Symbolic illustration of Laura's hands holding a glass unicorn

The Glass Menagerie

by Tennessee Williams

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The strongest character, hero, protagonist, antagonist, and tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie

Summary:

In The Glass Menagerie, the strongest character is Amanda Wingfield, who shows resilience despite her circumstances. Tom Wingfield serves as the protagonist and narrator, while the antagonist is the harsh reality that conflicts with the characters' dreams. The tragic hero is Laura Wingfield, whose fragility and inability to cope with reality lead to her downfall.

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Who is the main character, protagonist, and antagonist in The Glass Menagerie?

The central character, or the protagonist, of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie is Tom Wingfield. Tom finds himself in conflict with his own character traits at times, so he is sometimes his own antagonist. In addition, Tom is in conflict with tradition and its illusion, as represented by his mother, Amanda, and her values and dreams of a "gentleman caller." Therefore, Amanda is an antagonist to Tom, as she complains that he will not act as "normal people" do, and she tries to force Tom into the role of provider.

In truth, all three characters, Laura, Tom, and Amanda, pay an emotional price because they dwell in illusions. Laura creates an illusory world with her glass menagerie, Tom escapes into the novels that he reads and the movies that he attends, and Amanda retreats to the traditions of her youth and the concept of the gentleman caller...

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who will rescue her daughter and support the family.

AMANDA: Why can't you and your brother be normal people? Fantastic whims and behavior. Preposterous goings on (Scene 6)!

Yet, it is Amanda who blocks Tom from being himself by confining him to the warehouse job, and by making him feel responsible for the care of his sister and mother.

TOM: I'm starting to boil inside. . . Whenever I pick up a shoe, I shudder a little thinking how short life is and what I am doing (Scene 6).

The protagonist Tom is not willing to sacrifice for his family. Yet, he feels guilt as he flees the confinement of his life and the emotional toll of living in a world of illusion.

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Although it is a short play with only a few characters, Tom is the protagonist of the play.  In the beginning of the play, it is Tom who steps onstage to narrate the story as if it occurred in his past.  His life is frustrating because he is the man in the family because his father abandoned them.  Although he is the man in the family, he is not allowed to be the father figure.  His mother Amanda treats him as a child.  She does this throughout the play, but the most obvious one is in the first scene when she criticizes his eating habits as if he's still a child.  Amanda imposes a sense of obligation on Tom, even though she is the mother, and her daughter could easily take classes to care for herself in her adulthood.  Tom is faced with a sense of duty that he really doesn't deserve.  Tom is torn between his past and his future throughout the play because of this sense of duty to help his family and his desire to be independent.

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I think that this is a very difficult question to answer.  I am not certain that there is one specific protagonist or antagonist in the drama.  Part of what makes Williams' dramas so compelling is that there are no really simple answers to anything because of human consciousness being so complex and incapable of reduction to a singular element.  This play is no different.  Certainly, I think that an argument could be constructed that Tom is a protagonist, as we begin to understand the elements that set up the play through his narration.  We also tend to understand the dynamics of the family through his perception.  Yet, if we accept this, then we also have to accept the fact that Tom is not the type of protagonist that we can fully embrace or admire because of his own emotional frigidity and frail nature.  While he has physically left, his emotional compass is still discombobulated.  If Tom is the protagonist, then we would probably say that Laura is the antagonist.  Yet, we also have to concede that our antagonist is probably more loyal from a moral standpoint because she stays while Tom leaves.  The dynamic between both of them might cause this configuration to be considered in terms of protagonist and antagonist.  I would also toss out there that Laura could be considered to be the protagonist.  It is her life that is the center of so much discussion between brother and mother, her collection from which the play derives its title, and she represents the fundamental glue of the family.  When mother and brother fight, she strives to make the peace.  The play ends with her blowing out the candles of her own birthday cake, causing the audience to see her life as the center point as the lights dim.  I think that Laura has a claim to being a protagonist, as well.

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Who is the tragic hero in "The Glass Menagerie"?

