Reasons Behind Ones Actions - Essay Example

?Full Reasons Behind One’s Actions It is observed that sensible people sometimes act insanely and therefore considered ridiculous. Nevertheless, it is believed that every sensible person has reasons behind every action, even those which seem senseless. Considering such, it is interesting to study the characterizations exposed in the play entitled “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams because the three main characters reflect common personalities. They are like a collection of glasses that are fragile but still have to be strong enough in order to survive the cruelties of life. The characters could be entertaining, spiteful or even painfully confusing but understanding their characters, circumstances, fears and longings, can make readers understand why they act and talk as they do. In this paper, an in-depth study of the three main characters will be done and an attempt to explain the reasons for their words and actions will be undertaken in the hope that readers will come to understand further the motives of the characters or understand the characters themselves and a little background of the author will be included to connect him to his characters. Amanda Wingfield is a beautiful woman who had a number of suitors during her younger days. She seems to be greatly indulged with her past, oftentimes speaking about her glory days (deafed.net) to her children which made her son, Tom, quite tired about it as reflected in his conversation with his sister, Laura. When their mother told them about her suitors when she was young, Tom mentioned he knew what was coming but his sister told him to let their mother tell her story anyway and Tom answered, “Again?” (Williams, 754). Understandably, every person would want to talk about the good old days. They somehow help ease the pains of living a bitter present (Debusscher). For Amanda, she seems to go back to her past (Cummings), refusing to believe or accept the fact that she was not receiving suitors for her only daughter who was already growing old. She perhaps wanted to think that there is no reason at all for her daughter not to receive gentleman callers because she received so many of them during her youth. It would be an insult to a mother for her daughter not to have any suitors especially to a woman who seems to take pride in her beauty. For her, the implication that her daughter is not beautiful enough to attract suitors is simply unacceptable. In addition to a mother’s pride, Amanda’s desire to see her daughter married to a responsible man seems to make her very anxious about the young maiden’s having no boyfriend. She is concerned about the health conditions of her daughter and she probably was already considering her future if she remained unmarried. She wanted her daughter to be married very soon and she wanted that very badly because she knows it would only be a responsible husband who could assure her daughter of a good future. She knows how it is to be a helpless individual, unable to provide even for the basic needs of the family. That is why, even though they are not really the affluent kind of family, Amanda did her best to put her daughter in college for her to have something to lean back on during difficult times, for her to become independent in the future. However, the weak character of Laura (which will be discussed in detail later) did not make Amanda’s wishes come to pass. To some, Amanda may seem to be a manipulative mother who is trying to let her children do things which she was not able to do when she was young. Nevertheless, on another angle, she is seen as a mother who wants only the best for her children. With her husband leaving her alone to take care of the children, Amanda has experienced grievous days and perhaps, she was just trying to keep her children away from such unfavorable circumstances. Considering that Amanda asked her son to look for a responsible caller for Laura, someone who did not drink liquor but was an opposite of her own husband, shows that she indeed did not like her Laura go through the struggles she experienced with her drinking husband. In addition, she was always afraid that his son would be drinking hard for all the nights he is away, telling him, “That’s what frightened me so, that you’d be drinking” (Williams, 762). She then goes on with her sentiments telling her son that he seems to be taking his father’s ways, ‘staying out late at night and drinking, staying away from their apartment to get away from it’ (Williams). This explains further her fears for her daughter’s situation, that she would be left on her own without anyone to take care of her when Tom decides to leave them, considering that she will inevitably leave her own daughter alone against her own will, when she dies. She has been through hardships in raising her children and she knows just how to spell difficulty. She understands though, that her son has a life of his own and that he cannot remain single forever for them but Amanda is more concerned about her daughter because of her disability. Unlike Tom, she cannot support herself because she is crippled in her body and in job opportunities. As a mother, it is understandable that she wants to leave her children knowing that they will somehow survive this crazy world. For Tom, he has stood as the man in the family since his father disappeared from their lives. He perhaps has seen the struggles his mother went through in order to make them survive and it probably broke his heart to see his family suffer. As a result, he took to himself the responsibility of providing for the family, working at a warehouse he did not like. He had dreams for himself as his mother revealed saying “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 he left! Goodbye! I saw that latter you got from the Merchant Marine. I know what you’re dreaming of” (Williams, 763). Nevertheless, he had a responsibility which is holding him where he is. As such, he ironically associates himself to what he claims to be his favorite trick of the magician, getting out of the coffin without removing a nail. To him, one does not need any intelligence to get out of a coffin but getting out from it without removing a nail is simply impossible which could be made possible only through tricks. However, Tom is not a magician and he has no tricks to get himself out of his condition without removing any of his responsibilities. He has to stand by his sister and mother, provide for them and be with them especially during the hard times. Although in the end, Tom left his mother and sister, he still had that nail that pinned him down from reaching as far as he could for his dreams (oldglobe.org). With the looks of the future as dark as the night, Tom finds his escape in movies. He is able to go to places and find adventure in movies which he cannot find in his boring job. It was his way of keeping his sanity from working a job he did not like (Cummings, deafed.net) and living a life full of responsibilities to a disabled sister and demanding mother. Surely, he did not like to hurt his mother as proven by the sacrifices he makes, providing for the family even if it was against his will. He is not even selfish as his mother suggested but he was just acting as a young man with great dreams. Nevertheless, since he felt crippled by his situation, he resorted to entertaining himself, making his dreams come alive in the movies that he watched, consoling himself that his dreams might just be