"The Glass Menagerie"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Williams presents a number of characters who seem very different. However, despite the obvious differences, they are all living lives based on illusion to hide from the problems in their lives. The paper examines how the effectiveness of the play is related to three main points. First, by having Laura as the most extreme character, the tendency to hide from reality is emphasized and made clear. Second, by having a number of characters who all hide from reality in their own ways, Williams shows that the tendency is universal and shows that illusions cannot last. Finally, the glass menagerie in the play offers a clear symbol of the fragility and transparency of the manufactured illusions. These three main points that contribute to the effectiveness of the play are discussed in detail.

From the Paper:

"While Tom is the narrator and the major character of the play, Laura is the character with the most extreme qualities. She is extremely shy and while she wants to escape her life, she has no real ability to. In the play, the reader learns that she dropped out of typing school after vomiting before the first test. Her attendance at typing school was her mother's attempt for Laura to have her career, since she does not expect her to get married. Her failure at typing school represents the end of this possibility. Even before Laura's meeting with Jim, there is a sense that she will never either marry or have a career. She is simply too fragile and scared to face either of those possibilities. The meeting with Jim only confirms that Laura's life will not be one where she is saved by marriage. At one point when the unicorn breaks Laura says "Now he will feel more at home with the other horses, the ones that don't have horns" (Williams 303). This is a sign that Laura can imagine seeing herself as normal and just like everyone else."

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