-E.E. Cummings

Laura is like a piece of her own glass collection: too fragile to be taken from the shelf, allowing her ideals and outlooks to be specifically effected by each of the other characters. The Glass Menagerie is a play containing such dramatic and exquisite characters that it is hard not to feel the emotions and feelings held by each one. Throughout the play, the reader notices and strives to understand Laura’s shyness and awkwardness. Her fear of society and lack of confidence force the reader to yearn for changes to be made in her personality.

The Glass Menagerie is an extremely poetic and heartwarming drama. The character of Laura is extremely vulnerable. Besides having a physical defect, her lack of confidence and individuality are directly affected and related to the actions and words of the other three characters: Amanda (her mother), Tom (her brother), and Jim (the gentleman caller). Laura seemed to be in a constant state of paranoia, always trying to please her mother and brother, without having to leave the seclusion of her home and the comfort and familiarity of her glass collection. “Such matters

Halline, Alan G. Six Modern American Plays. Modern

Anthology of Plays. Allyn and Bacon, Inc. New York:

Criticism and Comment. Harper and Row. New York:

The dreaded day finally came. The gentleman caller that Amanda long awaited and Laura forever feared was on his way. The idea of facing this man, whom she had looked at so fondly as a girl, filled Laura with a fear that she had never faced before. A member from the outside world would be tapping into her illusion. She made herself sick simply thinking of the idea. Little did she know that this man would give her the change that she needed to face reality and the woman she needed to be and live the life she longed to live.

Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams.

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