The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams

In this play the there was no clear protagonist or antagonist, or really any type of character that I could pick up on. The physically present characters (Laura, Tom, Amanda, and Jim) were all major characters, the minor characters included Laura and Tom’s father, who had left them, Jim’s fiancée Betty, and the woman whom Laura thought Jim had married, but he had not. The conflict of the story was between everyone, Tom wanted to go travel and be adventurous, Amanda wanted a caller for Laura, Laura was battling her shyness, and Jim was fighting to get Laura out of her shell and not be so shy. Conflict in itself was a very vicious circle for Laura in particular. She suffered from such shyness that she could not even go to school, and Jim and her mother bring in that education is key to doing anything in life. I thought a neat symbolism occurred with the glass unicorn that was Laura’s favorite. It was different from the others because it had a horn, and as Laura warmed up and started being more social and talking to Jim, he hit the table as they danced and broke the horn off of the unicorn. I thought it symbolized Laura becoming less shy, or getting rid of her shyness around Jim.

I really loved this play because I could connect to the shyness that Laura has, even though I’m not shy to that extent, and how adventurous and dream oriented Tom is. He wanted something amazing for his life, something that he loved. I couldn’t help but laugh at Amanda sometimes, she seemed so silly, her highest priority is finding a caller, more importantly a husband, for Laura, which is crazy to have as a priority, especially when Amanda had no real hold on reality. As much as I liked the play, I was really disappointed in the end, when Jim said he was dating Betty, I was so hopeful for Laura!!