Laura repeatedly displays a will of her own that defies others perceptions of her, and this will repeatedly goes unacknowledged.