Character Analysis from Glass Menagerie and Great Expectation
Glass Menagerie and Great Expectations
Humans have a tenuous grip on the concept of time. In some cases, one may live in the past as an indication of emotional distress due to preconceived perspectives and can be a nostalgic experience used by individuals to captivate fond memories of past, or the past being better than the present. The Wingfields from Tennessee Williams’ written text, The Glass Menagerie and persons such as Miss Havisham, Pip and Estella from Joseph Hardy’s visual text, Great Expectations are characters who are succumb to the illusionary world. Through characterization, actions of characters, symbols and camera techniques in the visual text, both authors uniquely display the detrimental factors of living in the illusionary world and highlight the long term effect through the characters’ actions.
The disposition of Amanda Wingfield in text one and Miss Havisham in text two displayed the dangers of living in a state of illusion. In text one, Amanda’s relationship with reality was the most complicated in the play. She was partial to real-world values and longed for social and financial success. However her alternating fantasy and her attachment to these values prevented her from perceiving truths about her life. In contrast to this, Miss Havisham’s long-term seclusion and idiosyncrasy in text two was defined by a single tragic event –her jilting at the alter on the day of her wedding. Unlike Amanda, Miss Havisham’s delusions encouraged vengeance in which she aimed to pursue destructively through a “diversion” she used to “wreak vengeance on the whole male sex.” Contrastingly in text one, when visited by the supposed gentleman caller -Jim O’connor, - Amanda’s memories of her multitudinous “gentlemen callers” become responsible for the tactless moves which in which she puts herself at the centre of attention and in turn becomes a symbol of the her past -signifying her thoughtlessness of creating a favourable atmosphere for Laura and Jim.
Humans have a tenuous grip on the concept of time. In some cases, one may live in the past as an indication of emotional distress due to preconceived perspectives and can be a nostalgic experience used by individuals to captivate fond memories of past, or the past being better than the present. The Wingfields from Tennessee Williams’ written text, The Glass Menagerie and persons such as Miss Havisham, Pip and Estella from Joseph Hardy’s visual text, Great Expectations are characters who are succumb to the illusionary world. Through characterization, actions of characters, symbols and camera techniques in the visual text, both authors uniquely display the detrimental factors of living in the illusionary world and highlight the long term effect through the characters’ actions.
The disposition of Amanda Wingfield in text one and Miss Havisham in text two displayed the dangers of living in a state of illusion. In text one, Amanda’s relationship with reality was the most complicated in the play. She was partial to real-world values and longed for social and financial success. However her alternating fantasy and her attachment to these values prevented her from perceiving truths about her life. In contrast to this, Miss Havisham’s long-term seclusion and idiosyncrasy in text two was defined by a single tragic event –her jilting at the alter on the day of her wedding. Unlike Amanda, Miss Havisham’s delusions encouraged vengeance in which she aimed to pursue destructively through a “diversion” she used to “wreak vengeance on the whole male sex.” Contrastingly in text one, when visited by the supposed gentleman caller -Jim O’connor, - Amanda’s memories of her multitudinous “gentlemen callers” become responsible for the tactless moves which in which she puts herself at the centre of attention and in turn becomes a symbol of the her past -signifying her thoughtlessness of creating a favourable atmosphere for Laura and Jim.