as good as dreams. When Tom was given a ray of hope to finally have his dreams become a reality, even though he did not agree with his mother’s idea of finding a gentleman caller for his sister, he reluctantly found one. However, although wanting so badly to have a gentleman who would pass his mother’s inspections, he did not quite make his homework well. Tom invited the only friend he had in his workplace but he did not mention to him that he is being invited to meet his sister. This shows that Tom is not quite confident that her sister would be able to attract anyone of the opposite sex. This is supported by his comments about her sister to her mother saying, “Mother, you mustn’t expect too much of Laura. Laura seems all those things to you and me because she’s ours and we love her. We don’t even notice she’s crippled anymore” (Williams, 767). This is perhaps the reason why he chose to invite his friend because from his descriptions, he probably thought that the ‘not too good-looking and not right-down homely’ Jim O’Connor is perfect for her sister who had her physical imperfections. Moreover, he also did not think of the young man having a girlfriend or being engaged that he thought he is eligible for his sister most probably because of the thought that he could not be likeable with his looks. Laura on the other hand is crippled, not only physically but also emotionally and psychologically. First and foremost, her character might be affected by her physical disability. She has magnified her being lame that she exaggeratedly thought the sound of her brace clumped so loud it made her so self-conscious and consequently, giving her inferiority complex. Her feelings might have been made more prominent with her loud mother’s carefree comments about how beautiful she once looked, making Laura feel that she will never amount to anything that her mother was. Moreover, her mother’s overly performed fussing about her condition perhaps created in Laura’s mind, a dependent person who will survive only in the presence of her overprotective mother and caring brother. When her father left them, the situation perhaps made her more embarrassed than ever that it affected her confidence more negatively. As a result, Laura has become an irritating, dependent person. Laura is blessed to have been given the chances to study despite her disability but her weaknesses were magnified in her mind more than anything good in her life. When she was sent to business college, she attended to please her mother and not really for the love or the need of it. When she dropped out of school, she continued to go out, pretending to be going to school. Although she knew that her mother will soon find out what she did, Laura did not have the courage to tell her mother because she knew she would break her heart so that she kept mum about her studies and instead made her family believe that she is attending her classes. She then reveals in time that she has been going out to walk and go to museums, parks and the zoo, sometimes skipping lunch in order to watch a movie. She chose to do those things, knowing her mother will not be happy about it but she considered it to be a lesser evil because she cannot stand the demands of school. One thing that Laura put her mind and time into are her glass collections. Symbolically, her collection which her mother calls glass menagerie, can speak about her family, a collection of fragile animals. Indeed, they are human beings but sometimes, they act like animals, fighting against each other instead of finding solutions that they could work out together. In addition, like glass, they are fragile, easily broken. It could have not been without reason at all that Laura turned her attention to her glass collection but perhaps she has seen herself and her loved ones with many similarities to her collections. Laura perhaps considers her family as glasses which need to be handled with extra care. As she takes time and care in managing her collection, she probably considers her family to be managed with such care as well because she looks at them as easily broken pieces of beautiful artworks. For Laura, it was without question if she considered herself fragile because of her disability. Although her mother showed how strong she is by performing her duties as a single mother, Laura knows that she is as fragile as she is, almost ready to break with just another careless trip on her. She has seen how her mother struggled through the years and she knows just how difficult her life has been so that she perhaps sees her as one who will be broken when not handled with care. Her brother on the other hand might appear to be a strong and able man but Laura sees her struggles. Laura is sensitive about her family’s feelings and she sees beyond what her family expresses. As her mother said, she once found her crying because of Tom being drunk and saying that he dislikes their apartment, a reason why he often goes out at night to escape his circumstances. These, in addition, define the reasons for the characters’ actions. It is said that the characters of Williams in his stories reflect most of his experiences in life. For instance, his protagonist holds his former nickname, Tom. He is carefree, an attribute which is a parallelism of Williams’ own character. Moreover, just like his protagonist, the author worked at a shoe company and also loved to write literature. In addition, it is believed that Amanda is the reflection of Williams’ mother who is a beautiful and pampered daughter of a minister while Laura is the reflection of his sister, Rose. Being emotionally and psychologically fragile, Williams portrayed Laura having similar disadvantages (Flachmann, Lawson & Aseltine; Donahue). Such similarities are not coincidental but have been used deliberately in Williams’ writings because he understood very well his characters’ circumstances. In conclusion, it was seen that Amanda is not just being manipulative of his children because she wanted to but she did the things she did because she simply wanted to give her children a secure future. Tom became a carefree person to keep his sanity from the demanding responsibilities of being a bread-winner and Laura is what she is because of her circumstances. Although there are indeed other tracks to take in every circumstance, it should also be considered that the characters are people who have feelings which influence their judgments or lack of which. As a result, they express their feelings and thoughts through the decisions that they make and act upon. References Cummings, Michael J. “The Glass Menagerie: Study Guide”. Cummings Study Guide. 2011. Web. May 6, 2013. . Debusscher, Gilbert. “Tennessee Williams’s Dramatic Charade: Secrets and Lies in the Glass Menagerie”. The Tennessee Williams Annual Review. n.d. Web. May 6, 2013. . Donahue, Tim. “A Teacher Guide to Tennessee Williams’ Drama: The Glass Menagerie”. University of South Carolina, Department of Theater and Dance. 2003. Web. May 5, 2013. . Flachmann, Michael, Jo Ann Lawson and Daniel Aseltine. “An Introduction to the Glass Menagerie”. Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 23rd Camp Shakespeare. 2011. Web. May 7, 2013. . n.a. “Criticisms: Psychoanalytical”. n.d. Web. May 5, 2013. . n.a. “The Glass Menagerie: Study Guide”. Education Department for Students and Teachers Participating in The Old Globe Free Student Matinee Program. n.d. Web. May 7, 2013. Williams, Tennessee. “The Glass Menagerie”. USA: n.p., 1999. Print. Read More