Dreams of Glass Menagerie Characters

Tennessee Williams’ renowned play, The Glass Menagerie, is the intense, evocative, and at the same time incomplete, embodiment of an American family. Despite the fact that its characters are static and rather shallow, the plot predictable?, and the dialogue familiar, Williams skillfully navigates the reader through a host of familial troubles. This play focuses on the Wingfield’s: the mother, Amanda; daughter, Laura; and eldest son, Tom. Their complete disfunctionality only serves to heighten the appeal of Williams’ play. Most tragically, the characters have some dream, aspiration, or desire to which they cling. In the end, no dream is truly fulfilled.

Amanda, the mother, is perhaps the least stable character. Amanda does not have a firm grasp on reality, and so spends her days mulling over fabricated memories of gentlemen callers, popularity, and the wealth she never had:

“AMANDA: They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn’t enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and graceful figure—although I wasn’t slighted in either respect. She also needed to have a nimble wit and a tongue to meet all occasions…My callers were gentlemenâ—all! Among my callers were some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta—planters and sons of planters!

[Tom motions for music and a spot of light on Amanda. Her eyes lift, her face glows, her voice becomes rich and elegiac.]”

Amanda’s formerly glamorous and elegant past becomes an obsession, and, even more dangerous, she begins to imprint her obsession on her daughter, Laura. She wants Laura to be the same beautiful social butterfly that she herself was. Amanda’s dream is to have a perfect daughter, for Laura to have a high-paying job, many beaux, and popularity. She resents the twist of fate that took her away from the Deep South and into the North. It is this attitude that shows Amanda to be shallow, demanding, and conditional. She cannot accept her own daughter, and so embarks on a quest to recreate Laura, no matter how untrue this person is to Laura’s real self. She simply says, “All girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be.”

Laura is neither beautiful nor a social butterfly. In contrast, she wears a brace to correct a bend in her leg, is sickly and plain, and shows no desire for a high paying job or fashion. Most of all, Laura is painfully shy, a result of her mother’s constant attempts to socialize her. Her one interest is a small glass “menagerie” that she has collected over the years. In other words, Laura is the exact opposite of Amanda’s ideal daughter:

“LAURA: [rising] Mother, let me clear the table.

AMANDA: No, dear you go in front and study your typewriter chart. Or practice your shorthand a little. Stay fresh and pretty! It’s almost time for our gentlemen callers to start arriving. [She flounces girlishly toward the kitchenette]

…LAURA: [Alone in the dining room] I don’t believe we’re going to receive any, Mother.

AMANDA: [reappearing airily] What? No one—not one? You mustt be joking! …Not one gentlemen caller? It can’t be true!! There mus t be a flood, there must have been a tornado!

LAURA: It isn’t a flood, it’s not a tornado. I’m just not popular like you were in Blue Mountain…I’m going to be an old maid.â”

Laura’s ultimate dream is to be loved and accepted for who she is, not who she could be. Amanda’s conditional love is not enough for the frail and simple-minded Laura. She also wishes to be rid of her physical defect, to be beautiful and, most of all, free of her mother. Laura’s shyness makes her as vulnerable and conspicuous as the glass figures in her “menagerie.”

The narrator, Tom, is another very important character. Like his sister, Tom is smothered and exasperated by Amanda’s constant demands. His job as a factory worker takes him away from home most of the day, and often into the night. This dreary work depresses and frustrates Tom, an otherwise free-spirited youth. Much like the author himself, Tom is seen as an outsider; he is creative and artistic, but nonetheless alienated from sophisticated society. He is the quintessential loner.

The frustration of work, combined with Amanda’s constant nagging, produces a very discontent young man. Tom is unable to go out or enjoy himself with friends; every time he attempts to “have a little fun” Amanda rebukes him for being lazy. Gradually, Tom begins to see that Laura’s confinement and his mother’s utter ridiculousness will only serve to drive him mad:

TOM: Listen! You think I’m crazy about the warehouse? [He bends fiercely towards her slight figure.] You think I’m in love with the Continental Shoemakers? …Every time yoou come in yelling that goddamn “Rise and Shine!” “Rise and Shine!” I say to myself, “How lucky dead people are.” …And you say self—selfâ€f’s all I ever think of. Why, listen, if self is what I thought of Mother, I’d be where he is—GONE! [He points to his father’s picture.] As far as the system of transportation reaches!”

In reality, Tom’s dream is to follow in his father’s footsteps, leave the family and never come back. In the end, he does. Tom abandons Amanda and Laura just like he had always wanted.

The dreams of Amanda, Laura are never fulfilled. Tom is the only one who experiences a kind of satisfaction. His dream is cruelly carried out. He realizes that as long as he is with his mother and sister, there will never be anything but discord. The frail Laura is too cowardly to resist her mother’s intentions, and so has to be content with her glass “menagerie,” both literally and figuratively. Amanda is too delusional to realize her own needs, much less those of others. The remaining Wingfield’s are no longer a family, but a group of bitter and desperately lonely people.–Julia

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