One Must Learn to Face Reality Benitez 2 Benitez 3 In this paper I will be analyzing a play written by Tennessee Williams called The Glass Menagerie. I will be using examples from several of the characters in this play to highlight a certain theme. This theme is how one must learn to face reality. Whether it be letting go of the past, or anything that is holding you back mentally from facing reality.
This play consists of four main characters, the fifth is their absent Father, who is basically nonexistent but does play a part in the story. Amanda Wingfield, Tom and Laura's mother seems to be stuck in the past. She believes that Laura should be out looking for a husband because of how quickly she had come to find one when she was young. Amanda talks about how she once had seventeen Gentlemen callers come and look for her at one point in her younger days (Williams p. 1611). The mother fails to realize that Laura is not like her in very many ways and must learn to overcome her shyness and fear of the real world. Amanda does try and talk to Laura about her future and tells her she can not only focus on her Glass Menagerie all her life, but Laura does not seem to get the idea (Williams p. 1614).
The fourth character of the play would be our Gentleman caller, Jim. Jim plays a huge role in this story because he may have started Laura on her way to overcoming her fear of reality. Jim works with Tom and is invited over to dinner, which was insisted by Amanda as a date for Laura. Jim tells Laura that people are not as bad once you get to know them and she can not be scared to interact with them (Williams p. 1643). He gives Laura some good advice and also brings up her inferiority complex, which means she has low self-esteem and how she needs to overcome it (Williams p. 1645). I believe that Jim was a good person and actually wanted the best for Laura.
This brings me to the narrator of the play, Tom. Tom is pretty much the man of the house but is not treated as if he were. Tom is constantly agitated by his mother, and instead of facing their problems directly, he runs away and goes to...
