Student Essay on The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

Summary:   Throughout the Glass Menagerie, by Tennesse William, the author did an excellent job at drawing out emotional responses from his readers.

I found that throughout this play Tennessee William did an excellent job at drawing out emotional responses from his readers. I believe he was able to achieve this by using Tom as the narrator as well as a character. Tom narrated the play as a memory and described the settings and situations with words that enabled you to feel as if you were there. I found myself being sympathetic with the adult children of the play, Tom and Laura, because of the situations life threw their way.

First of all, I really felt sorry for Laura. She had pleurisies and had to wear a brace on her leg. When she was in high school, she was very self-conscious about the noise the brace made when she walked. She described it as sounding like thunder. This caused her to become very shy. Instead of overcoming her situation, she became more and more withdrawn from people. Jim really pointed this out to me three times in his conversations with Laura. First on page 745 of the play Jim says, "People are not so dreadful when you know them. That's what you have to remember! And everybody has problems, not just you but practically everybody has problems."

Then again on page 747 Jim tells her, "Say! You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! You know what that is? That's what they call it when a fellow low-rates himself! Oh, I understand it because I had it, too. Uh-huh! Only my case was not as aggravated as yours seems to be." Finally a little further down he recaps his thoughts by saying, "Yep-that's what I judge to be your principal trouble. A lack of confidence in yourself as a person. Now I'm basing that fact on a number of your remarks and on certain observations I've made. For instance, that clumping you thought was so awful in high school. You say that you dreaded to go upstairs? You see what you did? You dropped out of school, you gave up an education all because of a little clump, which as far as I can see is practically nonexistent! Oh, a little physical defect is all you have. It's hardly noticeable even! Magnified a thousand times by your imagination! You know what my strong advice to you is? You've got to think of yourself as superior in some way!...You see, everybody excels in some one thing. Well-some in many!"

I think Laura also pointed out her feelings towards herself when she talked about the unicorn being her favorite piece on the glass menagerie table. She pointed out that it was different than the other horses because of the single horn. I think, in the same way she felt odd and different from everyone else because she was crippled.

I believe God has put a desire in my heart, more so a passion, for people with handicaps, people who feel left out, or are shy and alone. I've always felt the need to befriend the kid at school that no one else talked to or the person who's house was destroyed and had nothing. Last year, when so many people lost their homes and were living in shelters after the hurricanes, I could hardly wait to get up in the morning and work at the shelters all day while we were out of school. I also empathize with Laura because of how she felt about herself. I'm seventeen years old now, which is probably close to the age Laura was in the high school scenes talked about in the play. I know from personal experience that I sometimes feel overwhelmed about circumstances in my life. My parents, relatives, and older friends assure me though, that this is probably one of the most difficult stages of my life and in a few years from now I'll be able to look back with a different perspective. Unlike Laura, my hopes are that my times of turmoil will make me stronger instead of weaker. I know God's given me many gifts and talents. My plans are to use them all.

I also felt sorry for Tom. Throughout the play, I could feel his sense of being trapped in a life he wanted no part of. He worked in a warehouse in order to earn enough money to support his mother, sister and himself. His job didn't satisfy his longing desire for adventure and writing poetry. He was left torn between his life's dream and the responsibility he felt he had for Laura. In act 1 scene 6, as Tom narrates, he describes couples coming out of the Paradise Dance Hall. Tom says, "You could see them kissing behind ash pits and telephone poles. This was compensation for lives that passed like mine, without change or adventure. Changes and adventure were imminent this year. They were waiting around the corner for all these dancing kids." These lines were some used in the play when Tom expressed his disappointment through his analogy of what he saw. The kids probably didn't feel that way at all, but his point of view was probably influenced by how he felt.

I think it was unfair that Amanda shifted the responsibility of Laura's well being to Tom. I understand that parents want the best lives for their children, but in this case it seemed to me that Amanda was more concerned for Laura's happiness than she was for Tom's. Beside her constantly pushing Tom to find gentlemen callers for Laura, she also criticized him, and unkindly compared him to his father who deserted their family years ago. Maybe she unknowingly treated Tom with the resentment she felt towards her husband for leaving them. He finally leaves their home in the end and joins the merchant marines in search of the adventure he longed for. His travels physically took him far from home, but mentally, he was never able to escape from the guilty memories of Laura. In his final narrative of the play, he really expressed to me how haunted he felt by Laura. As he walked in front of a shop that sold perfume, he saw colored glass bottles and said, "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 a movie or a bar. I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger-anything that can blow your candles out!-for nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura..." These words allowed me to feel how desperate he was to leave his past behind him and find the happiness he longed for.

I wasn't really sure if I would like this play at first. But, by the third scene or so I felt myself being able to identify with the feelings of the characters. The play was written about real life situations that happen every day, which makes it easy for anyone to relate to. It wasn't boring, it was life.