Affective For Tom And Laura's Life example essay topic

Essay of The Glass Menagerie The play takes place in the small apartment of the Wingfield family in St. Louis, 1937. The action of the play centers on Tom, his mother Amanda, and his sister Laura. The theme of memory is important: for Amanda, memory is a kind of escape. For Tom, the older Tom who narrates the play, memory is the thing that cannot be escaped: he is still haunted by memories of the sister whom he abandoned years ago. Their father abandoned them years earlier, and Tom is now the family's source of income.

Tom is a thin man, with dark hair. Tom likes to write poetry, although her mother doesn't support it, because that won't pay the bills. He works at the Continental Shoemakers warehouse during the day, but he disappears nightly "to the movies". He dreams to go out to the world and live and have a happy future. But he feels bad that he needs to leave his mother and sister behind in order to go and search for the life he dreams of. He has stayed because of his responsibility for them, but his mother's irritating and his fragile sister makes the apartment a depressing place for him to live.

Tom also hates his job. His only escape comes from his frequent visits to the movies, though it upsets Amanda. He fights with Amanda frequently, because she cannot understand how can it be true that he spends all of his nights in the movies. Amanda is a loving mother, but she is always interfering in Tom's life.

She clings frantically to another time and place and wishes to come back to her youth. Amanda dreams regularly of the long-ago days, when she was a young Southern belle. Laura is a frightened and a very shy girl, with exceptionally fragile nerves. Laura is able to walk slowly and with great effort.

She is a little lame in one leg, and she rarely leaves the apartment of her own decision. She dedicates her life taking care of her little animal glass collection. Laura, like a blue rose, is special, and unique, but she is also cut off from real life. Tom has a caring relationship with Laura; when Amanda is in denial about what was Tom "doing to the family", Laura runs to his room and try to give him some support.

The relationship between Tom and Amanda is tense; he is constantly struggling to tolerate her. In her youth she was wealthy enough to have servants, but now, with her husband gone, she is struggling to make it. And seems unconscious to Tom's unhappiness and Laura's painful shyness. Amanda enrolled Laura in classes at Rubicam's Business College, hoping that a career in business would make Laura self-sufficient. She discovers that Laura stopped attending class a long time ago, because the speed tests on the typewriter terrified her.

Her attempt to learn job skills at Rubicam's Business College was a terrible failure. She became physically sick and could not stand to continue going to class. Her own mother's disappointment shows how dominant Amanda can be; although Amanda is not in any way cruel, and in fact is very loving, her speculation in her children and her need to live through them is very affective for Tom and Laura's life. After the humiliation at Rubicam's Amanda gives up on a business career for Laura and focus more on getting a husband for her. Amanda, sensing that Tom wants to leave, tries to make a deal with him.

If Tom and Amanda can find a husband for Laura, a man who can take care of her, then Tom will be free of his responsibility to them. Amanda asks Tom to bring home gentlemen callers to meet Laura. The idea of a gentleman caller becomes Amanda's obsession and the great hope for the Wingfield's to attain financial security. Amanda puts her security into the hands of men because she doesn't see another alternative for her life and her daughter's life. Although she depended on her husband and then Tom, neither turned out to be good male providers. But Amanda is still hoping to find an ideal husband for her daughter.

The play is full with symbolism. The glass menagerie, in its fragility and delicate beauty, is a symbol for Laura. She is unusually beautiful and, like her little animal glass collection, very fragile and easy to break. The glass menagerie represents her vulnerability. Her dedication with the tiny animals reveals how afraid she is of interaction with other humans. The qualities of glass equivalents Laura's characteristics: like the tiny glass animals, she is delicate, and beautiful in her own strange way.

The animals must be kept on a little shelf and polished; there is only one place where they belong. In a similar way, Laura is kept and cared for. She depends on her mother and her brother for everything in life. The fire escape is most closely linked to Tom's character and to the theme of escape. Tom uses it to get out of the apartment and into the outside world.

