Unhappiness In The Glass Menagerie

We all feel unhappiness at some point in our lives. It’s human to feel like you want more or something is not good enough for you. You want more out of life. You want to do something to make you happy. In The Glass Menagerie Tom, Laura, and Amanda Wingfield all expierence unhappiness through out the play in their own way. They are a family but their goals and dreams are quite different from each other. Their dreams and goals lead to their unhappiness because they seem impossible to reach. One reason that holds them back from being happy is the decade they are living in. The story is taking place in the 1940’s right after the great depression. Times are tough so dreams and future goals have to be moved to the back of the to do list while you

are just trying to make enough money to survive. This family is not struggling any worse than any family in this time with the same situation, but the unhappiness from each individual is putting their family on eggshells. Unhappiness is different for each individual. It could be someone who wants explore and want adventure like Tom. It could be someone who has a physical disability, stress from the family wanting her to find a gentlemen caller, and being a shy person with low self esteem like Laura. Unhappiness can come in a form like Amanda’s. She wants to do life over again and pick a new gentleman caller because her husband ran away from her and her family. She wants a better life to help her kids, especially Laura on finding a gentleman caller. All of these unhappiness situations are all unique in their own way, but they break apart this family they have.
Tom’s unhappiness compares to a lot of young adults his age. He’s at the age where you are out of school and have the visions of going anywhere and being adventurous. His unhappiness comes from the stress of supporting his family at a young age from paying the bills, trying to find a gentleman caller for his sister and being ambitious for adventure and getting away from the boring life he lives. He is always talking about going away and having an exciting life far away from where he is. He is compared a lot to his father. We don’t get to meet his father , but the audience only knows what of his father by the beginning of the play where Tom talks about how left the family forever and went to Mexico and how Tom’s mother (Amanda) talks how Tom is similar to him.

Which is why he is left to help support his sister and mother “Oh I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It’s terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation-Then left! Good-Bye! And me with the bag to hold. I saw that letter you got from the Merchant Marine. I know what you’re dreaming of. I’m not standing here blindfolded. Very well then. Then do it! But not till there’s somebody to take your place.”(Williams 2308) Amanda knows Tom doesn’t want to be there doing the same thing every day. She knows he is unhappy on where he is in life, but her and Laura need him to support them until Laura can get a gentleman caller. Amanda even states in the play that whenever Laura gets a gentleman caller that he can go wherever he wants to go land or sea. (Williams 2309) Tom goes out to the movies to watch different films most nights to help cope with not being able to go on adventures and be free. He lives that life through the actors in the film that get to expierence his dream. “ Yes, movies! Look at them-(A wave toward the marvels of Grand Avenue.) All of those glamorous people-having

