Every day, all over the world people hope and dream. Sadly, many of these dreams go unanswered, and their hopes unfulfilled. The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams is a prime example of this phenomenon. Most of the characters in this play have unfulfilled dreams and hopes. Tom, who is stuck in a dead-end job at a shoe factory, wishes to leave and lead a life of adventure. Amanda hopes for the success and happiness of her two children. Laura, who has wanted to try and be normal all her life, has lost contact with reality, and has become like a piece of her own glass collection, oo fragile to move from the shelf.
Tom; although the youngest child is the one faced with the most responsibility. He is the one forced to work all day in a shoe factory. He has to give up most of his money to pay the rent for their apartment, and to pay for all of their bills. This is not the life that Tom envisioned for himself. “Listen! You think I’m crazy about the warehouse?. . . You think I want to spend fifty-five years down there in that-celotex interior! with- fluorescent-tubes! Look! I’d rather somebody picked up a crowbar and battered out by brains- than go back mornings. . . For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever! This statement itself proves that Tom believes all of his dreams are lost because of his situation. Tom wishes for nothing more than to quite his job, and live a life of adventure. “I go to the movies because I like adventure. Adventure is something I don’t have much of at work, so I go to the movies. ” Tom does eventually leave home at the end of the play to join the Merchant Marines. To further the point that this is a play of broken dreams, we can look at Amanda, the mother of Tom and Laura. Amanda grew up in the South, n a large plantation in Blue Mountain.
She was used to a life of privilege, and thought that she would marry a planter, or son of a planter, and live in a big house to raise her family. “Among my callers were some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta, planter and sons of planters! ” These dreams were shattered when Amanda married a telephone man who fell in love with long distances. Now all Amanda wishes for is the happiness of her children. “I wished for…Success and happiness for my precious children! ” As with Tom, her dreams go unfulfilled. Tom runs away from home, and Laura remained a terribly shy girl.
Finally Laura’s hopes and dreams are also sadly unfulfilled. During her childhood, Laura had an illness which caused one of her legs to be shorter than the other, a defect which her imagination magnified thousands of times. This made her extremely shy while she was growing up, and not able to fit in at all. “I tried not to be (shy) but never could” Another dream of Laura’s was that of her high school crush, Jim. During the end of the play, Jim is invited over for supper, he starts talking with Laura, he makes her forget about her shyness, they laugh and dance, and the Jim kisses Laura.
Even this is not to be, for after the kiss Jim tells Laura that he is engaged. “I’ve been going steady! I go out all the time with a girl named Betty. ” Laura’s dreams, along with her mother’s and her brother’s are not to be. All throughout this play, hopes are lost, and dreams are broken. There is no way to miss this major theme in the play. It is the case with all of the main characters in the play. It goes to show that no matter how sincere your hopes and dreams are there is no guarantee that they will come true. People must realize this, and stop living in a world of make believe.
