Laura From The Glass Menagerie

Tom'southward sister and Amanda's daughter. Laura is securely fragile, both emotionally and physically: she is painfully shy, and a childhood illness has left one leg slightly shorter than the other, making her walk with a limp. The glass menagerie of the title refers to Laura'south prized collection that she carefully polishes and rearranges. Laura herself is as delicate, beautiful, and otherworldly as her miniature animals, and she retreats from the anxiety of social interactions and the pressures of daily life past slipping into a fantasy world populated with beautiful, immortal objects: she goes walking in the park, visits the zoo and the greenhouses, plays the Victrola, and immerses herself in her glass collection. Her nickname, "Blue Roses," derives from Jim's mishearing of "pleurosis," the disease that left her bedridden. Both Tom and Jim see Laura as like a blue rose, exotic and frail in her rarity. Notwithstanding despite her fragility, Laura does not willfully delude herself about the nature of her reality. She accepts her leg injury and her shyness without trying to pretend that she is another version of herself. When she confesses her schoolgirl crush for Jim O'Connor before he enters the play every bit the Gentleman Caller, she does non spin a wild fantasy life of wedded bliss betwixt herself and Jim, just rather presents the retentivity equally though it were a glass creature itself, a cute but immobile creature. Indeed, although Laura is symbolically linked with the delicate glass and the exotic Blue Roses, she may have the most strength and willpower of anyone in the play. Laura serves as peacemaker between Tom and Amanda, soothing both parties and helping to mend some of the wounds. When Tom escapes at the stop of the play, he realizes that as far as he goes, he can never abandon Laura: "Oh, Laura, Laura," Tom exclaims, "I tried to go out y'all behind me, only I am more faithful than I intended to be!"

Laura Wingfield Quotes in The Drinking glass Menagerie

The The Glass Menagerie quotes beneath are all either spoken by Laura Wingfield or refer to Laura Wingfield. For each quote, you lot can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this i:

Resume your seat, little sister—I desire you to stay fresh and pretty—for gentleman callers!

Folio Number and Citation: seven

Caption and Analysis:

I went in the art museum and the bird houses at the Zoo...Lately I've been spending most of my afternoons in the Precious stone Box, that large glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.

Page Number and Citation: 15

Explanation and Analysis:

What is at that place left simply dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of single women who aren't prepared to occupy a position. I've seen such sad cases in the South—barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's married woman!—stuck abroad in some fiddling mousetrap of a room—encouraged by ane in-law to visit some other—little birdlike women without whatsoever nest—eating the crust of humility all their life!

Page Number and Citation: 16

Explanation and Analysis:

Merely the wonderfullest trick of all was the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without removing ane blast. [He has come up inside.] In that location is a trick that would come in handy for me—become me out of this 2-past-four situation!...Y'all know information technology don't take much intelligence to go yourself into a nailed-upwards coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing 1 boom?

Page Number and Citation: 27

Explanation and Analysis:

Amanda: A petty argent slipper of a moon. Wait over your left shoulder, Laura, and make a wish! ... Now! Now, darling, wish!
Laura: What shall I wish for, Mother?
Amanda [her voice trembling, and her eyes suddenly filling with tears]: Happiness! Good fortune!

Page Number and Citation: 49

Explanation and Analysis:

A delicate, unearthly prettiness has come up out in Laura: she is like a piece of translucent glass touched by low-cal, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting.

Page Number and Citation: 51

Caption and Analysis:

Jim lights a cigarette and leans indolently back on his elbows smiling at Laura with a warmth and charm which lights her inwardly with chantry candles.

Page Number and Commendation: 79

Explanation and Analysis:

Jim: What kind of glass is it?
Laura: Little articles of it, they're ornaments by and large! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the globe. Mother calls them a glass menagerie!...Oh, exist conscientious—if you breathe, it breaks!...There now—you're belongings him gently! Hold him over the light, he loves the light! You run across how the light shines through him?

Page Number and Citation: 82

Explanation and Analysis:

Jim: Aw, aw, aw. Is it broken?
Laura: Now it is just like all the other horses.
Jim: It's lost its—

Laura: Horn! It doesn't matter...I don't have favorites much...I'll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him experience less—freakish!

Folio Number and Citation: 86

Caption and Analysis:

They're common as—weeds, but—you lot—well, you lot're—Blueish Roses!

Page Number and Citation: 87

Caption and Analysis:

The window is filled with pieces of colored drinking glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, similar $.25 of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sis touches my shoulder. I turn around and expect into her optics. Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, just I am more faithful than I intended to exist!

Page Number and Citation: 97

Caption and Analysis:

For nowadays the earth is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura—and so goodbye...

Page Number and Citation: 97

Explanation and Assay:

Laura Wingfield Character Timeline in The Drinking glass Menagerie

The timeline below shows where the graphic symbol Laura Wingfield appears in The Drinking glass Menagerie. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that advent.

