In Tennessee William\u2019s \u201cmemory play\u201d The Glass Menagerie, we see a dysfunctional family who as a result of their patriarch\u2019s desertion live constrained within their own unhappiness. Tom feels that the source of his woes was imprisonment by having to support his family when in reality it is the guilt of leaving his sister behind; Amanda is unhappy with her children because they do not follow the path that she wants them to take but deep down she is unhappy with the choices she made in her life, and Laura thinks all of her distress is due to being crippled when it really is about an inferiority complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In this The Glass Menagerie<\/em>, we must first keep in mind that this is a \u201cmemory play\u201d that comes from the perspective of Tom\u2019s recollections. Writers who offer English homework help<\/a> at Edudorm essay writing service notes that Tom is both a character and the narrator who tells a story about a time in his life where he felt his unhappiness came from his feelings of being trapped by having to carry the weight of his family\u2019s entire responsibilities. We see this theme of his imprisonment in the following passage in The Glass Menagerie<\/em> from scene three during an altercation with his mother, Amanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. What in Christ\u2019s name am I\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. (Shrilly)<\/em> Don\u2019t you use that\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. Supposed to do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. Expression! Not in my\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. Ohhh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. Presence! Have you gone out of your senses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. I have, that\u2019s true, driven <\/em>out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. What is the matter with you, you\u2014big\u2014big\u2014IDIOT!<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. Look\u2014I\u2019ve got no thing<\/em>, no single thing\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. Lower your voice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. In my life here that I can call my OWN! Everything is\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. Stop that shouting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TOM. Yesterday you confiscated my books! You had the nerve to- AMANDA. I took that horrible novel back to the library\u2014yes! That hideous book by that insane Mr. Lawrence. (Tom laughs wildly.<\/em>) I cannot control the output of diseased minds or people who cater to them\u2014(Tom laughs still more wildly.<\/em>) BUT I WON\u2019T ALLOW SUCH FILTH BROUGHT INTO MY HOUSE! No, no, no, no, no!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TOM. House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes a slave of himself to\u2014(2302)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this passage of The Glass Menagerie<\/em>, Tom is growing tired of his mother\u2019s constant nagging andpoints out that he does not have a life of his own, that everything is being taken away from him, even the simple pleasures such as reading a book despite sacrificing himself to support his family. These resentments, at the time seemed to be the main reason behind his affliction and drove him to find a way out in pursue of happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We find proof of this in the following passage from scene six of The Glass Menagerie,<\/em> during a conversation with his friend Jim O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. I\u2019m starting to boil inside. I know I seem dreamy, but inside\u2014 well, I\u2019m boiling! Whenever I pick up a shoe, I shudder a little thinking how short life is and what I am doing! \u2014Whatever that means. I know it doesn\u2019t mean shoes\u2014except as something to wear on traveler\u2019s feet! (Finds paper.<\/em>) Look\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n JIM. What?<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. I\u2019m a member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JIM. (reading<\/em>) The Union of Merchant Seamen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM. I paid my dues this month, instead of the light bill. (2321)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom thought that by getting out and joining the Merchant Marines would fix his problems and make him happy but by leaving, ultimately led him to realize that his real source of unhappiness was the guilt and haunting memory of deserting Laura just like his father before him. We find evidence of this during scene seven when Tom breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience once again with his closing speech, which goes as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0TOM. I didn’t go to the moon; I went much further\u2014for time is the longest distance between places\u2014Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. I left Saint Louis. I descended the step of this fire-escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space\u2014I travelled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves,\u00a0leaves that were brightly colored but tom away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass\u2014Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes…Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger\u2014anything that can blow your candles out! (Laura bends over the candles.<\/em>)\u2014for nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura\u2014\u00a0and so good-bye\u2026 (2337 \u2013 2338). Tom never imagined he would be so loyal to Laura in the sense that even though he left he took her memory wherever he went. Laura became a constant reminder of his guilt, which was ultimately the true cause of his unhappiness according to his recollections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, Toms unhappiness is depicted in the way he seems haunted by his resolve to abandon his family and go out to search for adventure. Tom\u2019s actions guide the reader and present a tone of anxiety and guilty and empathy can be seen in the entire play of The Glass Menagerie<\/em>. His unhappiness is centered on resentment for the responsibilities that he bears on behalf of his family. Experts who offer English assignment help<\/a> at Edudorm essay writing service indicates that knowing that he has the responsibility to help in supporting his family is one such source of unhappiness. Considering that helping to support the family is not his obligation, he is full of resentment for his mother\u2019s constant nagging about his life, job and future. \u00a0This bitterness that he harbors inside can be seen running over to the one thing that is an inhibition at home, Laura his crippled sister. He fills unhappy because of the knowledge of his love for her and she needs him. However, Tom is unable to help Laura and so runs away. In doing so, he chooses his dreams over the reality of the needs of his family. \u00a0In addition, his dull life and job make him to remain cynical and unhappy. Even after trying to take night classes, he seems not really satisfied by anything and he ponders that being a writer will enable him escape this mundane life and be able to find adventure. He lacks the trait of a hero and thus leaves his family behind and more so abandons handicapped and innocent sister Laura. In retelling the story, he is unable to be happy and peaceful until he can forgive himself. Where ever he goes after running away he feels the touch of Laura on his shoulder.\u201d I turn around and look into her eyes.\u00a0 Oh, Laura, I tried to leave you behind, but I am more faithful than I intended to be.