Glass Menagerie Essay
In the Glass Menagerie, a play by Tennessee Williams, the Wingfield family, the subject of the play, lives in a world where illusion is regarded as reality. The Wingfield family consists of three members; Amanda, Laura, and Tom. Tom, who is 22, works in a shoe factory and dreams of escaping the confines of his current life. He feels suppressed by Amanda,his mother, her watchful eye criticizing his every move, but he feels a responsibility to Laura, his sister who he loves. At the end of the play, he leaves home, too unsatisfied with his current life to stay any longer. Laura, who is 24, has a crippled leg because of a childhood illness. She is fragile, made of glass, and has fits of anxiety when faced with stressful situations. Her life is
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When Jim, a boy who she loved in high school, comes to dinner at the Wingfields, she discusses her leg with him. Laura says, “I had that brace on my leg-it clumped so loud!... I-I never have had much luck at-making friends... Well-I started out badly...Yes it sort of-stood between me-” (777). Her perception of her leg being disfiguring and embarrassingly conspicuous caused her to ostracize herself from the rest of her classmates. These perceptions made her lonelier, making her life more depressing than it already was. Jim goes on to say “You dropped out of school, you gave up an education because of a clump, which as far as I know was practically non existent.. Hardly noticeable even! Magnified thousands of times by imagination!” (779). Jim, who went to high school with Laura, barely noticed the seemingly “clumping” sound, an illusion Laura created. He tells Laura that if she understood the reality that it wasn’t so pronounced, she wouldn’t have felt the need to drop out of high school, allowing her to achieve more in her life. Laura felt as though her crippled leg was so ignominious because it was unique. To Laura, being different was infelicitous. Had Laura realized the actuality of her crippled leg and abandoned the illusion, her reality would have been less psychologically
When Jim, a boy who she loved in high school, comes to dinner at the Wingfields, she discusses her leg with him. Laura says, “I had that brace on my leg-it clumped so loud!... I-I never have had much luck at-making friends... Well-I started out badly...Yes it sort of-stood between me-” (777). Her perception of her leg being disfiguring and embarrassingly conspicuous caused her to ostracize herself from the rest of her classmates. These perceptions made her lonelier, making her life more depressing than it already was. Jim goes on to say “You dropped out of school, you gave up an education because of a clump, which as far as I know was practically non existent.. Hardly noticeable even! Magnified thousands of times by imagination!” (779). Jim, who went to high school with Laura, barely noticed the seemingly “clumping” sound, an illusion Laura created. He tells Laura that if she understood the reality that it wasn’t so pronounced, she wouldn’t have felt the need to drop out of high school, allowing her to achieve more in her life. Laura felt as though her crippled leg was so ignominious because it was unique. To Laura, being different was infelicitous. Had Laura realized the actuality of her crippled leg and abandoned the illusion, her reality would have been less psychologically