adventure-hogging it, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America.”(Williams 2321) Tom’s unhappiness is like a jealousy or an anger kind of unhappiness. He wants a different life. He wants to be free with nobody to worry about himself. He even says that he even says war is an adventure for everyone that gets to go. (Williams 2321) Most people see war as a scary situation or a job they have to do. Tom sees it as adventure. It’s different than the cities that are in America. At the beginning of the play he says “In Spain there was revolution. Here there was only shouting and confusion. In Spain there was Guernica. Here there were disturbances of labor, sometimes pretty violent, in otherwise peaceful cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis…..”(Williams 2294) He finds a gentlemen caller for Laura, but it doesn’t turn out well. He still ends up leaving even though he doesn’t find her a gentlemen caller. That haunts him throughout his travel thinking of Laura. “Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger- anything that can blow out your candles!(Laura bends over the candles)-for nowadays the world is lit by lighting! Blow out your candles, Laura-and so goodbye.”(Williams 2338) Tom fixed his unhappiness to a point , but it came at a price of not fulfilling the unhappiness of his sister and his mother. Amanda was right about Tom being like his father. It’s up to her now to support Laura and give her the life Amanda never had.
Amanda’s unhappiness comes from how she feels how she let her kids down by picking their father to marry. She also feels unhappy because she knows her kids are unhappy. She knows Tom doesn’t want to be there. She can see the same thing in Tom as she could see in his father. It scares her but she knows she needs Tom to help support them and find Laura a gentleman caller. She feels like it up to her to find Laura a gentleman caller because it reminds her of herself back when she was picking a gentleman caller. “My callers were gentlemen-all! Among my callers were some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta-planters and sons of planters.”(Williams 2296) She knows she made a mistake of picking their father because she could have had riches she couldn’t imagine and be able to support her children. Throughout the play it seems like it’s always on the back of her mind. She knows that Laura’s self esteem is low from her crippled leg and finding out she dropped out of business school. She knows Laura won’t go out and find her own husband and she has to do it for her almost or maybe just give her a push by bringing men to the house for dinner. Her unhappiness leads her to doing anything. On page 2301 she is calling someone for a magazine prescription trying to make any money possible. Her life revolves around her kids and their unhappiness drives her unhappiness. With the time they are living in right after the Great Depression it’s hard to have that luxury life she wants them to live. Her wishes don’t come true when Laura’s gentlemen caller turns out bad and Tom leaves them just like her father. She could only do so much, but she puts all the pressure on her to help them out. Laura knows her mother is unhappy and knows she is worried about her, but she is to shy to help herself out and struggles thinking about her future.
Laura’s unhappiness is more like disappointment unhappiness. She feels like she has let down her mother and brother. From being crippled and not being able to finish business school. She didn’t finish business school because she went to go take a test and got so nervous that she ended up puking. She never went back after that and never told her mom knowing she would disappoint her. Laura’s unhappiness is not known as much because she doesn’t complain about it like the other two in her family. She fins happiness in other things. Talking to her glass menagerie like they are her friends. She holds in her frustration and unhappiness. Tom and Amanda talk about it, but Laura doesn’t. At the end of the play when Laura is talking to her gentlemen caller Jim you see the low self -esteem in Laura and Jim telling her to stop and realize how beautiful she is. Laura knows if she does find a gentlemen caller she would make her mom happy and would let Tom be able to go on his adventures. She has a lot of pressure on her, which is another cause of her unhappiness. “ Amanda appears to be making a comforting speech to Laura who is huddled upon the sofa. Now that we cannot hear the mother’s speech, her silliness is gone and she has dignity and tragic beauty. Laura’s dark hair hides her face until at the end of the speech she lifts to smile at her mother. Amanda’s gestures are slow and graceful, almost dancelike, as she comforts the daughter. At the end of her speech as she glances a moment at the father’s picture- the withdraws through the portieres. At close of Tom’s speech, Laura blows out the candles, ending the play.”(Williams 2337) In the end of the play Laura doesn’t find her gentlemen caller , but is temporarily comforted by her mother that makes her smile. Her unhappiness is still there as well as her mother. Tom leaves like he wanted, but knowing Laura is still unhappy is on the back of his mind.
Unhappiness is something everyone feels. Being unhappy can be from infinity different reasons Unhappiness is different for each individual. It could be someone who wants explore and want adventure like Tom. It could be someone who has a physical disability, stress from the family wanting her to find a gentlemen caller, and being a shy person with low self esteem like Laura. Unhappiness can come in a form like Amanda’s. She wants to do life over again and pick a new gentleman caller because her husband ran away from her and her family. She wants a better life to help her kids, especially Laura on finding a gentleman caller. All of these unhappiness situations are all unique in their own way, but they break apart this family they have. It’s different for each one, but the core of the unhappiness is the same for each one. The father not being there is the biggest reason for them struggling and being unhappy. It is not said much in the play, but throughout the play they look at the picture that hangs up from him. It reminds them what he did and what he has done to this family. He ruined everything from Tom wanting to leave like he did, Amanda wishing she could do life over again and put so much stress on Laura, or Laura knowing all of this but struggles to meet her family’s expectations. “Blow out your candles Laura- and so goodbye.”(Williams 2338)