It is amazing how the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams makes a modern reader rethink many views on social orders and parental pedagogic. The main characters of the play are Amanda Wingfield and her children Laura and Tom Wingfield. This is an amazing quintessence of psychological challenges that the protagonists face during their lives because of many inconsistencies drawn from upbringing by their mother, who in her turn has her own psychological internal problems, and social inadequacies. The essay will elaborate on the differences between Laura’s and Tom’s perceptions of this world in regard to their upbringing atmosphere.
Being siblings Laura and Tom both have different characters and so they respond to life circumstances differently. While Tom can exist within the real world, Laura is a person who chooses to hide from life among her glass menagerie because she is so fragile: “…figures are her only friends…” (Williams, p. 48). In comparison to his sister, Tom is far from being psychologically weak, though he can be deservedly called unstable and even distraught, whereas Laura runs away from the slightest social challenge.
Although Tom treats Laura dearly: “I am more faithful than I intended to be” (Williams p. 97), and they both have a strong feeling of escaping from the reality, there is a huge difference. Tom would be glad to escape the harsh reality of this word by means of going to the cinema or writing because he is a poet. However, Laura is a person who seeks complete isolation: she prefers polishing her glass, playing her records; and even when enrolled in a business college she drops out because cannot stand the communication and the pressure of the educational atmosphere.
On a different note, it is important to mention that both Laura and Tom are wanderers. Laura is going to the “art museum and the birdhouses at the zoo” (Williams, scene 2) and Tom goes to see an adventurous movie that makes it possible to dream and indulge in someone’s travels and adventures rather than own. However, those wanders are different as the characters unveil. Laura’s desire for dreaming is caused by her hypersensitivity, whereas Tom faces the problem of lack of self-realization and eventually decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a sailor to seek for adventures: “Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter…” (Williams, Scene 4.)
One of the psychological challenges Tom faces is the Manic Depression. He is either too depressed or way restless. This is the reason that causes him to have substance abuse: this time it is smoking because when one smokes the fourth endorphins are sent from the brain that makes you upraise. So, once Tom gets stressed out he starts “getting a cigarette” (Williams p. 81), just as in the situation of hiding the fact that he had not paid the light bill, he simply “lights [a] cigarette” and wants it calm his nerves down (Williams, p. 79).
Laura’s main psychological challenge is adjusting to her mother’s expectations. Amanda is trying to make a romantic girl out of Laura – the one that fits the reality of societal requirements. However, Laura is unable to bear any common human relationship because of her fragility and physical disorder – limping.
References
Williams, T. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions. 1999. Print.