The Glass Menagerie is a play written by Tennessee Williams in 1944 which describes the family consisted of a mother, son and daughter, going through a difficult situation. The son supports his mother and sister since their father left them. Laura is the sister who has a collection of figurines, who has a crippled leg and is shy, but very kind. The figurines are in the shapes of animals and they make Laura forget about reality.
There are the past, present and future intertwined within this reality and the fact that the story is set in the time of the great economic depression makes everything worse. “Glass Menagerie is a morality play in modern dress – the dress of the split personality;” (Bluefarb 513). The whole family is struggling to survive and all of the characters are having extreme difficulties in life. Tom is twenty-one years old and he would like to be independent, but he has to take care of his family and he quarrels with his mother. He is also bother by the situation that his sister is going through because she is shy, lonely and has no suitors. On top of all that, the father of the family abandoned all of them and this is a heavy burden for young Tom who has just started to enjoy adulthood.
Laura is slightly physically disabled because of her crippled leg, but she also has emotional problems. She is very considerate towards other people and she is very careful about not hurting anyone’s feelings. Laura is compassionate, although she has many problems which is seen when she cries because of Tom being unhappy. She has many problems of her own, but she is unselfish and loves her brother deeply. Laura does not speak much, but her presence is symbolized by the figurines, especially the unicorn and by blue roses. She is a fragile human being exactly as the collection of glass figurines is and uncommon just like blue roses. Amanda feels the need to change Laura’s life and create it in accordance with the life that she led as a young woman. She does not respect Laura’s personality and wants to change her in a way that she thinks is suitable. Tom, as well as Jim, thinks that Laura is an unusual and extraordinary person and Laura is in love with Jim. When confronted with the fact that she could not attend school she says: “"I couldn’t go back there. I – threw up – on the floor!" (2.25). Her shyness dominates her personality and prevents her from leading the normal life. She is just life her glass menagerie because she could be easily broken in many ways if she were not handled with great care and she does not want to expose herself to the outside world. Laura is a very private person and she keeps herself restrained from the earthly pleasures, although she has a great sense of aesthetics and order which is demonstrated in her collection of glass animals. The unicorn is especially important because it represents her completely.
Laura gets hurt numerous times throughout the play which is too much for a girl who lacks self-confidence and who has no touch with reality. Amanda insists that she should have a gentleman to take her out and court her and she explains that she liked a boy named Jim back in school. Tom takes his colleague from work to meet Laura and it turns out to be Jim. He is polite and it seems that he is fond of Laura because of kissing her, but it turns out that he has a fiancée. This is very inconsiderate and it hurts already fragile Laura. This is the exact reason for which Laura keeps away from the rest of the world. She is afraid of being hurt and se is not vocal about it. Laura takes care of her glass menagerie instead because she handles the figurines in the same way that she should be taken care of by a gentleman. Unfortunately, there are no suitors and the situation in the world is bad as well because of poverty.
When Jim comes to be the guest of the family, because Tom does know about his engagement, Laura talks to him a lot and shows him the collection of figurines. She says: “Oh, be careful – if you breathe, it breaks! / Jim: I’d better not take it. I’m pretty clumsy / with things (7.89-91). He gives her false hopes by telling her how pretty she is and by kissing her on the lips. Everything seems to be going smoothly and according to the Amanda’s wishes and Tom’s plan, but it turns out that Jim is a deceitful young man who only wants to see how much Laura likes him. The fact that they talk about unicorn and that she turns out to be most like this figurine explains her gesture if giving him the unicorn as a present. However, at this moment, the unicorn is just a regular horse, because Jim was too clumsy and broke the horn prior to revealing the existence of Betty. Laura “is unable to detach herself completely from the situation and she is destroyed by it” (King 208). She is prone to feel pity about herself because she shows Jim that he managed to break her heart.
The glass collection of figurines belongs to Laura and their role in the play is great because they represent people who have personal struggles in life, like Laura. She is incapable of socializing, but she would love to get married which is why she accepts to have conversation with Jim when he arrives. She even has high hopes about this meeting. However, the happiness in the world seems to be just an illusion as much as the glass figurines are because nothing ever works out for Laura and the play ends with her being even more miserable than ever.
Works Cited
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions Books, 1999. Print.
King, Thomas L. "Irony and Distance in "The Glass Menagerie"." Educational Theatre Journal 25.2 (1973): 207-14. Print.
Bluefarb, Sam. "The Glass Menagerie: Three Visions of Time." College English (1963): 513-18. Print.
