Thesis: In the memoir play, “The Glass Menagerie,” Tennessee Williams uses various symbols to characterize Laura, through her interaction with the rest of the characters.
Laura’s character is depicted through her interaction with Amanda, her mother.
Throughout the memoir, Laura is known for her shy and overly sensitive nature.
Laura is seen to be extremely shy and overly sensitive nature, which is highly attributed to her symbolic crippled state and that she emphasizes to the point it leads Laura to becoming dainty. Consequently, Amanda is overly disappointed in her daughter’s shy personality, given that she cannot attract callers like those that Amanda used to when she was 17. As a result, Amanda seeks to enroll her in a business school with the hopes that Laura will create her fortune through the career. However, rather than Laura attending school, she secretly drops out of class.
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Subsequently, Laura is also characterized through her interaction with Tom.
Laura is presented as both fragile and one who holds pure compassion.
Notably, Laura’s fragile nature is shown by her dissociation from reality, which is brought about by her highly sensitive nature that makes her to think that everyone notices her crippled defect. Being in a constant world of illusion makes Laura’s relationship with her brother Tom difficult. Tom always views his frail sister as a peculiar individual who constantly acts in an odd manner. As a result, Tom has a great wish to leave his home like his father since he views their home environment as depressing.
Nevertheless, despite Laura being frail in nature that leads to her to live in a world of illusion, it is evident that she is one who is filled with pure compassion, which is shown where she sheds tears when she sees Tom unhappy due to his constant fights with his mother
Finally, Laura’s character is also portrayed through her interaction with the Gentleman caller, Jim O’Connor.
Laura is shown to possess a somehow archaic and fanciful nature
She is revealed to hold high awe for her glass collection and miniature animals, comprising the glass menagerie and unicorn that she spends most of her time polishing. The symbolic items that Laura possesses help her from escaping reality into her fantasy world.
In overall, Tennessee Williams creates the memoir to evolve around her life by characterizing her through her interactions with the rest of the characters, Amanda, Tom, and Jim
In the entire play Laura is portrayed as one who is extremely shy, overly sensitive, fragile, full of pure compassion, somehow archaic, and one who possesses a quaintly fanciful nature
References
Williams, T. (2009). The Glass Menagerie . Lodi: Marco Book Company.
