Who Is Laura A Dynamic Character In The Glass Menagerie

In literature, certain characters are incorporated in order to influence the plot. In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Williams shows the audience specific aspects of characters in order to influence how they are perceived. The character of Laura Wingfield develops the plot and the audience’s perception of her transitions from a timid girl to a normal woman because of her interactions with Jim O’Connor. To begin, Laura and Jim’s kiss develops Laura’s transition from girl into woman. For example, Laura seems to be innocent since she is so romantically inexperienced by the age of 23. Although that is not uncommon, Laura is never involved in anything romantic until Jim kisses her: “He suddenly turns her about and kisses her

For the majority of the play, she seems to be rather shy and abnormal, considering she spends her time not in school, but walking around and visiting different places, such as the park. Correspondingly, this is because Laura is too embarrassed to go to school due to her throwing up in front of everyone. Furthermore, because of her not going to school, she seems to be rather abnormal since she is a cripple and talks about glass animals as if they are people: “Hold [the glass unicorn] over the light! He loves the light!” (Williams 83). In addition, it seems as if Laura almost personifies her glass animals, since she is fragile and delicate. Oddly enough, though, her glass unicorn breaks and the horn falls off. Because of this, Laura says, “Horn! It doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise” (Williams 86). To emphasize, Laura exclaims about the horn specifically and calls it a “blessing in disguise” to reveal to the audience that she is seemingly letting go of her oddities. After Laura is kissed by Jim, she gives up her newly broken used-to-be favorite glass animal. At last, Laura is leaving her abnormalities behind and moving forward, knowing that although Jim did not end up as her boyfriend, she now seems to have hope that someone will truly love her

In the first place, the story is based around Laura. For instance, from the beginning of the story to the end, Amanda is highly obsessed with Laura attracting a gentleman caller: “Resume your seat, little sister一I want you to stay fresh and pretty一for gentleman callers!” (Williams 7). However, Laura does not seem to believe in her ability to attract any males like her mom seems to believe she can. As the story continues on, Laura is able to delve deeper into romance, which excites Amanda since she sees Laura as a younger version of herself, and is almost able to relive her youth through Laura. Unfortunately, because of Tom being genuinely unaware of the fact that Jim just so happens to be engaged, Jim and Laura do not end up becoming a couple. As a result of this, tension arises between Amanda and Tom, causing Tom to leave the household. Finally, if Laura were not to be in the play, Tom would not feel guilt like he does in the end: “Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!” (Williams 97). Overall, both Tom and Amanda have a desire to help Laura, which develops the plot heavily due to their attempts to help her. In The Glass Menagerie, Williams incorporates the character of Laura in order to demonstrate how one character has the ability to impact a plot indefinitely. To emphasize, Laura’s transition from shy to desirable helps to develop how she appears as a character.