Tom's narration is, (again, according to the stage directions themselves), "an undisguised convention of the play...[h]e takes whatever license with dramatic convention is convenient to his purposes." Tom tells us he is the opposite of a magician because he shows us truth disguised as illusion. He sets the scene for the social background for the play, describes his role in it, and introduces the other characters by name. One character in particular, the gentleman caller, Tom singles out as a symbol of unrealized hope. The fifth and final character, the father, does not appear in the play: he skipped town long ago and hasn't been heard from except for a terse postcard farewell from Mexi

Laura's equation with glass becomes nearly complete in Scene VI, where, according to the stage directions, "she is like a piece of translucent glass touched by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting." Yet in this scene it is the fragility of glass that Laura most embodies. We see the panic, the shyness, the momentary breakdown of reason in the face of terror that physically incapacitates her. Laura's world is so hermetic that we and the other characters are unable to appreciate what may be reasonable in her actions. If this dinner is indeed the unexpected culminating event of the dramatic arc of her intense, private world, her paralysis seems more comprehensible.

Amanda steps out onto the landing to join Tom. They speak more gently than before. Each makes a wish on the moon. Tom won't tell his; Amanda wishes for the success and happiness of her children. Tom announces that there will be a gentleman caller: he has asked a nice young man from the warehouse to dinner. Amanda is thrilled. Tom reveals that the caller will be coming tomorrow. This sends Amanda into a tizzy. There are a million preparations to be made. Tom tells her not to make a fuss, but she has already begun. She frets about the linen, the silver, new curtains, chintz covers, a new floor lamp, and despairs that there won't be time to re-paper the walls.

Back inside the apartment, Amanda quizzes Tom about the young man. Her first concern is that he not be a drunkard: "Old maids are better off than wives of drunkards!" Tom thinks she is being far too premature, marrying them off already. The interrogation continues. The man is a shipping clerk at the warehouse named Jim O'Connor. He makes 85 dollars a month. He's neither ugly nor too good-looking. He goes to night school to study radio engineering and public speaking. He's really into self-improvement. Amanda is pleased, particularly by his ambition. These are the facts she wants to know, whether or not the young man is a serious suitor. Tom warns her that Jim does not know about Laura; it was just a simple invitation to dinner. That doesn't matter, Amanda replies, Laura will dazzle him. He asks her not to expect too much of Laura since she is crippled, painfully shy, and lives in her own little world. To others who do not love her as family, she's a little peculiar. Amanda punctuates his remarks with, "Don't say crippled!" and "Don't say peculiar," but she doesn't belabor the point.

Some topics in this essay:
St Louis, Catholic Irish, Jim Laura, DH Lawrence, Glass Menagerie, Tom Laura, Blue Roses, Commentary Rainbows, Glass Menagerie's, Amanda Laura, fire escape, stage directions, fire escape landing, glass menagerie, escape landing, gentlemen callers, blue roses, gentleman caller, tom laura, amanda makes, tom amanda, amanda calls tom, instinct lover hunter, truth disguised illusion, streetcar named desire,