Laura can be considered a tragic hero.  She has been living in a self-created shell that is hardened by her mother's constant insinuations about her abnormalities (her shorter leg, her lack of suiters, etc).  She is content in this world of fantasy until she must face reality when her mother finds out she is not attending business school and is, in fact, out walking.  It is interesting that part of her escapism is the physical act of walking, something that should be difficult to do if her disability was as serious as has been ingrained into her existance thanks to her mother.  Laura's chance to overcome her supposed disabilities (the limp, the lack of gentleman callers, her shyness, etc) is tragically cut short.  Jim provided a chance for her to dance (something she physically should not have been able to do) and to be receptive to a gentleman caller (and even a kiss).  Her fall comes right after her triumphs when she learns that he is engaged and that the dancing and connection she felt with Jim can not go any further.

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Tom is a tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie.  He is trapped in a situation that he cannot get out of, his position in the family as breadwinner. He can't get out of this situation without dramatically damaging his relationship with both his mother and his sister.  He is particularly flawed when it comes to his sister.  He is asked by his mother to bring home a gentleman caller for Laura.

Instead of really looking for someone who could actually go out with his sister, he just asks Jim to dinner, not realizing the Jim is engaged.  He sets up Laura for a dramatic disappointment that causes him to feel like a failure.  Even though he felt like a failure before the fiasco with the gentleman caller, he still went to work at the shoe factory, trapped in a job he hated.  He escapes the drudgery of this job by writing poetry while he is on the job. 

We both pity Tom for his stifling life with his mother and despise him for not having more ambition to really take care of his abandoned mother and crippled sister.

Tom is a character that evokes a sense of what might have been.  He definitely lets his pride get in the way of his success both with his family and with his ability to get ahead in life.

He despises his mother, and feels sorry for his sister.  He does not have a true relationship with either of them. 

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Who is the strongest character in The Glass Menagerie?

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams presents three characters searching for happiness. Amanda Wingfield and her children---Tom and Laura--- cannot find the reality that each of them desires.  This unique memory play employs Tom as the narrator who looks back at a small portion of his family’s life which drove him to desert his mother and sister.

These three characters try to find happiness in a bleak world that seems to have no place for them.  Tension between the family members demonstrates their dysfunction. Ruled by Amanda, who cannot face the real world because it is unpleasant, her children try to please her but fall short in her estimation.

Who is the strongest character in the play?  This is a difficult question since each of the family members faces emotional instability.  Within this framework, Laura steps forward as the character who despite her many contradictory characteristics has found a world that she can live in without the outside world hurting her.

When the gentleman caller comes, Laura initially displays her typical shyness especially since she remembers him from her unpleasant high school experiences.  As she talks to Jim, his affable personality draws out her real personality, and she rises to the occasion communicating with him emotionally.  She reminds him of the nickname that he gave her—Blue Roses—when he misunderstood her illness pleurisy.  It is obvious that this was a happy time for her.  

When Jim admits that he has a girlfriend, Laura handles the situation much better than her mother and brother.  She retreats back into her world of glass.  At every circumstance, Laura appears to lose. From her experience at the business school to her encounter with Jim, she is able to survive and go on.  In fact, Laura has the ordinary feelings of having a crush on the school hero.  When she quits school, she is able to survive by walking in the cold day after day.

Her family perceives her as a fragile, mysterious character who must be carefully handled much like her glass animals.  However, at every set back, Laura unlike her mother uses her strong will to return to the world where she finds her place. Laura is the pivotal character in the play.  Her mother wants her to be happy; her brother wants to help her.  What is forgotten is that no one asks Laura what she really wants. 

Jim finds her attractive.  It is this encounter with an ordinary person that allows Laura to come out of her shell and stand on her own. Unfortunately, Jim does not have the ability to see that he is drawing Laura into his world by his return to his glory days.  He treats her like he might have in high school forgetting that he has his own life which does include Laura.

Jim: You’re pretty…You think I’m making this up because I’m invited to dinner and have to be nice. I’m talking to you sincerely.  I happened to notice you had this inferiority complex that keeps you from feelings comfortable with people. Somebody ought to kiss you….I can’t call again—I go out all the time with a girl named Betty. 