...tells the audience about the iv characters in the play—himself, his mother Amanda, his sister Laura, and a man named Jim they knew from high school—and adds that the father is... (full context)

Tom enters the apartment and joins Amanda and Laura at the dining-room table. The words "Ou sont les neiges" ["Where are the snows"] are... (full context)

...clearly told many, many times before. The lights dim and music begins to play. At Laura's gentle urging, Tom mechanically plays along, asks his mother questions nigh the story, equally though... (total context)

Amanda suggests that Laura practise her typing equally she waits for gentleman callers to arrive. The music of "The... (full context)

An image of bluish roses appears on the screen. Laura sits in the apartment, polishing her menagerie of glass figures. When she hears Amanda ascending... (full context)

...American Revolution (D.A.R.) meetings: cheap velvet coat, outdated hat, outsized pocketbook. She looks upset, and Laura becomes visibly nervous and guilty. Amanda tears the keyboard diagram and typewriting alphabet in two. (total context)

Amanda tells Laura that she stopped by the business college where Laura has supposedly been enrolled. I of... (full context)

Amanda wonders what will become of Laura, at present that her career opportunities have been ruined, and warns her about spinsters dependent on... (total context)

Amanda asks whether Laura has ever liked a boy, and Laura admits that she once had a crush on... (total context)

...become obsessed with the idea that a gentleman caller must come to the house for Laura, and an image of a young human carrying flowers appears on the screen. Tom says... (full context)

Tom and Amanda are heard arguing backside curtains hanging over a door. Laura is standing in front of them, and throughout Tom and Amanda's entire argument, the light... (full context)

...curtains over the dining room door open, and he and Amanda proceed to fight as Laura watches helplessly. The typewriter and Tom's manuscripts are scattered across the dining room. Tom attempts... (total context)

...an empty canteen spill out of his pockets equally he fumbles for his door key. Laura opens the door for Tom, and he tells her virtually the movies and about a... (full context)

...bell tolls half-dozen times and Amanda calls out her customary "Rise and Smoothen!" She asks Laura to relay the message to Tom, equally they are notwithstanding not speaking. Laura begs Tom... (full context)

Amanda turns the word to Laura, and "The Glass Menagerie" theme begins to play. Amanda says that she has defenseless Laura... (full context)

Amanda tells Tom that they have to brand "plans and provisions" for Laura. She knows that he has received a letter from the merchant marines and that he... (full context)

Amanda asks Tom to bring home a gentleman from the warehouse to introduce to Laura, and as he leaves the apartment, Tom reluctantly agrees. Still troubled but faintly hopeful, Amanda... (total context)

...is that the gentleman caller must not exist a drinker, as she does non want Laura married to a drinker, which Tom sees as a little premature. (total context)

Tom tells Amanda that he hasn't told Jim virtually Laura: he just invited Jim over for a family dinner without whatsoever qualifications. Amanda is convinced... (full context)

Tom leaves for the movies, and Amanda calls Laura to the front end room. She points out the moon to Laura, turns her toward information technology,... (full context)

...is amused by his writing rather than resentful or hostile. Tom knows that Jim and Laura knew each other, simply doubts that Jim remembers Laura. (full context)

...for the gentleman caller, Amanda has transformed the apartment with lampshades and defunction. She dresses Laura, who is visibly nervous, in a soft, pretty dress, and stuffs "Gay Deceivers" in Laura'due south... (full context)

When Laura learns that the caller is none other than Jim O'Connor, the boy she loved in... (full context)

Tom and Jim go far and ring the doorbell. Laura is terrified and begs Amanda to open the door, only Amanda refuses, forcing Laura to... (total context)

After awkwardly greeting Jim, Laura dashes to the Victrola and then through the portieres. Tom explains that Laura is terribly... (total context)

...immature Southern belle. Amanda puts on her girlish mannerisms and thick Southern drawl. She praises Laura to Jim and recounts stories about her coquettish youth. (total context)

Amanda sends Tom to fetch Laura for supper, only Tom returns and announces that Laura is not well and will not... (total context)

Laura is still lying on the sofa, beautiful in the dim lamplight. Every bit dinner is finished,... (total context)

...a bottle of dandelion wine, instructing him to become to the living room and continue Laura visitor. Jim speaks to Laura gently and lightly. The incident is much more fraught and... (full context)

Jim sets the candles on the flooring, sits on the floor likewise, and urges Laura to bring together him. As he chews a slice of gum, he talks about the Century... (full context)

Laura asks Jim if he has kept up with his singing, and she reminds him that... (full context)

Laura and Jim leaf through the high schoolhouse yearbook, The Torch. Laura admits that she had... (full context)

Jim asks Laura what she has done since loftier school, and she starts to explicate that her glass... (full context)

Laura tells Jim about her drinking glass animals. She easily him the unicorn, her favorite, to hold.... (full context)

Jim and Laura hear waltz music from the Paradise Dance Hall. Despite Laura'southward protests, Jim leads her in... (full context)

Jim tells Laura that she is as uncommon as blue roses and says that someone ought to kiss... (full context)

Jim confesses to Laura that he is engaged to Betty, an Irish Catholic like himself. Laura is disconsolate, simply... (total context)

...drinking glass on the floor and bursts onto the burn down escape. Within the house, Amanda holds Laura in her arms, stroking her hair. Tom delivers a passionate, emotionally fraught closing monologue. He... (full context)