How does the Glass Menagerie end?

The audience only sees glimpses of Tom, the flighty brother character Williams based on himself. … And in a welcome departure from most Tennessee Williams plays, there’s a happy ending: Laura—left alone at the end of The Glass Menagerie—runs off with the gentleman caller at the close of The Pretty Trap.

Laura is forced to find a husband, when all she wants is her family’s happiness & to be able to live in her illusion. Climax: Jim tells Laura that the kiss they shared was a mistake, and with that her hopes of a future independent from Tom disappear.

Tom insists that he had no idea that Jim was engaged and that he does not know much about anyone at the warehouse. He heads to the door, intending to spend another night at the movies. Amanda accuses him of being a “dreamer” and rails against his selfishness as he leaves. … Tom leaves, slamming the door.

At the end of the play, Tom realises that he cannot wholly sacrifice his responsibilities towards others, particularly towards his family, in order to satisfy his own personal desires. … Tom continues to be wracked with guilt for deserting the family like his wastrel father before him.

Jim tries to tell Laura how different she is — that she has a charm that is as different as “blue roses.” He then says that someone should kiss Laura, and he leans over and kisses her.

Laura changes into a happier person in the play The Glass Menagerie. … Laura changes from being both upset and attached to her glass menagerie to being happy and less dependent on the collection. This is a major aspect of the play, which that shows Laura has changed who she use to be and is now happy.

statement, “(I) followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps..” fact, Tom also admits that he abandoned his family just like Mr. Wingfield did.

Extremely apologetic, Jim tells her that she is different from anyone else he knows, that she is pretty, and that if she were his sister he would teach her to have some self-confidence and value her own uniqueness. He then says that someone ought to kiss her. Jim kisses Laura on the lips.

Laura must always live in the shadow of her brother’s escape, and she will most likely carry this pain for the rest of her life. It also symbolises Tom’s final farewell to her. Essentially, this monologue reveals that Tom’s escape has not been as complete or as perfect as he had hoped.

At the end of the play, Tom’s mother again reminds him that he is a selfish dreamer who never thinks about his “mother deserted and an unmarried sister who’s crippled and has no job.” Having had enough, Tom does finally walk out on them, but then tells the audience that he could never forget his sister.

An aspiring poet, Tom works at a shoe warehouse to support the family. He is frustrated by the numbing routine of his job and escapes from it through movies, literature, and alcohol.

We do not know for certain why he left, but as Tom explains, “He was a telephone man who gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the light fantastic out of town.” Amanda recalls how charming he was when he courted her, but always grows wistful for the more noble gentleman callers she turned down to marry …

Despite his best efforts, Tom has not been able to forget what he left behind–probably out of both guilt and shame at having deserted his family and at becoming the one thing he never wanted to become…his father. He may be asking her to finally let him rest, memory-free–and therefore guilt-free.

Amanda Wingfield escapes reality by living in the past. She is obsessed with the notion of the “Southern belle” and identifies with a lifestyle of ease and gentility that is far removed from her own. At every opportunity she reminds her children of her connection to the planter class.

In fact, as annoying as all the nagging about keeping one’s elbows off the table is, Amanda is actually a very loving mother. … Although Amanda doesn’t seem to attach much emotional value to marriage (she sees it as a tool for her daughter to be supported by a man), she confesses to Tom that she did loved his father.

The glass unicorn in Laura’s collection—significantly, her favorite figure—represents her peculiarity. … Eventually, Laura gives Jim the unicorn as a “souvenir.” Without its horn, the unicorn is more appropriate for him than for her, and the broken figurine represents all that he has taken from her and destroyed in her.

What does Laura do after she opens the door for Tom and Jim. Why? She goes to play the victrola because she is overcome with sickness after seeing Jim. What are Tom’s plan’s for the future?

Jim knows that Laura is very shy and insecure. He tries to make her realize that she is not so different from anyone else. … Jim has made Laura feel more normal than she has ever felt.

Q. Why did Laura quit business college? A boy in the class was making passes at her and she got scared. She was nervous in class and became physically ill during her first speed test.

