Glass Menagerie Essays: Effects Of Tom's Departure On Laura And Amanda

Josephine Ogun
Charles Shimonkevitz
English 102 June 22, 2012
Effects of Tom’s Departure on Laura and Amanda
Tennessee Williams is known for his symbolic and poetic works, one of his successful plays is “The Glass Menagerie” amongst many others. The characters are Tom, Amanda, Laura and Jim O’Connor. The play is written about a family who tries to survive after Amanda’s husband left. Tom wants to be a writer and not work in a warehouse, and Laura who claims she is disabled and cannot attract a suitor. Throughout the play Amanda finds ways, so that the family can survive in the process she puts so much pressure on Tom. Tom decides to be like his father and leave; he says “Alright, I will! The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I’ll go…” (Williams 419). After Tom leaves, Laura and Amanda may be financially stable, Laura might find a suitor, or they might just fall apart.
If Tom departs, Amanda and Laura might be financially stable.
In the play, Amanda has always been able to cope well with setbacks. She was able to raise two children without her husband, long enough till Tom was able to support her. Therefore, she might find a job and work as long as she could. For instance, in the play, Amanda is very resourceful, noticing from her elaborate preparations for Laura's one and only gentleman caller. Amanda is capable, of running her household with little help from Tom and no help at all from Laura. Amanda is practical; she sees the need and plans for Laura to prepare herself for a future alone. Though it did not work, but it's a decent plan. In short, nothing so bad happens that Amanda will now be broken or in some other way derailed. She will be just fine. Furthermore, the play was set during the time of the Great Depression when Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president, and he developed social welfare programs, food stamps. Amanda and Laura would have benefitted from
them.
If Tom departs situations might change for Laura. The imagery and the rest of the play suggest that Laura is a lot like her unicorn. For instance the play says “little article of it, they are ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world….This one is one of the oldest. It’s nearly thirteen. Oh, be careful – if you breathe it breaks!” (Williams 414). The unicorn's horn, or individuality, was broken during the dance between Laura and Jim. That suggests that for that small moment she was like other girls. But she gives the unicorn to Jim as a reminder indicating he is taking what she is identified by with him. The play suggests that she never overcame her shyness and tries to live her life in the small apartment playing with her glass collection. Laura would probably find a suitor maybe after many years, or she will eventually get over her shyness, go back to business school and start taking care of herself. After Tom leaves Amanda and Laura they might fall apart. Even though Amanda is very creative and hardworking, she will not be able to work for long because she is getting old and will not live forever. Eventually Laura will be left on her own, once she has lost her mother; she might be sent to live in a mental institution, as Tennessee William's own sister was. Unless something happens and she finds a suitor, or she goes back to school, and start working. Briefly, situations might not really change after Tom Leaves his family, because Amanda survived when her husband left them. But if Amanda eventually dies it will be hard for Laura because she is very dependent on her mother, unless she gets married or gets a job to support herself.