Tom About Laura example essay topic

Is Gentleman Jim the Savior Is a man the solution to a family's problems In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller, could be the resolution to the Wingfield's predicaments. Throughout the play Laura Wingfield, the daughter, lives in her childhood. If she married Jim O'Connor, it would fulfill a dream from her days of youth. Secondly, Amanda Wingfield, the mother, needs to get her daughter out on her own.

If Laura married Jim, it would take her away from the little cramped apartment in St. Louis, and away from her overbearing mother. Lastly, for Tom Wingfield, the son, it would be his long-awaited escape from the Household of Hell. Once Laura has married Jim, Tom would be able to join the Merchant Marines and travel to the wonderful and exotic world outside the decaying walls of St. Louis. The Wingfield household is in drastic need for a denouement that will deliver delight to all. Firstly, Laura lives life in the past and will not experience the now. When asked if she has ever liked a boy she confesses to only one.

Laura admits, "Yes. I liked one [boy] once... His name was Jim" (p 43). This passage shows that Laura has only liked one boy in her entire life, one from long ago. Later on, she proclaims, "There was a Jim O'Connor we both knew in high school...

You asked me once if I'd ever liked a boy. Don't you remember I showed you this boy's [Jim's] picture" (p 89). She is once again speaking of her only true love in this passage. In a special little place in her heart, Laura has always had feelings for this boy, Jim, and they continue still. Secondly, Amanda Wingfield's mission in life is to find her anti-social daughter a gentleman caller and potential husband (which in this case turns out to be Jim).

The thought of a caller is an obsession that lingers in her mind. She exclaims, "Girls that aren't cut out for business careers usually wind up married to some nic man. Sister, that's what you " ll do!" (p 44). This demonstrates how Amanda feels that Laura cannot do anything at all, but willie okay if she has a husband.

She then says to Tom, "We have to be making some plans and provisions for her. She's older than you, two years, and nothing has happened. She just drifts along doing nothing. It frightens me how she just drifts along... There's no such type [homegirls], and if there is, it's a pity! That is unless the home is hers, with ahusband!" (p 65).

This discussion that Amanda has with Tom about Laura ends up being about a husband, showing that these "plans and provisions" are constantly running through her mind. Since Amanda is always searching for this gentleman caller, it sadly becomes an obsession, and it will not cease until she finds the man that will make Laura happy forever. Lastly, Tom is always feeling that he needs to get away from his domineering mother. He has finally begun to dig his way to freedom from the Wingfield prison, using his shovel named Jim, a gentleman caller.

Amanda states matter-of-fact ly, "I mean that as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent- why, then you " ll be free to go wherever you please, on land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows you! But until that time you " ve got to look out for your sister" (p 65). In short, Amanda is saying that Tom can leave St. Louis as soon as he finds ahusband for Laura. Then, not long after Amanda's previous statement, Tom proudly declares, "I thought perhaps you wished for a gentleman caller...

Weare going to have one". (p 72). Tom's eagerness to get away is displayed bythe short length of time it takes him to find Jim. Now he has Jim as his ticket out of town. The Wingfield now have a chance for a normal life. Jim is the hope ofthe past, the change of the present, and the dream of the future. He can make Laura feel special, Amanda feel young, and set Tom free.

He is the key that will unlock hidden happiness. Jim is the answer to their dilemmas. He is truly a savior.