The Glass Menagerie Essay

Dramatic events within one’s life can change his or her life forever. In the memory play The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams portrays a fatherless, midwestern family, the Wingfield’s, struggling to make ends meet as the country is in the midst of the worst part of The Great Depression. To make matters worse, their home lives are not the best as the mother, Amanda; the son, Tom; and the daughter, Laura each struggle with his or her own inner demons. As the play is told through Tom’s recollection of what happened, Williams is able to exemplify each of the character’s flaws. Tennessee Williams’ characterization of Laura, symbolism of the glass unicorn, and theme of nostalgia all play a crucial part into the development of the plot of the play.

These traits mostly come from her years in high school when she had a bad case of pleurosis, which caused her to have a limp leg (Williams pg. #). Laura has suffered from severe social anxiety since then because she has struggled to walk normally and feels like everyone perceives her as a social outcast because of the way she walks. Her mother, however, is the complete opposite, almost overly extroverted. For example, Amanda- almost daily- recalls of an evening when she had seventeen gentlemen callers; in contrast, Laura only ever remembers liking one boy in high school named Jim (Williams pg.#). When Tom found Laura a gentleman caller, per Amanda’s request, Laura fears that the gentleman caller Tom is bringing over could possibly be her high school crush, Jim O’Connor. As the time gets closer, Laura has an anxiety attack to where she cannot even talk to anyone. However, all Laura wants is to fit in like all the other girls but feels like she is an outcast from everyone else to do so (Domina). Moreover, Laura’s shyness comes out mostly when she is at home by fiddling with her glass figurines, which are called her glass menagerie. This is her escape from the reality at home; however, she cannot escape her own fantasy within her mind