The Glass Menagerie: How sympathy is created for Laura in scene 7 - Essay Example

The Glass Menagerie: How sympathy is created for Laura in scene 7 Sympathy Tennessee Williams presents Laura as a pitiful character through the whole play. The theme of weakness expresses through stage directions, describes Laura as “clutching the sofa” and “trembling” upon hearing Jim’s news of engagement, thereby indicating that she is not only emotionally hurt, but also physically affected. The combination of both emotional and physical pain that Laura undergoes is evident in the specified extract of scene 7.

Indeed, this point is indisputable because there are various ways in which sympathy is created. In my view, sympathy for Laura is advanced by words, actions, and symbolism.Laura, a ,woman with the capability of maintaining love for art, as well as nature, collects “little animals made out of glass”. The romantic perspective of the poem, based on the subjective view, represents the longing for the absolute fulfillment by the artist. The play elicited substantial amounts of sympathy during the Romantics era.

Laura’s love for nature and animals possibly allowed the romantics to not only pity Laura and feel sympathetic for her, but also empathize with her. Williams tries to represent the feeling of awe through the portrayal of Laura’s world. The words “tiniest” and “extinct” used to describe the glass figurines, subtly reflects the very valuable feeling of awe, as they have connotations of rarity and value. Therefore when Laura “carefully places the unicorn in the palm of [Jim’s] hand, then pushes his fingers closed”, sympathy is created as it represents a loss of something very valuable, more valuable than the menagerie itself, the romantic audience would view it as loss of awe, loss of experience, loss of Laura’s identity.

Furthermore, this expressionistic play uses structural techniques such as stage directions and lightning effects highlighting sympathy created for Laura. A distinct light was focuses on Laura. It is a kind of light used for saints, to show her fragility; “.In front of them stands Laura with clenched hands and panicky expression. A clear pool of light on her figure throughout the scene.” this occurs in the penultimate scene, the light coupled with the stage directions reflects and foreshadows the more significant pain that Laura feels after Jim kisses her, then announces his engagement.

Tom sees the coffin as a symbol of his own life situation “We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without removing one nail. . . . There is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two-by-four situation!” He has been contemplating an escape from his private coffin since the beginning of the play, and at the end. However, Tom’s escape is not as seamless as the magician’s is. Tom’s departure is certain to have a major impact on the lives of Amanda and Laura.

Tom admits that he is “the opposite of a stage magician.” The illusion of escape that the magician promotes is, in the end, out of Tom’s reach. This creates sympathy for Laura as it shows that her brother, who is possibly the only character that understands her, is looking for a form of escape. This links to the extract as this theme of escapism is very evident, as Jim seems to escape his unfulfilled life through love. He confesses, “Love has made a new man of me!” this creates pity for Laura as the word “new” suggests that he is possibly not the man she crushed on during high school.

This creates pity as it shows that another woman as changed him through love, almost as though she has stolen Laura’s only chance to be loved. This therefore creates sympathy for Laura as it shows that she is not loved either romantically by Jim nor is she loved enough by her brother.Jim speaks to Laura in a manner that is humorous while targeting to dispel her shyness; this reinforces the fact that Jim is possibly more socially superior over Laura. Clearly, Jim’s tone is comforting and only comes upon noticing that Laura is weak in this sense.

His tone is significant in creating sympathy, as his comforting tone conflicts with his demanding attitude. “Somebody needs to build your confidence up and make you proud instead of shy”, (Tennessee, 1966; 80), evidently out of sympathy, however although this seems to have a comforting tone, the content of his advice almost seems forceful and patronizing.The breaking of the glass unicorn by Jim is obviously a piece of symbolism that elicits sympathy for Laura. The symbolism is foreshadowing the shattering of Laura a few moments later.

The glass unicorn can be considered as a representation of the Laura’s self. “Glass breaks so easily, no matter how careful you are.” Laura had said to Jim (Tennessee, 1966; 81). This only symbolizes how delicate her heart is. She is not only different, but also unique like the unicorn; she is relatively delicate to elicit sympathy. When the unicorn is broken, Laura feels relatively normal, more than ever felt. Whereas Jim presents himself as an ordinary man, Laura considers him as so exceptional that he brings her out of the retreat world.

The acceptance of the broken unicorn implies that Jim sympathizes and accepts that he must have broken Laura’s heart. Symbolism of Laura’s delicacy and vulnerability is highlighted again when she is described to be rising “unsteadily”, this word has connotations of weakness, and therefore plays on the theme of human fragility. This use of symbolism is significant throughout scene 7; it is used again to in the specified extract; however, instead of using a unicorn as a symbolic representation of Laura’s hopelessness Jim says “I met her.

on a moonlight boat trip”, the word moonlight is very significant because similarly to the unicorn it is symbolic for Laura’s hopelessness. Moonlight creates connotations of spotlight and therefore certainty; this possibly shows that Betty is Jim’s focus and therefore reflects the very little chance of Laura being with Jim.