\u201d<\/em> (Greta & Smith, 93).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the case of Amanda, we see an overbearing mother who is discontented with her children because they do not follow the path that she wants them to take. She wanted Laura to attend Rubicam\u2019s Business College to obtain a business career or to get married, which is revealed on the following passage of The Glass Menagerie<\/em> from the second scene after finding out that her daughter had been deceiving her and had dropped out of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. (hopelessly fingering the huge pocketbook<\/em>). So, what are we going to do the rest of our lives? Stay home and watch the parades go by? Amuse ourselves with the glass menagerie, darling? Eternally play those worn-out phonograph records your father left as a painful reminder of him? We won\u2019t have a business career\u2014we\u2019ve given that up because it gave us nervous indigestion! (Laughs wearily.<\/em>) What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren\u2019t prepared to occupy a position. I\u2019ve seen such pitiful cases in the South\u2014barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister\u2019s husband or brother\u2019s wife! \u2014stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room\u2014encouraged by one in-law to visit another\u2014little birdlike women without any nest\u2014eating the crust of humility all their life! Is that the future that we\u2019ve mapped out for ourselves? I swear it\u2019s the only way alternative I can think of! It isn\u2019t a very pleasant alternative, is it? Of course\u2014some girls do marry<\/em>. (Laura twists her hands nervously.<\/em>) Haven\u2019t you ever liked some boy? (2299 \u2013 2300). She wanted Tom to stop jeopardizing their security and worried he was following his father\u2019s footsteps by being out late at night. Authors who offer English dissertation help<\/a> at Edudorm essay writing service points that Amanda also wanted him to find his sister a gentleman caller, as a backup plan for Laura and herself. In scene four, we find the following passage of The Glass Menagerie<\/em> that proves this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. Oh, I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It\u2019s terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation\u2014Then left! Good-bye!<\/em> And me with the bag to hold. I saw that letter you got from the Merchant Marine. I know what you\u2019re dreaming of. I\u2019m not standing here blindfolded. Very well, then. Then do <\/em>it! But not till there\u2019s somebody to take your place. (2308)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amanda\u2019s discontent with her children it\u2019s nothing but the surface of a much deeper affair attributed to her past. Her real source of unhappiness comes from the regret of the choices she made in her life, by marrying Mr. Wingfield. We have to take in consideration that Amanda, in her prime had a very fortunate lifestyle in the South. She brags about having seventeen gentlemen callers at once in one occasion, among them were distinguished young planters of the Mississippi Delta. Amanda could have had it all by marrying one of her prominent suitors but instead she chose to marry Mr. Winfield, the man who ended up deserting her. We can see in the following passage of The Glass Menagerie<\/em> from scene one when she is bragging about her youth to her children during a dinner conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AMANDA. That Fitzhugh boy went North and made a fortune\u2014came to be known as the Wolf of Wall Street! He had the Midas touch, whatever he touched turned to gold! And I could have been Mrs. Duncan J. Fitzhugh, mind you! But\u2014 I picked your father!<\/em> (2297)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amanda\u2019s unhappiness stems from living in a world that is fluctuating between reality and illusion. She closes her eyes to the real and brutal world when a situation is convenient to her.\u00a0 She is, however, unable to live in this illusion forever. She has to face the pressures of everyday life than comes with many unpleasant facts. The condition of Laura is a major source of her unhappiness as seen in her assertions that \u201c”I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren’t prepared to occupy a position<\/em>.”\u00a0 She is faced with the reality of her daughter\u2019s position even if she cannot acknowledge her disability (Greta & Smith, 95).\u00a0 Moreover, she has read the letter that was sent to Tom by Merchant Marine and is aware that he will be leaving them soon. \u00a0Her life is full of other impossibilities.\u00a0 She wishes that her children could get the best out of life but cannot understand that what she wants varies largely from what they want most.\u00a0 Her refusal to acknowledge that she is very different from her children is a cause for unhappiness and a lot of unhappy moments. She is unable to understand why Laura cannot have charm and gaiety. Her idea of charm is very different from that of her daughter\u2019s idea. She can manage to be exceptionally lively at any time while Lauran is confined in sensitive and quiet world. Tutors who offer English coursework help<\/a> at Edudorm essay writing service acknowledges that the final analysis can present her as being frivolous but it\u2019s because of her past life. When she was deserted by her husband, she encountered a meaningless and empty life, which was the beginning of her misery and unhappiness (Greta & Smith, 95). She resulted to fabricating things so as to fill the void in her life. By devoting too much to her kids and living through them she missed a point. She was reliving her life and therefore failed to understand varied personalities possessed by her children and made Tom to escape from home. This further added to her unhappiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Regarding Laura, she attributes all of her distress to being crippled. For instance, when her mother tells her that she should find a nice man to marry since she is not meant for a business career Laura gives her mother the excuse of being crippled. Laura is constantly exaggerating the extent of her physical disability. She has one leg slightly shorter than the other which is nothing that should keep her from finishing her education or isolating herself in her own world of little glass animals and playing old phonograph\u2019s records. It is not until Jim O\u2019Connor; her high school crush comes over for dinner that she realizes that her real problem and the reason why she has been so unhappy is just an inferiority complex. JIM. You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! (2330). JIM. Yep\u2014that\u2019s what I judge to be your principal trouble. A lack of confidence in yourself. I\u2019m basing that fact on a number of your remarks and also on certain observations I\u2019ve made. For instance, that clumping you thought was so awful in high school. You say that you even dreaded to walk into class. You see what you did? You dropped out of school, you gave up an education because of a clump, which as far as I know was practically nonexistent! A little physical defect is what you have. Hardly noticeable even! Magnified thousands of times by imagination! (2330).<\/p>\n\n\n\nPassage in the Glass Menagerie from Scene Six<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Passage in the Glass Menagerie from Scene Two<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Passage in the Glass Menagerie from Scene Four<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Passage in the Glass Menagerie from Scene One<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n