The Glass Menagerie

I personally enjoyed reading this play. The plot was one that was somewhat foreshadowing, however, never letting a complete guess for the end of the plot to be suspected. One of the main characters of the play, Amanda, is a true depiction of a woman back in the 30's. Amanda's focus is on the attention both her daughter and her family receives from men. I found Amanda's character very intriguing. It is revealed at the beginning of the play that Amanda has been left by her former husband. This happening's effects are shown through all characters of the play. Although Amanda is never shown breaking down or seeming really upset about the rifted marriage, I found her almost like a puzzle with her actions in relevance to this. She is always reminiscing about her past gentleman, which I feel was a way for her to remind both herself and acquaintances that she was capable of being found worth wanting. She is also very controlling again, I feel, in order to try to control things so they can not get out of her grasp. I think the controlling tendency of Amanda is done out of a fear of losing more things. Another character that was greatly affected by the father's leaving, is Amanda's son, Tom. He deals with his father leaving in a complete opposite way of Amanda. Tom is very laid back, not hard working, and does all he can (such as going to the movies, drinking, smoking) to escape from reality. He actually ends up doing the same thing as his father and leaves the family at the end of the play. Without a real authoritative figure, it is his go to.

A question that I did not fully figure out was the choosing for the name of this play. It is revealed towards the end of the play that Amanda's daughter, Laura, makes these glass menageries for fun. I saw this very symbolic. Laura's favorite was one of a unicorn. She talks about she likes that it was different. This is one that is broken (the horn coming off to make it now like all the other horses) after meeting a hopeful gentleman for Laura that turns out to be a let down. After finding out that her hopeful gentleman was actually already involved with someone, Laura gives him the broken glass as a departing gift. I saw this for different possible reasons. One thought I had was almost sarcastic on Laura's part, indicating that he just the same as all other men. After being so nervous about meeting him, it turned out to be something she shouldn't have had to worry about. Another reason was her thanking him for allowing her to see that although she was crippled (symbolized possibly by the unicorn's horn), that that did not make her have to be different from everyone else (symbolized by the normal horses that the broken glass is later put with) with activities she was involved in or with who liked her.

This play could be related to most with the three very diverse main characters. I think we have all been an Amanda at some point, trying to control everything because of fear to lose something we find important. I think we have all experienced Tom moments where we are confused, fed up, and disappointed, so we make ourselves almost numb to as much as possible. Finally, I think we have all been Lauras in the fact of all feeling left out or not good enough at times. A writer who can relate to so many people is, in my opinion, a talented one. Reading this, I could personally think of times where I would have loved to know each of these characters so I had someone to relate to.