Jim hurts Laura. She controls her emotions and hands over the broken unicorn to Jim.   In the family, Laura is the only one who does not crumble after this incident. Amanda returns to her nagging and accusatory attitude toward Tom.  Tom runs away. Laura’s use of the glass menagerie as her place of sensitivity and serenity enables her to find a way to go on.    

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On the face of it, none of the characters  in this play seem to be strong characters. The Wingfield family appear lost in day dreams. Amanda endlessly recalls the days of her successful and long-lost youth; Tom longs to run away to sea, and then seems to be reduced to a life of aimless wandering after he does finally leave; and Laura whiles away all her time with her collection of glass and old records. Even Jim, the one character who appears more in touch with reality, has not turned out to be particularly successful, and he shows himself to be a nice enough young man but not endowed with either exceptional intelligence or understanding. 

If there is any one character who does make a notable effort to surmount limitations, it is probably Amanda. It is true that she is trapped in the apartment along with the rest of her family, long-deserted by her husband, relying on memories of a better time to sustain her, but she does actively make plans for the future. In this she shows herself to be more practical than the others. As Tom notes:

Mother was a woman of action as well as words. (Sc. 3)

She runs subscription campaigns to collect money, and strives to do what she can to secure Laura's future. She tries to establish a business career for her and when that fails, determines to find a good husband for her. In this way she does face up to reality; she doesn't withdraw from it.

It is true that Amanda does not seem able to interact with, or understand her children very well; she is undoubtedly an overbearing character, irking Tom with her constant chatter and nagging, and she does ignore the extent of Laura's problems. However, it is also the case that if Jim had not turned out to be already engaged, her plans for Laura would have been fulfilled, in a way to satisfy both mother and daughter - as Laura shows in her scene with Jim that she can be comfortable enough with the right person.

Amanda, then, tries to do the right thing by her daughter, and she is not really very far from the mark. She also recognises Tom's need to leave, and she doesn't really attempt to thwart him. Her main concern is that he do something to help Laura get settled before he goes.

Abandoned by her husband, adrift in a world completely different from the one she grew up in, Amanda has done what she can with the resources she has. Williams himself, while not downplaying her faults, pays tribute to her sterling qualities:

There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and a kind of heroism.

In many ways, Amanda appears to be the strongest character in the play.

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Who is the strongest character in The Glass Menagerie?

The obvious answer, Tom, requires a certain definition of “strongest.”  To be sure, Tom Wingfield is “strong” enough to break free of the stultifying Wingfield household, but his “courage” has taken a long time, and his retreat into movies was hardly “strong.” Also, like the father (who, it might be argued, was the strongest), Tom eventually deserts the family, even though Laura will never escape without his being there.  One could make a case for the Gentleman Caller as the strongest character, since he resisted the opportunity to exploit Laura’s weakness.  But the best argument for a character to rival Tom is the “jailer” herself, Amanda Wingfield – her unwavering devotion to the past, to the ways of her youth, however distasteful to the modern audience, and her maintaining the household even after being deserted by her husband, leaving her alone to raise two children, is a strength whose rarity is the very essence of the play.  Someone should stage the play in a way that displays her strength and resolve; better still would be a one-woman show in which Amanda gets to tell her side of the story.

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Who is the hero in The Glass Menagerie and why?

This play by Tennessee Williams presets Tom Wingfield as the protagonist, but he is not necessarily the hero. Tom uses the play in part to explain his decision to leave home, which meant leaving his mother and sister to get along without him. He is careful not to present his actions as heroic, however. Tom’s strong love for his family is evident throughout the play, even though he often seems critical of his mother’s behavior. His sister, Laura, has struggled with her own, unspecified disabilities as well as the challenge of asserting herself in relation to her mother’s much stronger personality. Because she takes initiative to follow her own path, in rejecting her mother’s vision of employment and perhaps marriage, Laura is shown as a distinct though fragile individual. Tom’s presentation of Laura’s courage in resisting her mother suggests that Laura is the hero.

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