Laura. Doubtlessly, the protagonist is Laura. She’s the only one that, we, the audience, don’t get annoyed with all the time or feel the need to judge on the basis of his/her awful moral decisions, and she has all these great protagonist qualities like being perceptive and kind and beautiful.

Jim is Tom’s friend and was in the same school as Laura, he is engaged and when he tells this to Laura on their first meeting after school, she is heartbroken because she loved him. The story ends in disharmony when Tom finally decides to abandon his family obligations and never to return (Bradford 1-2).

Set in St. Louis in 1937, Tom works a tiresome job in a shoe warehouse in order to support his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura.

But when he was in a long distance from his house he was pulled back from the path of adventure by his real love for his mother and daughter. Tom’s return to his house on the strength of love offers lots of social implications. His return to his house is a return to the socially established norms and values.

This is inferred when he says,” I didn’t go to the moon, I went much further-for time is the longest distance between two places…” Throughout the play, the fire escape has been a symbol of Tom’s entrance and exit into both his reality and his dream world.

Glass Unicorn Symbol Analysis. The glass unicorn, Laura’s favorite figurine, is particularly representative of how Tom envisions Laura: beautiful but magical and unique. When Jim breaks the glass unicorn, it becomes a normal horse, no longer a magical creature.

She cannot get over it and into the real world. Her inability to overcome this defect causes her to withdraw into her world of illusion. The limp then becomes symbolic of Laura’s inner nature. As Tom says, it’s not just Laura’s being crippled that makes her different, but she is just different.

As the play’s action begins, Amanda Wingfield nags her adult son Tom about how to eat his food. From her first onstage appearance, Amanda annoys the audience as much as she does her son. … Here she deploys her trick of treating Tom as if he were still a young boy, hoping to trigger the response of obedience.

TOM WINGFIELD- 22 years old. Amanda’s son and Laura’s younger brother. An aspiring poet, Tom works at a shoe warehouse to support the family. He is frustrated by the numbing routine of his job and escapes from it through movies, literature, and alcohol.

Tom the character (the Tom who Tom is remembering as he “creates” the play) feels trapped by memory. … And the fact that the play itself is a memory he feels the need to transform into a play suggests that Tom has still not escaped that past. Amanda uses her memories like a veil to shield her from reality.

The movies for Tom are a chance for vicarious experiences for his much-desired “romance and adventure.” But even Tom knows that movies are hardly satisfactory. Late in the play, here’s what Tom says to Jim about the movies: Yes, movies !

Laura escapes from the imposing structures of reality into worlds she can control and keep perfect: her memories, the glass menagerie, the freedom of walking through the park. When Amanda confronts Laura, she tries to escape by playing music loudly enough to block out the argument.

Amanda. Amanda is only the antagonist if you think that Tom is the protagonist. Even then, she’s more a pain in his side than that a villain.

Tom escaped temporarily from the fantasy world of Amanda and Laura by hanging out on the fire escape. … Eventually Tom finds himself more like his father as he seeks adventure in the movies and hangs out on the fire escape he avoids suffocation, and desperately seeks the life he always desired; the life of adventure.

We presume he had all the same reasons for leaving that Tom had: a nagging Amanda, too many unwanted responsibilities, dissatisfaction at his job, and the desire to travel. It is not particularly surprising that Tom wants to leave and that he does so in roughly the same manner as his father–without telling anyone.

What does the fact that this is a “memory play” have to do with how Amanda Wingfield is presented? Suggested Response: Tom would have us believe that his mother drove him away from the family, but he obviously loved her. There are several scenes which show their affection for each other.

The audience only sees glimpses of Tom, the flighty brother character Williams based on himself. … And in a welcome departure from most Tennessee Williams plays, there’s a happy ending: Laura—left alone at the end of The Glass Menagerie—runs off with the gentleman caller at the close of The Pretty Trap.

Amanda proceeds to brush Tom’s hair while interrogating him about the young gentleman caller. Her first concern is that he not be a drunkard. Tom thinks she is being a bit hasty in assuming that Laura will marry the visitor.

And when the dream of Laura in business school falls apart, rather than see reality Amanda constructs a new fantasy life for her daughter in the realm of gentleman callers and marriage prospects. For Laura, dreams do not take the form of ambitions, but instead offer her a refuge from the pain of reality.