Analysis Of The Play 'The Glass Menagerie'

“The Glass Menagerie” is a play about a fatherless family for whom the youngest and only son, Tom, is the sole provider. The play is Tom’s memory of his family and the events leading up to his departure. He and his mother, Amanda, argue quite frequently in the story, which causes Tom to run off every night and return in the wee hours of the morning for work. After Tom brings home one potential suitor who he didn’t know was engaged, for his sister Laura who cannot seem to get married because of her terrible shyness, his mother chastises him for bringing an engaged man to meet Laura. However in the words of Preston Fambrough, “Amanda is unjust to Tom in blaming him for the failure of her ham-handed campaign to ensure a suitable husband for daughter Laura, unreasonably faulting him for not knowing that the gentleman caller was engaged to be married and forgetting that Tom tried to dissuade her from the ill-fated scheme in the first place” (Fambrough 100). Tom subsequently runs away for being falsely accused and not respected. The play prompts the audience to ask whether or not Tom was justified in leaving his family behind because they didn’t respect him as the main contributor for their wellbeing. Tom is

Louis whose daughter cannot get married because of her debilitating shyness. The only son, Tom, is the person providing for the family but he wants time to write which he can’t have because he runs out to the movies and stays out until three in the morning. In the end of the story, Tom runs away from his family. Maybe Tom considered the risks to be less than the rewards. The play causes the reader to wonder whether or not Tom was justified to leave his family behind because they didn’t respect him as the person who pays rent for their apartment. The complexity of how the play portrays Tom’s definition of justification makes his justness something that each reader must decide for