Glass Menagerie is a collection of fragile glass animal figurines. Fragile is the word which describes the family in the story. From the mother which sees no reality with a cripple daughter that she sees beautiful to a son that wants out but is also Amanda’s sole provider. The daughter is such that fragile is to harsh a word.
Her life buried in glass animals and a victrola, she is a fragile as that unicorn that breaks in scene four. Tom is full of contradiction. On the one hand, he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of escape, adventure, and higher things. On the other hand, he seems completely bound to the petty world of the Wingfield household. One of the key things of the play is how it relates to Williams’ life with the mixture of illusions and reality. All of the characters appear to be connected in some way to members of his family.
The mother, Amanda Wingfield, shares similarities with Williams’ mother, a harsh woman who had been known of being a southern belle and living a luxurious life. Laura Wingfield, her daughter, is similar to Williams’s ister, Rose. Laura is shy and uneasy to the point of being socially unable. As a result of her mother’s nagging, Laura’s slight limp is exaggerated in her mind to the point where she believes herself crippled. Amanda’s illusion or what she wanted to see was that Laura was beautiful and had many male callers. Williams’s ister was also mentally unstable, and spent most of her life in a mental institution.
The Essay on Gentleman Caller Laura Life Amanda
... escape to avoid the reality of everyday life. Laura is presented to us as the very fragile daughter of Amanda. She finds herself ... pick. One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain your mother received seventeen! gentleman callers (Williams 33). When Jim comes to dinner she puts ... her home as a place of acceptance, she develops a Glass Menagerie as a place were she can feel free from ...
The play’s protagonist Tom Wingfield, is very similar to Williams himself. For most of his life, Williams felt guilty about leaving his mentally ill sister on her own, to nearly die from a botched lobotomy. In the play, Tom feels as if he is betraying his sister by leaving home, just like his father did. Some critics have thought that Tom is a homosexual (just as Williams was).
Tom is a writer working a crappy job in a shoe factory. Which Williams also worked a shoe factory for three years which lead to a minor nervous break down.
While he works at this factory, Tom actually writes poetry. For Tom’s adventure and illusions he would spend all hours of the night at the movies. Williams’ real name was Thomas, so there is clearly a connection between Tom in the play and Williams himself. Jim O’Connor, Laura’s love, may reflect the type of popular, loving character that Williams wishes he could have been. Women ran to O’Connor; Williams has not always so loved. The end of the play is tragic: O’Connor leads Laura on with a kiss but lets her down shortly afterwards with the news that he is engaged to another woman.
Tom, the family’s sole provider, leaves home to be a sailor and fulfill his want for adventure. He fulfills it, just like Williams finally fulfilled his dream of being a successful writer.
