As a society we know that no one is perfect. We all excel and fail in different areas in life. While some of us are strong in our convictions, others can see our views as misguided. Some people might seem to never stand for anything, while in reality they hold their tongues until they find something worth saying, making their silence speak volumes. It is true that the strongest person can have the most significant weaknesses just under the surface and the weakest people can surprise you with Hercules-like strength when needed. In The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams conveys the idea that someone fragile can be strong and beautiful and someone strong can be vulnerable and there is also beauty in that.
Williams describes all of the main characters of The Glass Menagerie as being fragile, each having their own beauty and strengths. He describes Amanda Wingfield as a little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place (Williams pg.1961), because she is strong in her convictions even though they are often dismissed because of the indistinct way in which she expresses them. Amandas daughter Laura Wingfield is described as a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf (Williams pg 1961). Like the glass collection she loves so much she can be easily hurt by the world and thinks it better to remain safely hidden away from anyone or anything that can break her already fragile spirit. Her brother Tom Wingfield may be the strongest on the surface but he also shows his vulnerability when it comes to his family: His nature is not remorseless, but to escape from a trap he has to act without pity (Williams pg 1961). He desperately wants to realize his dreams but his guilt at becoming like his father and abandoning his family seems to weigh heavily on him.
Toms strong demeanor is highlighted by the fragility that is revealed by the guilt he feels for knowing the only way to be happy is to abandon his mother and sister. He knows the only way to his happiness and success is to leave them suffering in the wake of his absence. While talking to his sister he admits to himself that he must get out: He got out of the coffin without removing one nail. There is a trick that would come in handy for meget me out of this two by four situation! (Williams pg 1974). He compares his life with his family to being nailed in a coffin, symbolizing the way he feels trapped by his mother and Laura. He further alludes that it would take a magicians magic to release him from his burden, You know it dont take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail? (Williams pg 1974). It is impossible for him to leave because he is the opposite of a stage magician (Williams pg 1962). Unlike the magician he cannot escape without affecting someone else. In the end he makes his decision to leave: I didnt go to the moon, I went much further.I descended the steps of this fire-escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my fathers footsteps (Williams pg 2009). He finally finds the strength to abandon his family as his father did years ago. He seems to resent himself for being so much like his father and he is haunted by the memory of his sister. In Toms emotionally fragile state he is utterly human and beautiful.
We also see a level of fragility, beauty, and contradicting strength in Amanda Wingfield. She often portrays herself to be overbearing with her disconcerting ramblings over her children, but we know that it is out of love for them. She clings to her past with such desperation: Possess your soul in patience-you will see! Something Ive resurrected from that old trunk! Styles havent changed so terribly much after allNow just look at your mother This is the dress in which I led the cotillion.See how I sashayed around the ballroom Laura? (Williams 1987). Her fading youth only makes her more desperate for attention for herself and her daughter. Amanda makes sacrifices for her children as well as nagging them into oblivion: Ella Cartwright! This is Amanda Wingfield! How are you, honey? How is that kidney condition.Horrors.Youre a christian martyr (Williams pg 1979). She works a degrading job in magazine sales to make ends meet all while clinging to her past status in life, showing strength in her ability to keep her family afloat after being abandoned by her husband.
Quite the opposite from her brother and mother Laura Wingfield is outwardly fragile and awkward, however, she hints to us that she possesses an understanding of the world that makes her as strong as her brother and as beautiful as her mother. Lauras grasp of reality is in stark contrast to her mothers desperate grip on the past:
LAURA: Oh, be carefulif you breathe, it breaks
JIM: Id better not take it. Im pretty clumsy with things
LAURA: Go on, I trust you with him! Hold him over the light, he loves the light! You see how the light shines through him.
JIM: It sure does shine!
LAURA: Havent you noticed the single horn on his forehead?
JIM: A unicorn, huh? arent they extinct in the modern world? (Williams pg 2002).
The glass unicorn symbolizes Laura. She warns Jim of how fragile it can be and how rare it is. She explains further that she trusts Jim and shows him that when held the right way it can catch the light and really shine, symbolizing how she is beginning to trust Jim with her heart and with the right treatment she could begin to come out of her shell and be beautiful and feminine. Her grasp of reality is revealed through an accident involving Jim and the unicorn:
JIM: Aw, aw, aw. Is it broken?
LAURA: Now it is just like all the other horses.
JIM: Youll never forgive me. I bet that that was your favorite piece of glass.
LAURA: I dont have favorites much. Its no tragedy, Freckles. Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are(Williams pg 2003
She seems to be telling Jim that no matter how careful he is with her that he will, in fact, break her heart. She says it in a way that suggests that she is used to not getting what she wants and although it might break her heart she will move on. She openly accepts her fate and proves herself to be much stronger than she is portrayed during most of the play.
Just like everyone in the world the characters of The Glass Menagerie exhibit traits that contradict one another. We can be strong but fragile, ugly in some moments yet beautiful in others. These inconsistencies are what make us human. Just like these characters we are flawed and that is what makes us perfectly normal.
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