Tom And Laura's Mother example essay topic

The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams Appearance vs. reality An important theme of, The Glass Menagerie, is that of appearance vs. reality. The characters escape from their normal lives into a fantasy world in which they are happy. Without these fantasy worlds the characters would be miserable. Laura uses her glass figurines to escape from the things her mother wants her to be doing. Tom goes to the movies to escape from his mother and her nagging.

Amanda, Tom and Laura's mother, reminds herself about the south, where she grew up, and wishes she was still young and in the south. Laura is shy and crippled; she does not live a normal life. Her shyness keeps her from going to her business school classes. Instead of doing things that normal women would do Laura takes walks all day and often goes to the zoo, to the Jewel Box, and to the park. Laura buys small glass statues. She loves these statues and creates her own little world with them.

She has a whole collection that she loves. At the opening of Scene Two Williams wrote " Laura is seated in the delicate ivory chair at the small claw-foot table. She wears a dress of soft violet material for a kimono - her hair is tied back from her forehead with a ribbon. She is washing and polishing her collection of glass". (pg. 29) Laura was supposed to be practicing her typing but she is playing with her glass figurines. This passage shows that Laura is obsessed with the world she has created and will not come to reality and does the things that she needs to do in order to get a job. She escapes the reality of society by not getting a job and collecting her little glass figurines.

Laura later says: " I said I do have my glass collection. Little articles of it, they " re ornaments mostly! Most of them are in little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them my glass menagerie! Here's an example of one, if you'd like to see it! This one is one of the oldest.

It's nearly thirteen". (pg. 100). This shows how obsessed Laura is with her glass figurines. She shows them to her company. Her glass collection is the most important thing in her life. Laura uses it to escape from her nagging mother and the fact that she has to make her own living. Tom escapes from reality in a different way.

Tom always goes to the movies. He thinks and dreams about adventures he wants to have. Tom goes to the movies so he does not have to deal with the constant nagging of his mother and the reality that he works at a boring job in a warehouse. Tom says: " Yes, movies!

Look at them. All those glamorous people having adventures, hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go the movies instead of moving!

Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone's dish, not only Gable's! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventures themselves, goody, and goody!

It's our turn now, to go the South Island, to make a safari, to be exotic, far-off! But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I'm about to move!" (pg. 79) This shows that Tom hates his job and his life. He wishes to escape from the reality of his life and run away to have adventure. He goes to the movies to get away but now he really wants to escape.

His feelings towards his job, and his life in general, are summarized in a short, but re aveling conversation with his mother: "Amanda: Why do you go to the movies so much, Tom? Tom: I go to the movies because I like the adventure. Adventure is something I don't have much of at work, so I go to the movies. Amanda: But, Tom, you go to the movies entirely too much! Tom: I like a lot of adventure. Amanda: Most young men find adventure in their careers.

Tom: Then most young men are not employed in a warehouse". (pg. 51) He escapes the reality of his boring job, so he goes to the movies and dreams about an adventurous life. Amanda escapes the reality of her frustrating life by remembering her youth in the south and reminiscing about it. She always tells stories of the south to her children. She talks to Laura about how many gentleman callers she got and how all the men loved her. She also sings her songs that remind her of the south. No one else knows these songs or what it was like in the south and can not relate to Amanda's past, but she still tells the stories to remember and escape her hectic life.

Amanda always told this story: " One Sunday after noon in Blue Mountain, your mother received seventeen, gentleman callers! Why, sometimes there wasn't enough chairs to accommodate them all. We had to send for more folding chairs from the parish house". (pg. 26) Amanda has told both her children this story so many times that they know it by heart, yet she still continues to tell them because it reminds her of her youth. She tells these stories to Laura in hope that she can be like her mother and receive gentlemen callers. Amanda remembers and wishes she was still young and tries to forget her troubles in reality.

All the characters in the play, The Glass Menagerie, try and escape the reality of their lives by forming their own little dream worlds. Tom dreams of adventure, Laura dreams of her glass figurines, and Amanda dreams of her youth and the south. They cannot deal effectively with the each other and the troubles in their lives, so they form their own fantasy worlds.