Tennessee Williams - The Glass Menagerie

Plot Summary

Tom Wingfield, the narrator as well as a main character, appears at the beginning to explain that this play is made up of memories, and as such, it will seem unrealistic in some respects. He introduces himself, his mother Amanda, his sister Laura, and the photograph of his long-absent father. He also tells that audience about the most realistic character, Jim, who will be Laura's gentleman caller.                        The play is set in the 1930's in St. Louis where his family lived in a shabby apartment that looked just like the ones surrounding it. Tom works in a shoe warehouse and is miserably unhappy with his life because he wants to find adventure and write poetry. His job at the warehouse certainly doesn't satisfy these desires. His mother, an aging Southern belle abandoned by her husband sixteen years ago, is constantly nagging Tom about ways to improve himself; he's so miserable with his life, that her nagging only increases his irritation and drives him to the movies night after night to escape his pathetic life. Laura, who is too shy to interact with people outside her family, is a recluse with a slight handicap who is unable to have a life outside the apartment and her collection of glass animals.                                        Laura has dropped out of the typing class that Amanda insisted she take to prepare for supporting herself if necessary; Laura quit because she was embarrassed that she threw up in the classroom before the first timed test. Amanda, at her wit's end for how to procure a stable life for Laura, decides that marriage is the only other option, and she must seek a man to marry. Amanda convinces Tom to bring home someone from the warehouse to meet his sister. She tells Tom that he can go seek adventure only when Laura's future is certain, and he cooperates.                                 Tom brings home Jim O'Connor, a guy he knew vaguely in high school as the golden boy of high school. Tom knows that Laura knew Jim slightly, but he doesn't realize that Jim is the only man Laura's ever had feelings for. When Jim arrives, Laura is too overcome with anxiety to eat dinner with them, but circumstances (with a little help from Amanda) find Laura and Jim alone in the living room. When he finally remembers who she is, Laura begins to come out of her shell. The conversation wanders through high school to the present, and Jim, convinced that Laura needs someone to boost her confidence and a little overcome by the moment, kisses her. Only then does he realize his drastic mistake. He explains that he's engaged and can't be involved with her, and he leaves, breaking her fragile heart in the process. Amanda, completely enraged and hopeless, believes that Tom set them up to look like fools. She and Tom have a huge fight that sends him out to the movies again. Shortly after that night, Tom is fired from the warehouse for writing a poem on a shoebox lid, and he goes off with the Merchant Marines to find the adventure he craves just as his father did. The only problem is that Tom can't forget about Laura no matter where he goes, and he hasn't completely escaped the life he led in St. Louis.

Tom Wingfield: Tom is the narrator and a main character of the play. Son of Amanda and the escaped father in the photograph above the mantle, and brother to Laura, Tom is the breadwinner for the family. He works in the Continental Shoemakers' factory and sneaks away to write poetry when business is slow. He dreams of getting away from home where he's trapped in a job he hates, and he goes to the movies every night to seek out adventure. The movies stop being enough to satisfy his desire, and he joins the Merchant Marines, using the money that was meant to pay the electricity bill for his membership fee. Although he does escape as his father did, he is still haunted by the memory of his sister he left behind, Laura.

Amanda Wingfield: Amanda is Tom and Laura's mother. She is a faded Southern belle whose greatest accomplishment in her own eyes was having 17 gentleman callers in one day when she lived in Blue Mountain. Out of those reported 17, she chose a man she loved, but he abandoned her, leaving her to raise their children alone. Amanda encourages her children to engage in activities to improve themselves (such as taking typing classes) because she wants them to be successful. But after Laura's failure to complete a typing class, Amanda concludes that she and Tom must find a husband for Laura so that she will have someone to support her. Amanda and Tom never really see eye to eye on anything; she worries and nags him constantly about his smoking and his escape to the movies every night (she thinks he is out drinking). Although she and Tom argue a great deal, when Jim O'Connor, the gentleman caller, arrives, Amanda is all sugar - her manners are perfect Southern hospitality.

Laura Wingfield: Laura is Tom's sister, older by about two years. She is crippled -- one leg slightly shorter than the other -- and wears a metal brace on her foot that is barely noticeable. In her mind, it is a neon sign pointing out her imperfection. She is painfully shy and self-conscious because of her infirmity, and because she is so timid, she withdraws from society. Laura finds comfort, safety, and companionship among the glass animal figurines she collects -- her glass menagerie. This escape becomes her world.

The Father: The only visual we have of the father is an enlarged photograph hanging on the living room wall. He's smiling from beneath a World War I doughboy cap. Mr. Wingfield was 'a long distance man who fell in love with long distances' and left his family. The last correspondence he sent them was a postcard from Matzalan, a town on the Pacific coast of Mexico, with only the words, 'Hello -- Goodbye!' written on it. Tom thinks of his father as an escape artist, but Amanda's feeling toward him is ambiguous. She doesn't want Tom to become like his father, and yet she keeps his picture hanging prominently, sixteen years after he abandoned them for good.

Jim O'Connor: Jim O'Connor is the gentleman caller Tom brings home from the Continental Shoemakers warehouse. He is a shipping clerk and takes night classes in public speaking and radio engineering. He has big plans to enter the television industry because he believes it will do well. He was the most popular boy in high school, and although he doesn't remember right away, he shared a choir class with Laura. He called her 'Blue Roses' then because he had misunderstood her when she told him she had pleurosis. She had a crush on Jim then, so when he comes to their apartment for dinner, she is overcome by anxiety, but he is able to draw her out of her shell. He encourages her to be less self-conscious and more confident and gets so carried away in his encouragement, that he kisses her. Jim, knowing he cannot date Laura because he's engaged to a woman he loves, tells her everything and that he won't be visiting again and leaves. Before he goes, however, Laura gives him a souvenir --her favorite glass unicorn. Jim broke the horn when he knocked it from the table, and Laura gives it to him to remember her by. He takes the glass figurine when he leaves and his departure crushes any hope his visit created.