Character Analysis of the Glass Menagerie

turkey cocks range of a function role in The Glass zooas a character whose recollections the shape documents and as a character who acts within those recollectionsunderlines the leads tension amongst objectively presented dramatic truth and retentivenesss distortion of truth. Un manage the other characters, turkey cock slightly snips addresses the audience directly, pursuance to provide a more loose explanation and assessment of what has been happening on stratum. simply at the same time, he demonstrates echt and both(prenominal)times juvenile emotions as he takes part in the fly the coops action.This duality can frustrate our correspondence of tom turkey, as it is solid to decide whether he is a character whose assessments should be bank or unity who allows his emotions to affect his judgment. It to a fault shows how the nature of recollection is itself problematic retention often involves confronting a past in which genius was less virtuous than one is now. Because The Glass Menagerie is partly autobiographical, and because gobbler is a stand-in for the playwright himself (Williamss given name was Thomas, and he, like Tom, fatigued part of his youth in St.Louis with an runny mother and baby, his father absent oft of the time), we can apply this comment on the nature of memory to Williamss memories of his profess youth. even up taken as a single character, Tom is full of contradiction. On the one hand, he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of escape, adventure, and nobleer things. On the other hand, he natterms inextricably demarcation to the squalid, petty world of the Wingfield household. We know that he reads D. H. Lawrence and follows political developments in Europe, exclusively the contentedness of his intellectual life is otherwise hard to discern.We experience no idea of Toms opinion on Lawrence, nor do we have any indication of what Toms poetry is about. All we settle is what he thinks about his mother, h is sister, and his w arhouse mullprecisely the things from which he claims he wants to escape. Toms attitude toward Amanda and Laura has puzzled critics. Even though he clearly cares for them, he is frequently indifferent and even vicious toward them. His speech at the close of the play demonstrates his strong feelings for Laura.But he cruelly deserts her and Amanda, and non once in the course of the play does he dribble kindly or lovingly toward Lauranot even when he nocks d aver her candy menagerie. Critics have suggested that Toms confound behavior indicates an incestuous attraction toward his sister and his shame over that attraction. This theory casts an interest light on certain moments of the playfor example, when Amanda and Tom discuss Laura at the shutd suffer of look Five. Toms imperativeness that Laura is hopelessly peculiar and cannot survive in the outside world, while Amanda (and later Jim) claims that Lauras oddness is a positive thing, could have as more tha n to do with his green-eyed desire to keep his sister to himself as with Lauras own quirks. Amanda WingfieldIf there is a signature character type that label Tennes attend to Williamss dramatic work, it is undeniably that of the indistinct Southern belle. Amanda is a clear lesson of this type. In general, a Tennessee Williams faded belle is from a owing(p) Southern family, has received a traditional upbringing, and has suffered a reversal of economical and social fortune at some point in her life. similar Amanda, these women all have a hard time coming to terms with their new spatial relation in indian lodgeand indeed, with modern society in general, which disregards the social distinctions that they were taught to value.Their relationships with men and their families are turbulent, and they staunchly defend the values of their past. As with Amanda, their maintenance of genteel manners in very ungenteel surroundings can egress tragic, comic, or downright grotesque. Amanda is the plays just about extroverted and theatrical character, and one of modern American dramas most coveted female roles (the acclaimed stage actress Laurette Taylor came out of semi-retirement to play the role in the original production, and a number of known actresses, including Jessica Tandy, have since taken on the role).Amandas constant nagging of Tom and her refusal to see Laura for who she really is are certainly reprehensible, exclusively Amanda also reveals a go outingness to sacrifice for her love ones that is in many ways scarce in the play. She subjects herself to the humiliating drudgery of subscription gross revenue in order to enhance Lauras marriage prospects, without ever uttering so much as a word of complaint. The safest proof to draw is that Amanda is not evil solely is deeply flawed.In fact, her flaws are centrally responsible for the tragedy, comedy, and theatrical flair of her character. Like her children, Amanda withdraws from reality into fantasy. Unl ike them, she is convinced that she is not doing so and, consequently, is constantly making efforts to carry with people and the world outside her family. Amandas monologues to her children, on the phone, and to Jim all reflect quite clearly her moral and psychological failings, but they are also some of the most colorful and unforgettable words in the play.Laura Wingfield The physically and emotionally crippled Laura is the entirely character in the play who never does anything to hurt anyone else. Despite the weight of her own problems, she displays a pure compassionas with the tears she sheds over Toms unhappiness, described by Amanda in Scene Fourthat stands in stark course to the selfishness and grudging sacrifices that characterize the Wingfield household. Laura also has the few lines in the play, which contributes to her aura of selflessness. soon enough she is the axis of rotation around which the plot turns, and the most prominent symbols sour roses, the crank unicorn , the entire grouch menagerieall in some sense represent her. Laura is as idealistic and peculiar as a blue rose or a unicorn, and she is as delicate as a glass figurine. Other characters seem to assume that, like a piece of transparent glass, which is dull until light shines upon it, Laura can take on whatever color they wish. Thus, Amanda both uses the job between herself and Laura to emphasize the glamour of her own youth and to fuel her hope of re-creating that youth through Laura.Tom and Jim both see Laura as an exotic creature, completely and earlier quaintly foreign to the rest of the world. Yet Lauras crush on the high school hero, Jim, is a rather ordinary bicycle schoolgirl sentiment, and a girl as purportedly fragile as Laura could hardly address the days she spends walking the streets in the arctic to avoid going to typing class. finished actions like these, Laura repeatedly displays a will of her own that defies others perceptions of her, and this will repeated ly goes unacknowledged.