Tennessee Williams Essay Research Paper Tennessee WilliamsThomas

Jim comes calling, Amanda is very persistent that Laura answers the door. Laura is

very insecure with herself and doesn?t want to go to the door, Laura pleads with her

mother not to make her answer the door. At first Laura is still shy and gets sick

before dinner, but later on her and Jim actually get to visiting some. They talk about

when Jim called Laura Blue Roses back in high school. Jim listens to Laura?s

memories of him from high school and uses those memories to give Laura the feeling

that he thinks she needs. Even though Laura is still a bit uneasy about the evening,

Jim does begin to help her to build up her confidence about herself a little bit. When

the horn breaks off of the unicorn while Jim and Laura are dancing, Laura picks it up

and says ?Its just like all the others now?. Jim explains that just because a thing or

person looks a little different that it doesn?t mean that every one actually sees it.

Laura ends up giving the glass unicorn to Jim. Laura is feeling more confident about

herself, because before the unicorn was her most valued piece of glass because it was

different from all the others, and in this way reminded her of herself.

Jim tells Amanda and Laura that he is engaged to be married. Amanda seems

to be more upset about the news of the engagement than Laura. She blames Tom for

setting up a sick joke. Amanda calls Tom a selfish traitor, as always, Tom gets the

blame for everything from his mother. Tom finally walks down the fire escape for the

last time, to follow in his fathers footsteps.

Each character in this play uses something to ease the pains of their lives.

Amanda uses her children, or lives her life through them. Amanda maybe wanted the

gentleman caller more for herself more than for Laura. As she realizes that her

husband had left her long ago and needed to have a man in her life to fill an empty

gap.

Tom uses the movies for his escape from his mother and the dreaded life his

mother puts him through all the time. Amanda always blamed Tom for everything

that seemed to go wrong. Amanda wanted Tom to feel guilty for having his own

dreams of his own life. Tom was made to feel responsible for Laura and was told

that he couldn?t leave until his sister had found a man and had a secure life of her

own. Laura, with her glass collection , and her phonograph lived in a world of her

own. She would hold and look through the glass unicorn rather than face the real

world, she lived in a world of fantasy. Amanda?s husband, only just an image on the

wall in the background evidently did escape into the world to be who he wanted to

be.

The entire play ?The Glass Menagerie? was about people and how they

dreamed. Each person with a different dream of their own, just as our own lives,

looking for that great escape and running with it at the right time.

The play brought out every type of feeling a person could have. The hatred

that Amanda seemed to pass out. Pity, because Laura was crippled and was so

withdrawn because of it. The feeling of courage when Tom stood up to his mother

and told her how he felt. Suspense when we knew a gentleman caller was about to

arrive, who was he, what was he like? Disappointment and disgust when Laura

seemed to like Jim and felt comfortable around him and then to find out that he was

engaged. Hope, that Tom could escape his mothers madness and that Laura would

find a man so it would free Tom of the responsibilities his mother had put upon him.