The fire escape is an important symbol that Tom feels and the possibility of a way out. While Laura stumbles on the fire escape, and the fall symbolizes her incapacity to survive for herself in the outside world. One of the play's important themes is the conflict between the desire to live one's own life and the responsibility for one's family. Tom's salary pays the bills, but Amanda continues to treat him as a child. She confiscates and returns his books, and during their argument she attempts to control their discussion as an adult controls an argument with a little boy. Tom never really directly denies that he is going somewhere other than the movies, and with the audience he never addresses the question of whether or not her really goes to the movies.

He also arrives home at times five in the morning, in one scene when it seems unlikely that a movie would just be ending. Tom is the one responsible, and the pain of his position is made clear. As much as he would like to live his own life, his actions have a great effect on the well-being and security of his mother and sister. By being reckless, he destroys the pretend-world of his sister. The scene balances Tom's frustration with his home situation against the affection the Wingfield feel for each other.

Laura is able to encourage Tom to apologize, and at the start of his conversation with Amanda, Tom's affection for his mother is clear. As their conversation continues, however, the old rifts seem inevitable. There's a part where Amanda makes Tom promise he will not be drunk, and sets how there's mother to son treatment and caring. Tom respects her mom's preference by just accepting it, instead of making it another issue to argue about. Amanda wishes for Laura to meet her husband. Amanda sees him as the one who will rescue Laura and trough Laura, Amanda.

She ignores the vulnerability and total shyness of Laura and obligates her to deal with her fragile emotions, giving her the pressure to find the stability of their lives in a man. Tom whishes to explore the outside world so Amanda passes the responsibility to Laura to look for a provider, her last resource, but doesn't mean she is less important. But since she knows how shy is Laura, makes her feel insecure to find one man, and makes Amanda afraid of what would her future would become. Amanda's expectations for this evening are very high. She has worried Laura by making such excitement over the evening. Tom brings home Jim O'Connor, a fellow employee at the warehouse.

He is an outgoing and enthusiastic man on whom Laura had a terrible crush back in high school. Amanda dresses in a very old gown and she acts many years younger. Her behavior towards Jim is embarrassing to Tom. She charms Jim and making sure he feels very welcome. Jim chats with Laura about their different memories of school show how self-conscious Laura is. The sound of her brace mortified her back in high school, but Jim cannot remember it at all.

Jim tries to convince Laura that she is worthwhile and unique. A more gracious interpretation of his character would argue that part of his motivation is a desire for Laura to see how beautiful she is. The glass unicorn becomes a symbol for Laura. She, like the unicorn, is odd and unique. Both Laura and the unicorn are fragile: Jim "breaks" both of them. Laura's gift of the broken unicorn shows the extent of her affection for him.

For Jim, the evening has been insignificant. But Laura has harbored a girlish crush on him for many years she even saved the program of the play in which he starred and the gift of the unicorn, an piece that is a symbol of herself, shows how much she still likes him. It is the gift of an odd and painfully shy girl, for whom kissing Jim was a climactic experience. Jim is growing increasingly flirtatious, until he finally kisses her. Then he admits that he has a fianc'e and cannot call again.

For fragile Laura, the news is devastating. Amanda is furious, and after Jim leaves she accuses Tom of playing a cruel joke on them. Tom's plans to leave Amanda and Laura are revealed. He only provided a gentleman caller and not a husband like her mother asked. Their deal was for him to wait until Laura got a husband so she can be secure she will have someone how supports them constantly. Amanda and Tom have one final fight, and not long afterward Tom leaves for good.

In his closing monologue, he admits that he cannot escape the memory of his sister. Though he abandoned her years ago, Laura still haunts him. He gained freedom, but at the same time he loose his family. He leaves Laura and Amanda and feels guilty after he made his decision. However, he comes backs to the place where his hunting memories are many years after. Tom goes there and tells us what he had in his memory all his life to see if he could break that feeling of guiltiness..