The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams
Tom and Amanda routinely argue throughout the play, but the epitome of their fights occurs at the end of scene 3. Tom calls her a witch, and proceeds to break part of Laura's glass menagerie, making him successful and angering the entire household. As the next scene begins, we learn that Laura desperately needs order. She tells Tom to "wake up with [mother], apologize, speak to her!" (Williams 1249). Even though Tom damaged one of Laura's most precious items, she still begs Tom to make things better with him and Amanda rather than healing herself. Laura thinks she can fight through her own problems, but she can only do it if the rest of the house is at peace too. Tom is reluctant, but eventually does it for, in my opinion, Laura's well-being. Tom knows Laura is fragile and needs her family to keep her safe, so he apologizes to Amanda so that they can forget about their differences and focus on Laura and her needs. This displays one of the few good qualities of Tom. Though he seemingly is ready to run away from his current life, he wants to make sure his beloved sister is happy with him and that she will be okay. Even when he does leave at the end of the play, his one regret is that he couldn't stay with Laura.
No comments:
Post a Comment