"The Glass Menagerie" Rough Draft

In the play “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, all of the characters seem hindered by some element. Some have obvious handicaps, while others are more subtle. Williams develops each character and portrays their own unique handicap within them, showing that not all handicaps are physical.


The most obvious handicap is that of Laura who is referred to in the play as crippled. Laura, as a result of a childhood illness, has one leg that is shorter than the other requiring her to wear a brace on one leg. While in the play, it does not seem that the actual crippled leg holds her down, the label of “cripple” has made her think of herself as inferior to others and has made her choose not to accomplish much in life. Laura dropped out of high school because she was embarrassed of being different and thought that everyone looked down on her because she was crippled. She sees herself as different than everyone else and identifies with a little glass unicorn for being unique among all other animals just like she is. Laura’s mother, Amanda, also adds to Laura’s feeling of not fitting in by always comparing her own life to Laura’s.

Amanda is constantly referring to her past and recounting memories to her children of how wonderful her past was. She refers to the past as it she is still there captured in her own memories. As the play progresses, Amanda seems more involved in the memories in her mind than the reality which surrounds her. Amanda doesn’t feel like she belongs in this reality where the lives of her children are so very different than hers was when she was young. She is constantly comparing her past and their present as if she can’t comprehend that times have changed and life is not lived as routinely as when she was younger. Another handicap is that Amanda is raising her family alone because her husband left her. She does not have the support



of a stable relationship guiding her through the hardships that have been placed on her families lives.

Jim, the gentleman caller who comes to dinner at the Wingfield’s house, is a boy who Laura liked in school. When Laura knew him, Jim had many high expectations placed on him to be successful in his life. But after six years Jim is only working in a warehouse alongside Laura’s brother Tom and has not achieved much at all. Jim’s handicap is that he was not able to meet everyone’s expectations of him and it made him feel discouraged. At the end of the play however, Jim does not allow for his handicap to hinder him any longer and tries to better his chances of succeeding.

The most handicapped character in the play is Tom. Tom not only is handicapped, but he further handicaps himself by trying to escape it. Tom is handicapped by his feeling of entrapment and that his family is holding him back. Tom has such a longing for escape and almost idolizes his father, who left the family, for being able to get away. Tom works in a warehouse in order to help support his family even though he spends most of his time writing poetry and looking for ways in which he could escape. As much as Tom wants to get away he does not leave because he feels responsible for his family. So in order to cope with the guilt of staying and the entrapment feeling, he turns to alcohol as his escape and in turn handicaps himself further.

The handicaps that Williams portrays in each character are ways of letting the reader see the character for all of his or her flaws. The reader is able to identify with each character and identify with the overall depressing nature of this family. Each handicap is one in which the reader may have encountered in their own life and that is what makes the play more realistic. As Williams shows in the various characters in the play, handicaps not only are capable of holding us down physically like with Laura, but also the psychological effects of a handicap that can hinder one’s own fulfillment of life.

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