gradesaver provides access to 678 study guide pdfs and quizzes, 3587 literature essays, 1196 sample college application essays, 118 lesson plans, and ad free surfing in this premium content, ldquo members only rdquo section of the site! membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders. In the play ‘the glass menagerie’ the audience is presented with three obvious main characters. Each of these characters, tom, laura and amanda, has strong claims to the title of protagonist, but what hangs over the play is the spectre of the.

What is ldquo peculiar rdquo about laura? when amanda asks tom to explain what he means when he calls laura ldquo peculiar, rdquo he refers to the fact that she never goes out and says that ldquo s he lives in a world of her own mdash a world of little glass ornaments. Rdquo her inability to talk to strangers is also unusual, as is the violent illness that overtakes her when she is faced with the most minimal of social pressures. One of her legs is shorter than the other, and it is quite possible that this physical deformity contributes to her pathological shyness. Jim suggests another possible explanation for her oddity: he believes that all of her peculiarities stem from an inferiority complex and that they would disappear if she could only learn to think more highly of herself. Another more complex explanation for laura rsquo s odd behavior is that she lives in a fantasy world of her own creation. Because direct contact with the real world threatens to shatter laura rsquo s fantasies, much as the touch of any solid object will pop a soap bubble, she is terrified of any interaction with reality. If such is the case, then laura begins to look a little less peculiar. after all, amanda and tom also live to some extent in fantasy worlds mdash amanda in the past and tom in movies and literature.

The only difference between laura and them, perhaps, is that she inhabits her fantasy world much more completely than they inhabit theirs. A single line from laura reveals the complexity of the question of exactly how peculiar she is. In scene seven, she says to jim that she has never heard her glass horses argue among themselves. If we are meant to believe that she actually expects the glass figures to talk, then this quote demonstrates that she is deeply and unhealthily engrossed in her fantasies.

Exploratory Essay on Child Abuse

Rdquo it seems that she is just making a joke, which would indicate that she can, on the right occasion, distance herself enough from her fantasy world to find humor and absurdity in it. Q: how does the breaking of glass animals function as a symbol throughout the play? a: when tom breaks one of laura 39 s glass animals, it corresponds with the shattering of his family 39 s illusions about himself. But when laura accidentally breaks one herself, while dancing with jim, it suggests that she is poking a small hole into her emotional defenses, and opening herself up to the possibility of love and of pain. The horn breaking off the unicorn depicts the animal now becoming normal, while the breaking of the glass also symbolizes laura 39 s transformation into an ordinary girl who can love and hurt like everyone else.

Q: what is the symbolism of the fire escape? a: clearly the fire escape is the first step out of the wingfield apartment for tom. By retreating to the fire escape by escaping the fire , he can preserve his sanity just a bit longer, until he finally is forced to make a clean break of it and leave altogether. Q: in williams 39 character descriptions, jim is described only as a nice, ordinary young man while the wingfields each get much more substantial treatment. Why? a: because jim is just that a nice, ordinary young man, an intentional cipher. Amanda pins all the hopes and dreams of her family on this elusive gentleman caller, completely regardless of who this gentleman caller may be. Q: the original script of the play included direction for magic lantern slides, projecting key images and phrases during the action. This device was not used in the original broadway production, nor most subsequent revivals.

What do you think of this device? would you include it? a: the slides are the one sure sign that glass menagerie is a first time play all else is tightly crafted professional writing, but the slides declame a lack of confidence in the material on its own. Q: tennessee williams writes particularly southern plays, and has a fascination with the faded detritus of the antebellum period. Amanda wingfield shares much in common with williams 39 most famous heroine, a streetcar named desire 39 s blanche dubois. A: both amanda and blanche cling to the mores of a departed social structure, and both escape into this fantasy to avoid the depressing reality of their lives. But blanche 39 s fantasy presses strongly into psychosis, while amanda is merely in denial. Notable also is that blanche remains firmly within her delusions at streetcar 39 s conclusion, while amanda ultimately faces the truth of her situation. Parallels can be drawn as well between jim and a streetcar named desire 39 s mitch.

How are these characters similar in development and function? aside from both being gentleman callers, these characters are also both thinly drawn types men who aspire to normalcy and achieve it. They are purposely bland cyphers on which the heroines can cast their charms and illusions. Q: many williams plays have a non present character skipper in cat on a hot tin roof, sebastian in suddenly last summer, allan in a streetcar named desire, and mr.