Main character of the glass menageri

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a great drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty. It shows the struggle of a son named tom who is left in charge as the man of the house and is the only main income of a family of three. His mother Amanda Wingfield is a faded tragic remnant of southern gentility. His sister Laura lives in her illusions, she is crippled, and this defect, intensified by her mother’s anxiety to get her married. In their own rights this play could have 3 main characters. You can make a case for either one of them. Making a case for Laura might be a little harder and would just include more of her illusions, Amanda is a main character as they come but in my opinion the main character is Tom. Tom is the first character to speak in the play, and has the most lines in the play. I know there are other plays that could debunk what I just said about him speaking first in the play. Also in the play he is depicted as the narrator of the play. “I am the narrator of the play, and also a character in it” (Act 1 Scene 1 pg. 11). The author goes on to explain the importance of Jim in the play but in my opinion that isn’t enough to take toms top spot as main character. “he is the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world that we were somehow set apart from, I am using this character as a symbol” (act 1 scene 1). This is tom using Jim, describing pretty much how tom is allowing Jim to be in this play. One reason is that tom is the one who brings Jim into the picture, if it wasn’t for tom Jim wouldn’t exist, his only form of existence would have been in the form of a photo in Laura’s yearbook. Tom shows how he gave up his whole life to take care of his family. “Do you think I’m crazy about the warehouse? You think I’m in love with the Continental Shoemakers? You think I want to spend fifty-five years of my life down there. But I get up. I go! For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever!