The glass menagerie
Tennessee Williams
General Comment:
Throughout the play there are various time jumps (season changes), where the writer wants to show the meaningless passing of time. One such example are the family’s usual evening dinners, where there is no sign of food, or cutlery.
Time is a factor that does not influence the family’s emotional stagnation. Even when ‘Tom the son’ leaves, Amanda and Laura remain effortlessly inside their meaningless reality.
‘Tom the narrator’ is the only one who realizes (in retrospect) the reality of their existence. That’s because he is now an adult and thus he has the capability to narrate the happenings of life, objectively.
For the role of Tom there will be two psychotheatrological analyses: one for ‘Tom the narrator’ and another for ‘Tom the son’.
Throughout the play there are various time jumps (season changes), where the writer wants to show the meaningless passing of time. One such example are the family’s usual evening dinners, where there is no sign of food, or cutlery.
Time is a factor that does not influence the family’s emotional stagnation. Even when ‘Tom the son’ leaves, Amanda and Laura remain effortlessly inside their meaningless reality.
‘Tom the narrator’ is the only one who realizes (in retrospect) the reality of their existence. That’s because he is now an adult and thus he has the capability to narrate the happenings of life, objectively.
For the role of Tom there will be two psychotheatrological analyses: one for ‘Tom the narrator’ and another for ‘Tom the son’.
'Tom the narrator'
‘Tom the narrator’ has gained adulthood and consciousness through a series of hard experiences and painful events.
Throughout the play, he experiences the emotional charge of his adult consciousness, namely:
Since the beginning of the play, he states clearly that through all the realizations of his life, he has managed to see the real reality, detached from the psychic conflicts, which blind all those who are unconscious.
‘Tom the narrator’ begins his narration dressed as a sailor. He wants, in this manner, to transmit 'Tom the son’s' hope for change in his life, through his effort to escape from a really insane world, which caged him. But this promising attempt of escape failed, because no one can get away from their emotional pattern.
The only way for anyone to change, is through consciousness, namely by accepting his psychic structure and by acting according to the facts of the real reality and not according to the dictates of his emotional pattern, which strives to repeat itself.
'Tom the narrator' speaks of the hope of his mother, Laura’s and his own for change, by making only narrative remarks, without any emotional judgements.
Even when he tells the story about Jim, he refers to himself without any emotional fluctuations.
This ability of 'Tom the narrator' was not granted to him. He gained it through the many painful experiences, which he says he lived.
In the last scene of the play, while 'Tom' narrates his process of becoming an adult, after he left Amanda and Laura, his psychic structure and emotional pattern silently take place on stage. The blowing of the candle by Laura, symbolizes the fact that his pattern will always repeat itself and will cease to exist only after his death.
At the end of the play, while he is outside of the scene’s events, he realizes that he cannot escape from Laura, because she is part of his emotional pattern and therefore part of himself and thus he urges her to blow the candles and give a definitive end to the perpetual revival of the emotional pattern of both them.
Wherever 'Tom' is, he is inextricably linked with Laura, whether he is 'the son' or the 'the narrator', since in reality they are one and the same person with the same emotional pattern.
'Tom the narrator' says directly to the audience, that since he has managed to change his life from deep within, no one has the excuse not to try.
Through this action, he infiltrates the subconscious of the audience, prompting them to change and not to squander their lives.
Throughout the play, he experiences the emotional charge of his adult consciousness, namely:
- He has total acceptance for himself and for those around him, and not just tolerance.
- He does not repel into his subconscious his life’s memories. He recalls everything, however harsh and painful they are.
- He relives the emotions of past events, without repelling anything.
- He relives the events of his life and regresses through them, to his emotional pattern, while being fully conscious of this regression.
- He has the courage to relive and be in touch with the pain of his psychic trauma, whenever he regresses to that trauma.
- Because he can withstand the pain of his trauma, he has the ability to recognize and understand the pain of others, namely he has empathy, without criticizing anyone.
- He is always aware, if what he feels has to do with his psychic structure; in other words, he knows if his feelings are a revival of his emotional pattern or if they are about the ‘here and now’.
- He acts according to the ‘here and now’ facts of his life, namely his actions are not affected by his psychic structure and emotional pattern.
Since the beginning of the play, he states clearly that through all the realizations of his life, he has managed to see the real reality, detached from the psychic conflicts, which blind all those who are unconscious.
‘Tom the narrator’ begins his narration dressed as a sailor. He wants, in this manner, to transmit 'Tom the son’s' hope for change in his life, through his effort to escape from a really insane world, which caged him. But this promising attempt of escape failed, because no one can get away from their emotional pattern.
The only way for anyone to change, is through consciousness, namely by accepting his psychic structure and by acting according to the facts of the real reality and not according to the dictates of his emotional pattern, which strives to repeat itself.
'Tom the narrator' speaks of the hope of his mother, Laura’s and his own for change, by making only narrative remarks, without any emotional judgements.
Even when he tells the story about Jim, he refers to himself without any emotional fluctuations.
This ability of 'Tom the narrator' was not granted to him. He gained it through the many painful experiences, which he says he lived.
In the last scene of the play, while 'Tom' narrates his process of becoming an adult, after he left Amanda and Laura, his psychic structure and emotional pattern silently take place on stage. The blowing of the candle by Laura, symbolizes the fact that his pattern will always repeat itself and will cease to exist only after his death.
At the end of the play, while he is outside of the scene’s events, he realizes that he cannot escape from Laura, because she is part of his emotional pattern and therefore part of himself and thus he urges her to blow the candles and give a definitive end to the perpetual revival of the emotional pattern of both them.
Wherever 'Tom' is, he is inextricably linked with Laura, whether he is 'the son' or the 'the narrator', since in reality they are one and the same person with the same emotional pattern.
'Tom the narrator' says directly to the audience, that since he has managed to change his life from deep within, no one has the excuse not to try.
Through this action, he infiltrates the subconscious of the audience, prompting them to change and not to squander their lives.
Amanda
Objective Data:
She was born in Blue Mountain, at the Mississippi Delta. Her family had negroes in their service and on Sundays they had visits from many wealthy and young men, who desired Amanda making her feel accepted.
She decided to marry a man, who always took care of his appearance and was never messy.
She likes the narcissus flowers.
She is a nervous person and believes that her children hate her, particularly 'Tom the son', whom she thinks is selfish.
She sells through the telephone and without any success subscriptions to the “Homemaker’s Companion”; a magazine for old ladies of the letters.
She has frequent quarrels with ‘Tom the son’ because she doesn’t approve of his way of living.
She tries desperately to find a decent suitor for Laura, in order for herself and her daughter to be well off and that’s why she presses 'Tom the son' to bring one of his friends home.
She is aware that ‘Tom the son’ wants to enroll to the Commercial Navy and sail away, but she forbids him until someone else takes his place in the family to support them.
In order to receive Tom’s friend, who might be Laura’s future husband, she makes preparations throughout the house.
When she finds out that Laura’s suitor is about to get married with another woman, she blames ‘Tom the son’ that he invited his friend to their house on purpose.
Psychic Structure:
Amanda has experienced rejection while in her mother’s womb, because her mother did not want the pregnancy. In her adult life, every time she regresses, she goes to her mom to find care, but the mom of ‘now’ (object of projection of the introjected mother) behaves like her real mom of the past and rejects her (clients - husband - 'Tom the son'- Jim).
With respect to Amanda as a fetus, her mother promised her an accepting womb. But when her mother/womb rejected her, she experienced that she was deceived. In her adult life this deception from the mother/womb results in her feeling deceived by those who are a projection of a good mother to her (husband - 'Tom the son' - Jim), either because they truly deceive her (the husband), or because her attitude forces them to deceive her (‘Tom the son' - Jim), or because she thinks that they deceive her, when in reality there is no deception (magazine subscribers).
Amanda’s mother immediately after the birth of her daughter, rejected her and abandoned her emotionally. In order to overcome her moral restraints, her mother abandoned Amanda in a manic way, which Amanda has introjected. In her adult life, when Amanda rejects something she does it both in a manic way (treats ‘Tom the son' as an alcoholic) and in a hypomanic way (speaking on the phone to subscribers of the magazine - sale of 'Tom the son’s’ books).
The unconscious agreement between Amanda and her mother when her mother abandoned her emotionally, so that Amanda would receive care and survive was: <for me to take care of you, you (Amanda) should be like I (your mother) want you to be>.
In her adult life, Amanda tries to keep alive her introjected mother, in an emotional level, by offering love and interest in an absolute way, namely she does it when the other person is exactly as she wants him/her to be. The reproduction of this pattern is evident in the way she behaves towards 'Tom the son' and Laura, since she requires her children to be as she wants them to be, reproducing in this way the agreement she had with her own mother (experiencing the presence of her mother by acting the same way as she did).
Bound to be like her mother wanted her, Amanda developed the ability to manipulate her, in order to convince her that she’s exactly like she wants her to be; Thus she developed the ability to manipulate others too. In her adult life she manipulates the people onto whom she has made a ‘good mother’ projection, by enchanting them with her appearance (like she did when Jim visited them) or by speaking very eloquently (flirtation with the boys). What’s more, she manipulates even her own children, onto whom, she’s made a ‘good mum’ projection as well, in order to survive (she has ulterior motives of self-interest, regarding her daughter’s marriage).
Amanda tries to cling to her father as an alternative care provider (substitute for mother), but he is uninvolved, i.e. he is emotionally absent and therefore he repeats with Amanda the pattern of her mother.
In the play, when ‘Tom the son’ destroys with his coat Laura’s glass menagerie:
In the course of her life, she tries desperately to be accepted by all objects, onto which she’s made ‘a good mum’ projection (boys).
But when she feels accepted, the presence of her mother moves further away (the introjected mother always rejects and thus when Amanda experiences acceptance she does not feel the presence of her mum).
So, when she feels accepted, she experiences the presence of her mother by being herself rejective (to the interest of boys), namely she behaves like her mother.
Practically, while she was trying to create symbiotic relationships (seventeen young men), like the one she had with her mother when she was born, she unconsciously reproduced the emotional pattern, which she experienced with her mother. So, when she felt accepted, she spoke egocentrically and rejected others by hurting them like her mother hurt her when she rejected her.
Emotional Pattern:
Fear of death due to rejection.
Manipulation in order to survive.
The pain of her primordial trauma was created when her mother rejected her, as a being, in her womb.
She’s caged into painful and negative situations; situations to which she goes in order to survive.
She has hate towards her cager, whether he/she is real, or she just experiences him/her as real, even though he/she is not.
She feels despair when her mother’s care is not present.
Because her real dad was an object of a ‘mother’ projection and repeated her mother’s pattern since he was absent, the reproduction of this relationship with someone else, leads directly to the relationship she had with her mother, namely to the pain from her mother’s deception and rejection (primordial trauma).
She was born in Blue Mountain, at the Mississippi Delta. Her family had negroes in their service and on Sundays they had visits from many wealthy and young men, who desired Amanda making her feel accepted.
She decided to marry a man, who always took care of his appearance and was never messy.
She likes the narcissus flowers.
She is a nervous person and believes that her children hate her, particularly 'Tom the son', whom she thinks is selfish.
She sells through the telephone and without any success subscriptions to the “Homemaker’s Companion”; a magazine for old ladies of the letters.
She has frequent quarrels with ‘Tom the son’ because she doesn’t approve of his way of living.
She tries desperately to find a decent suitor for Laura, in order for herself and her daughter to be well off and that’s why she presses 'Tom the son' to bring one of his friends home.
She is aware that ‘Tom the son’ wants to enroll to the Commercial Navy and sail away, but she forbids him until someone else takes his place in the family to support them.
In order to receive Tom’s friend, who might be Laura’s future husband, she makes preparations throughout the house.
When she finds out that Laura’s suitor is about to get married with another woman, she blames ‘Tom the son’ that he invited his friend to their house on purpose.
Psychic Structure:
Amanda has experienced rejection while in her mother’s womb, because her mother did not want the pregnancy. In her adult life, every time she regresses, she goes to her mom to find care, but the mom of ‘now’ (object of projection of the introjected mother) behaves like her real mom of the past and rejects her (clients - husband - 'Tom the son'- Jim).
With respect to Amanda as a fetus, her mother promised her an accepting womb. But when her mother/womb rejected her, she experienced that she was deceived. In her adult life this deception from the mother/womb results in her feeling deceived by those who are a projection of a good mother to her (husband - 'Tom the son' - Jim), either because they truly deceive her (the husband), or because her attitude forces them to deceive her (‘Tom the son' - Jim), or because she thinks that they deceive her, when in reality there is no deception (magazine subscribers).
Amanda’s mother immediately after the birth of her daughter, rejected her and abandoned her emotionally. In order to overcome her moral restraints, her mother abandoned Amanda in a manic way, which Amanda has introjected. In her adult life, when Amanda rejects something she does it both in a manic way (treats ‘Tom the son' as an alcoholic) and in a hypomanic way (speaking on the phone to subscribers of the magazine - sale of 'Tom the son’s’ books).
The unconscious agreement between Amanda and her mother when her mother abandoned her emotionally, so that Amanda would receive care and survive was: <for me to take care of you, you (Amanda) should be like I (your mother) want you to be>.
In her adult life, Amanda tries to keep alive her introjected mother, in an emotional level, by offering love and interest in an absolute way, namely she does it when the other person is exactly as she wants him/her to be. The reproduction of this pattern is evident in the way she behaves towards 'Tom the son' and Laura, since she requires her children to be as she wants them to be, reproducing in this way the agreement she had with her own mother (experiencing the presence of her mother by acting the same way as she did).
Bound to be like her mother wanted her, Amanda developed the ability to manipulate her, in order to convince her that she’s exactly like she wants her to be; Thus she developed the ability to manipulate others too. In her adult life she manipulates the people onto whom she has made a ‘good mother’ projection, by enchanting them with her appearance (like she did when Jim visited them) or by speaking very eloquently (flirtation with the boys). What’s more, she manipulates even her own children, onto whom, she’s made a ‘good mum’ projection as well, in order to survive (she has ulterior motives of self-interest, regarding her daughter’s marriage).
Amanda tries to cling to her father as an alternative care provider (substitute for mother), but he is uninvolved, i.e. he is emotionally absent and therefore he repeats with Amanda the pattern of her mother.
In the play, when ‘Tom the son’ destroys with his coat Laura’s glass menagerie:
- He reproduces Amanda’s mother, who destroys Amanda emotionally
- Laura reproduces Amanda as a child and
- Amanda reproduces her own father, who’s lost in his world (absent without any emotional breath).
In the course of her life, she tries desperately to be accepted by all objects, onto which she’s made ‘a good mum’ projection (boys).
But when she feels accepted, the presence of her mother moves further away (the introjected mother always rejects and thus when Amanda experiences acceptance she does not feel the presence of her mum).
So, when she feels accepted, she experiences the presence of her mother by being herself rejective (to the interest of boys), namely she behaves like her mother.
Practically, while she was trying to create symbiotic relationships (seventeen young men), like the one she had with her mother when she was born, she unconsciously reproduced the emotional pattern, which she experienced with her mother. So, when she felt accepted, she spoke egocentrically and rejected others by hurting them like her mother hurt her when she rejected her.
Emotional Pattern:
Fear of death due to rejection.
Manipulation in order to survive.
The pain of her primordial trauma was created when her mother rejected her, as a being, in her womb.
She’s caged into painful and negative situations; situations to which she goes in order to survive.
She has hate towards her cager, whether he/she is real, or she just experiences him/her as real, even though he/she is not.
She feels despair when her mother’s care is not present.
Because her real dad was an object of a ‘mother’ projection and repeated her mother’s pattern since he was absent, the reproduction of this relationship with someone else, leads directly to the relationship she had with her mother, namely to the pain from her mother’s deception and rejection (primordial trauma).
Laura
Objective Data:
She’s the oldest child of the Wingfield family. She’s about to turn 24 years.
She’s crippled (one leg shorter than the other).
She lives in her own world and that makes her look a little peculiar.
Her whole world revolves around an old phonograph record collection, her high school year book and her collection of glass animals (her Glass Menagerie).
She’s a very shy and timid girl.
She tries to balance out the fights between her brother Tom and her mother Amanda. The cost of her efforts will be her collection of glass animals.
She secretly dropped out of Rubicam’s Business College and instead walked around and visited places every day, like the art museum, the Zoo and a glass house where they raised tropical flowers.
She’s still in love with a schoolmate of hers, Jim, who used to call her “Blue Rose”.
When Jim is invited to their house as a suitor for Laura, she panics and pretends she’s ill.
Before Jim leaves her house, she gives him as a souvenir her most precious glass animal, a unicorn.
Psychic Structure:
Since the writer clarifies that Laura had a childhood illness and wasn’t born a cripple, her handicap will be taken as an external event, namely that it happened after her first six years, and not as an introjected condition (note: even if Laura wasn’t handicapped in any way, she would find something else as an excuse to take the same course in her life, since her trauma is endometrium).
Her mother and father when they met, fell in love very strongly.
Her mother’s words (Amanda) “But man proposes – and woman accepts the proposal!” and “I married no planter! […] I married […] - That gallantly smiling gentleman over there!“ reveal the power of her parents love for each other.
Initially their marriage matched their expectations for a happy life.
During that phase of their marriage, the dynamic of their relationship was: I will be a child and you will be my good mum and you will take care of me; You will be my good dad and you will support me (namely, they both wished to remain a child and the other one to take care of him/her and support him/her).
The roles, just like in every relationship, were played both ways.
Their dynamic worked, as long as there weren’t any external factors to disturb it, thus Laura’s parents lived in their own wonderful microcosm.
Amanda’s pregnancy to Laura, brings Laura’s parents face to face with the responsibilities of a parent; Responsibilities which they didn’t want to take.
Thus, her parents experienced Laura’s presence as something that would destroy their wonderful microcosm, which quickly became just a memory.
The introjection, by Laura, of the memory of this wonderful microcosm of her parents, lead her to create her own fake world, so that she could live in it without feeling the pain caused by the cruelty of the real world.
When Amanda was pregnant to Laura, the psychological mechanism of the schism was triggered for both Laura’s parents. In order for her parents not to destroy the image they had for each other (projection of good mum/dad), they transferred the ‘bad parent’ projection from them onto Laura, namely they felt that Laura was the cause of their unhappiness.
This ‘bad parent’ projection she got from both her parents, when she was an embryo, created an endometrium trauma to Laura.
Throughout her adult life and because of that endometrium trauma, Laura:
In a conscious level she fears the rejection from the real world and in order not to be in contact with it, she brings up as an excuse her handicap.
She chooses the role of the victim, which suits her purpose of withdrawing from the real world and living in her own fake one.
Laura tries unconsciously to always have the presence of her parents of the past, whose presence she feels when she experiences rejection and incagement. Hence, with her actions she wants to repeat her emotional pattern, namely to remain caged inside the rejective world of her family home, having thus an excuse to stay inside her fantasy world (Jim speaks to her with acceptance but instead she highlights her defects).
When Amanda offers her the chance to study in a business college to become a secretary and thus earn money in order to escape from the paranoid and rejective world of her family, she decides to drop out of college and remain caged inside her own paranoid world. Along the same lines and for no serious reason, she also dropped out of school, where she could have gotten the right tools to evolve in her life.
Her physical handicap is not serious enough for her not to work and not to survive on her own. Maybe she wouldn’t have had the most ideal life, because of her deformity, but she certainly wouldn’t have lived inside her family’s rejective and caging world, nor inside her own paranoid world.
The role of Laura is that of a ghost. A ghost wandering around, trying to maintain the conditions that will keep it inside its paranoid world.
As a ghost she appeases the dynamic between her mother and her brother, so that everything in the house will remain deadly quiet and still.
But, rejection always comes (repetition of her emotional pattern), even when she behaves like a ghost/victim and she experiences the destruction of her glass world from ‘Tom the son’, while being in that role.
Even when someone urges her, albeit fake, to get out of her world, unconsciously she creates the conditions to remain in it: when Jim dances with her, unconsciously she makes sure that her unicorn will break, so that she will stay inside her world.
Making a risky assumption, based on the data available for Laura, one might say that after her brother’s departure she committed suicide to salvage herself from the sufferings of the real world. Even worse, someone could assume that she buried herself inside the tomb of depression and never came out of it. A second assumption is that her father too committed suicide, since he send them a card with the definitive farewell “Hello - Good-bye!”.
In the last scene of the play, the Laura who extinguishes the candles, is not the real Laura; She is not the one ‘Tom the son’ left behind. She is ‘Tom the narrator’s’ introjected Laura.
Emotional Pattern:
Fear of death due to rejection.
Withdrawal and creation of an imaginary world in order to survive.
Incagement in rejective environments, inside which she has to be in order to survive.
Hate and love for her cager: hate because he/she won’t allow her to live in the real world and love for the same reason, namely because he/she is protecting her against rejection.
The pain of her primordial trauma was created when her mother, directly and her father, indirectly, rejected her existence when she was an embryo.
She’s the oldest child of the Wingfield family. She’s about to turn 24 years.
She’s crippled (one leg shorter than the other).
She lives in her own world and that makes her look a little peculiar.
Her whole world revolves around an old phonograph record collection, her high school year book and her collection of glass animals (her Glass Menagerie).
She’s a very shy and timid girl.
She tries to balance out the fights between her brother Tom and her mother Amanda. The cost of her efforts will be her collection of glass animals.
She secretly dropped out of Rubicam’s Business College and instead walked around and visited places every day, like the art museum, the Zoo and a glass house where they raised tropical flowers.
She’s still in love with a schoolmate of hers, Jim, who used to call her “Blue Rose”.
When Jim is invited to their house as a suitor for Laura, she panics and pretends she’s ill.
Before Jim leaves her house, she gives him as a souvenir her most precious glass animal, a unicorn.
Psychic Structure:
Since the writer clarifies that Laura had a childhood illness and wasn’t born a cripple, her handicap will be taken as an external event, namely that it happened after her first six years, and not as an introjected condition (note: even if Laura wasn’t handicapped in any way, she would find something else as an excuse to take the same course in her life, since her trauma is endometrium).
Her mother and father when they met, fell in love very strongly.
Her mother’s words (Amanda) “But man proposes – and woman accepts the proposal!” and “I married no planter! […] I married […] - That gallantly smiling gentleman over there!“ reveal the power of her parents love for each other.
Initially their marriage matched their expectations for a happy life.
During that phase of their marriage, the dynamic of their relationship was: I will be a child and you will be my good mum and you will take care of me; You will be my good dad and you will support me (namely, they both wished to remain a child and the other one to take care of him/her and support him/her).
The roles, just like in every relationship, were played both ways.
Their dynamic worked, as long as there weren’t any external factors to disturb it, thus Laura’s parents lived in their own wonderful microcosm.
Amanda’s pregnancy to Laura, brings Laura’s parents face to face with the responsibilities of a parent; Responsibilities which they didn’t want to take.
Thus, her parents experienced Laura’s presence as something that would destroy their wonderful microcosm, which quickly became just a memory.
The introjection, by Laura, of the memory of this wonderful microcosm of her parents, lead her to create her own fake world, so that she could live in it without feeling the pain caused by the cruelty of the real world.
When Amanda was pregnant to Laura, the psychological mechanism of the schism was triggered for both Laura’s parents. In order for her parents not to destroy the image they had for each other (projection of good mum/dad), they transferred the ‘bad parent’ projection from them onto Laura, namely they felt that Laura was the cause of their unhappiness.
This ‘bad parent’ projection she got from both her parents, when she was an embryo, created an endometrium trauma to Laura.
Throughout her adult life and because of that endometrium trauma, Laura:
- is never happy anywhere in the real world, just like her parents were no longer happy in their marriage, because of her presence
- feels always and everywhere rejected
- experiences that she is caged everywhere she goes
- constantly feels unwanted
- has created her own fake world, in which she feels happy
In a conscious level she fears the rejection from the real world and in order not to be in contact with it, she brings up as an excuse her handicap.
She chooses the role of the victim, which suits her purpose of withdrawing from the real world and living in her own fake one.
Laura tries unconsciously to always have the presence of her parents of the past, whose presence she feels when she experiences rejection and incagement. Hence, with her actions she wants to repeat her emotional pattern, namely to remain caged inside the rejective world of her family home, having thus an excuse to stay inside her fantasy world (Jim speaks to her with acceptance but instead she highlights her defects).
When Amanda offers her the chance to study in a business college to become a secretary and thus earn money in order to escape from the paranoid and rejective world of her family, she decides to drop out of college and remain caged inside her own paranoid world. Along the same lines and for no serious reason, she also dropped out of school, where she could have gotten the right tools to evolve in her life.
Her physical handicap is not serious enough for her not to work and not to survive on her own. Maybe she wouldn’t have had the most ideal life, because of her deformity, but she certainly wouldn’t have lived inside her family’s rejective and caging world, nor inside her own paranoid world.
The role of Laura is that of a ghost. A ghost wandering around, trying to maintain the conditions that will keep it inside its paranoid world.
As a ghost she appeases the dynamic between her mother and her brother, so that everything in the house will remain deadly quiet and still.
But, rejection always comes (repetition of her emotional pattern), even when she behaves like a ghost/victim and she experiences the destruction of her glass world from ‘Tom the son’, while being in that role.
Even when someone urges her, albeit fake, to get out of her world, unconsciously she creates the conditions to remain in it: when Jim dances with her, unconsciously she makes sure that her unicorn will break, so that she will stay inside her world.
Making a risky assumption, based on the data available for Laura, one might say that after her brother’s departure she committed suicide to salvage herself from the sufferings of the real world. Even worse, someone could assume that she buried herself inside the tomb of depression and never came out of it. A second assumption is that her father too committed suicide, since he send them a card with the definitive farewell “Hello - Good-bye!”.
In the last scene of the play, the Laura who extinguishes the candles, is not the real Laura; She is not the one ‘Tom the son’ left behind. She is ‘Tom the narrator’s’ introjected Laura.
Emotional Pattern:
Fear of death due to rejection.
Withdrawal and creation of an imaginary world in order to survive.
Incagement in rejective environments, inside which she has to be in order to survive.
Hate and love for her cager: hate because he/she won’t allow her to live in the real world and love for the same reason, namely because he/she is protecting her against rejection.
The pain of her primordial trauma was created when her mother, directly and her father, indirectly, rejected her existence when she was an embryo.
'Tom the son'
Objective Data:
He is the second child of the family, two years younger than his sister Laura.
He is about 21-22 years old (since Laura is about to turn 24).
Tom says that his father “he’s been absent going on sixteen years!”, so he must have been about 5-6 years old when his father left home, abandoning everybody.
There are strong tensions in the house, between ‘Tom the son’ and his mother ‘Amanda’. Every time there is a fight between them, Tom leaves wishing he’d never come back.
He is working in a shoe warehouse, with a salary of $65 a month (low salary for that time).
Every night, near midnight, he leaves the house, saying he’s going to the movies. He returns in the morning, sleeps for about two to three hours and then goes to work.
He’s a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker.
He reads a lot of books.
Amanda, though, returned back to the library one of his books that she thought was immoral.
During work, he withdraws to a little room and writes poetry.
Jim calls him “Shakespeare” and treats him very well. Their relationship is emotionally close, only inside the frame of work; they have no contact outside work, since they don’t know (in the beginning of the play) basic information for each other (Jim doesn’t know that Tom has a sister and Tom doesn’t know that Jim is engaged to be married). The fact that they went to the same high school brought them together emotionally, only at work.
‘Tom the son’ worries about Laura’s course of life.
He brings Jim to his house, as a suitor for Laura, so that she will be well off (as Amanda presses him to do), but at the same time he has bought a ticket for him to sail away.
Finally he leaves home, sails away and abandons the two women.
Psychic Structure:
Amanda got pregnant to Tom, while she was already disappointed by her marriage, since she felt encaged in a marriage she did not want.
The existence of her first child (Laura) was a harsh wake up call.
His mother (Amanda) chose unconsciously her husband (Tom's father), in order to relive her relationship with her mother (emotional abandonment). Since Amanda had made a “mom projection” onto her husband, she transferred onto him the hatred she felt for her introjected mom. Then, during her pregnancy to Tom, she transferred again all this hatred onto the fetus, because its existence finalized and sealed the fact that she was caged in a situation (marriage / relationship with her mother), which she didn’t want and couldn’t bare.
So, ‘Tom the son’ introjects a mom encaged in a marriage she doesn’t want and thus she’s unhappy.
In his adult life, he experiences the presence of his introjected mom by being encaged in situations which:
At the same time, he submits to the repeating verbal abuses of his mother, when he receives care through food (“Don’t push with your fingers / chew – chew / eat food leisurely, son, and really enjoy it”).
His father was absent, both emotionally and physically, since he abandoned them. In his adult life, when he wants to lean on someone, in order to escape from anything he experiences as encaging, he chooses individuals who will betray him, resulting in him remaining encaged. He choses to bring home Jim, in order to pass over to him the care of the two women and for him (Tom) to leave care-free, as he has already decided. But Jim betrays him (abandons him), since he is already engaged to be married. As a result, when Tom finally escapes from his family, he remains encaged, since he carries with him Laura’s misery.
Because of this, Tom wouldn’t be able to send a final fare-well card, like his father did (“Hello – Good-bye!”).
‘Tom the son’, as he abandons the two women, he desperately tries to declare, both to himself and to everyone “and so goodbye” (as the legend on the screen displays). But after his coming of age, as ‘Tom the narrator’, he knows very well, that he will truly escape with death only. Thus, as explained in ‘Tom the narrator’, he encourages Laura to blow out her candles and then proceeds to bid farewell to everything with the phrase of the legend “and so goodbye”.
The attitude of both his parents in relation to their obligations towards their children, was completely irresponsible, because they experienced that they were being destroyed within their marriage. The pregnancy of Tom was another completely irresponsible action, since they had already understood the reality of their marriage from Laura’s existence. Tom introjects his parents and so in his adult life, he has a fully irresponsible attitude towards his adult obligations (health - work – payment of the electricity bill). He even reaches the point of becoming self-destructive (danger of getting sick from various addictions - risks being fired due to his withdrawal to the small room, in order to write).
Adult responsibility crushes him, like it crushed his parents. That's why ‘Tom the narrator’s’ adult and responsible attitude was gained through painful experiences.
The abandonment of the two women is an escape move towards paranoia, which instead of leading him to self-destruction (schizophrenia), led him through many painful experiences, to consciousness.
Rather than experiencing adventure through the fantasy of movies or of madness (“I go to the movies because I like adventure. Adventure is something I don’t have much at work, so I go to the movies”), he escapes into real reality’s painful path, where he constantly experiences the repetition of his emotional pattern. An early sign of this path of his was his productive occupation with poetry.
Emotionally, ‘Tom the son’ cannot abandon Laura, like his father did, because as portrayed at the end of the play, he loves her and constantly bares her inside him. When he talks to Jim, he tries to convince himself that he is able to leave her, in order to have a emotional alibi to do it and he says: “I’m like my father. The bastard son of a bastard! See how he grins?”. But the reality is that he is unable to do so, because he has introjected Laura in him, while his father hasn’t.
The reason why ‘Tom the son’ escaped to the real reality and not into madness or addiction (alcohol), was Laura. When Tom was born, the presence of Laura, who was just two years old, gave him unconditional care (Laura was for the newborn Tom an object of a good mom introjection). ‘Tom the son’ introjects this selfless care, carries it through all his life and so, as ‘Tom the narrator’ he says: “Oh, Laura Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!”.
Emotional Pattern:
Fear of being encaged in madness; this encaging leads to nothingness. (Tom’s psychic state as an embryo in Amanda’s womb).
Submissive attitude, in order to survive.
He has hatred towards his cager, whose demands are paranoid and treats Tom as his puppet. The cager might be real in the present (Amanda) or he might be experienced as real, while in fact he’s not (his work – no one forced him to take the job, to stay there and not search for another one).
Irresponsibility which strengthens the fact that he is encaged.
Attempt to escape through withdrawal, which leads to self-destruction (if he did not yield as a fetus and theoretically escaped from his mom’s womb, he would die -this is something every embryo knows).
Even his final escape, led him to great sufferings.
The fact that he treated them with self-knowledge and acquired consciousness, does not mean that his emotional pattern did not repeat itself time and again.
The pain of his trauma is due to the rejection he received as a being, when his mother realized that she was pregnant to him.
He is the second child of the family, two years younger than his sister Laura.
He is about 21-22 years old (since Laura is about to turn 24).
Tom says that his father “he’s been absent going on sixteen years!”, so he must have been about 5-6 years old when his father left home, abandoning everybody.
There are strong tensions in the house, between ‘Tom the son’ and his mother ‘Amanda’. Every time there is a fight between them, Tom leaves wishing he’d never come back.
He is working in a shoe warehouse, with a salary of $65 a month (low salary for that time).
Every night, near midnight, he leaves the house, saying he’s going to the movies. He returns in the morning, sleeps for about two to three hours and then goes to work.
He’s a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker.
He reads a lot of books.
Amanda, though, returned back to the library one of his books that she thought was immoral.
During work, he withdraws to a little room and writes poetry.
Jim calls him “Shakespeare” and treats him very well. Their relationship is emotionally close, only inside the frame of work; they have no contact outside work, since they don’t know (in the beginning of the play) basic information for each other (Jim doesn’t know that Tom has a sister and Tom doesn’t know that Jim is engaged to be married). The fact that they went to the same high school brought them together emotionally, only at work.
‘Tom the son’ worries about Laura’s course of life.
He brings Jim to his house, as a suitor for Laura, so that she will be well off (as Amanda presses him to do), but at the same time he has bought a ticket for him to sail away.
Finally he leaves home, sails away and abandons the two women.
Psychic Structure:
Amanda got pregnant to Tom, while she was already disappointed by her marriage, since she felt encaged in a marriage she did not want.
The existence of her first child (Laura) was a harsh wake up call.
His mother (Amanda) chose unconsciously her husband (Tom's father), in order to relive her relationship with her mother (emotional abandonment). Since Amanda had made a “mom projection” onto her husband, she transferred onto him the hatred she felt for her introjected mom. Then, during her pregnancy to Tom, she transferred again all this hatred onto the fetus, because its existence finalized and sealed the fact that she was caged in a situation (marriage / relationship with her mother), which she didn’t want and couldn’t bare.
So, ‘Tom the son’ introjects a mom encaged in a marriage she doesn’t want and thus she’s unhappy.
In his adult life, he experiences the presence of his introjected mom by being encaged in situations which:
- he feels he doesn’t belong to (“I’ve got no thing in my life here that I can call my own!”)
- every time he tries to escape, he self-destructs (smoking-alcohol), or destroys the people he loves (he breaks Laura’s glass menagerie).
At the same time, he submits to the repeating verbal abuses of his mother, when he receives care through food (“Don’t push with your fingers / chew – chew / eat food leisurely, son, and really enjoy it”).
His father was absent, both emotionally and physically, since he abandoned them. In his adult life, when he wants to lean on someone, in order to escape from anything he experiences as encaging, he chooses individuals who will betray him, resulting in him remaining encaged. He choses to bring home Jim, in order to pass over to him the care of the two women and for him (Tom) to leave care-free, as he has already decided. But Jim betrays him (abandons him), since he is already engaged to be married. As a result, when Tom finally escapes from his family, he remains encaged, since he carries with him Laura’s misery.
Because of this, Tom wouldn’t be able to send a final fare-well card, like his father did (“Hello – Good-bye!”).
‘Tom the son’, as he abandons the two women, he desperately tries to declare, both to himself and to everyone “and so goodbye” (as the legend on the screen displays). But after his coming of age, as ‘Tom the narrator’, he knows very well, that he will truly escape with death only. Thus, as explained in ‘Tom the narrator’, he encourages Laura to blow out her candles and then proceeds to bid farewell to everything with the phrase of the legend “and so goodbye”.
The attitude of both his parents in relation to their obligations towards their children, was completely irresponsible, because they experienced that they were being destroyed within their marriage. The pregnancy of Tom was another completely irresponsible action, since they had already understood the reality of their marriage from Laura’s existence. Tom introjects his parents and so in his adult life, he has a fully irresponsible attitude towards his adult obligations (health - work – payment of the electricity bill). He even reaches the point of becoming self-destructive (danger of getting sick from various addictions - risks being fired due to his withdrawal to the small room, in order to write).
Adult responsibility crushes him, like it crushed his parents. That's why ‘Tom the narrator’s’ adult and responsible attitude was gained through painful experiences.
The abandonment of the two women is an escape move towards paranoia, which instead of leading him to self-destruction (schizophrenia), led him through many painful experiences, to consciousness.
Rather than experiencing adventure through the fantasy of movies or of madness (“I go to the movies because I like adventure. Adventure is something I don’t have much at work, so I go to the movies”), he escapes into real reality’s painful path, where he constantly experiences the repetition of his emotional pattern. An early sign of this path of his was his productive occupation with poetry.
Emotionally, ‘Tom the son’ cannot abandon Laura, like his father did, because as portrayed at the end of the play, he loves her and constantly bares her inside him. When he talks to Jim, he tries to convince himself that he is able to leave her, in order to have a emotional alibi to do it and he says: “I’m like my father. The bastard son of a bastard! See how he grins?”. But the reality is that he is unable to do so, because he has introjected Laura in him, while his father hasn’t.
The reason why ‘Tom the son’ escaped to the real reality and not into madness or addiction (alcohol), was Laura. When Tom was born, the presence of Laura, who was just two years old, gave him unconditional care (Laura was for the newborn Tom an object of a good mom introjection). ‘Tom the son’ introjects this selfless care, carries it through all his life and so, as ‘Tom the narrator’ he says: “Oh, Laura Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!”.
Emotional Pattern:
Fear of being encaged in madness; this encaging leads to nothingness. (Tom’s psychic state as an embryo in Amanda’s womb).
Submissive attitude, in order to survive.
He has hatred towards his cager, whose demands are paranoid and treats Tom as his puppet. The cager might be real in the present (Amanda) or he might be experienced as real, while in fact he’s not (his work – no one forced him to take the job, to stay there and not search for another one).
Irresponsibility which strengthens the fact that he is encaged.
Attempt to escape through withdrawal, which leads to self-destruction (if he did not yield as a fetus and theoretically escaped from his mom’s womb, he would die -this is something every embryo knows).
Even his final escape, led him to great sufferings.
The fact that he treated them with self-knowledge and acquired consciousness, does not mean that his emotional pattern did not repeat itself time and again.
The pain of his trauma is due to the rejection he received as a being, when his mother realized that she was pregnant to him.
Jim
The manic light, which charges the psychic dynamics to the full and like a firework highlights the misery of the Wingfield family.
Jim lives inside his own reality, in which the acceptance of others is of utter importance. He will do anything to feel accepted, making himself an explosive catalyst in the relationship of the protagonists.
Jim’s parents didn’t desire each other and had conflicts between them. For Jim to feel accepted inside this confrontational relationship, he had to give his parents everything (in an emotional level). Their rejection though, was always present throughout his childhood. In his adult life, he also gives everything in order to gain acceptance, but as soon as he gets it, he acts like his parents and rejects those who accepted him.
The confirmation of his parents’ confrontational relationship comes in his teens when he struggled for the acceptance of everyone. This means that the introjected mother does not accept him (does not care for him with love and interest) and the introjected father does not support him.
'Tom the narrator' while addressing the audience, says about Jim’s adolescence:
The abovementioned phrases of a neutral observer ('Tom the narrator') reveal that Jim didn’t have acceptance from his mother nor support from his father and he struggled to get them. In his adult life he makes others believe that he accepts them and when he gives them what they need and they accept him and they show him interest (love), he then rejects or abandons them; just like he was rejected and abandoned by his parents. Through this action he experiences his introjected parents, by becoming just like them. In the end, he succeeds in being rejected and unhappy, since the persons he took advantage of (sucked their energy), in turn reject him because of the pain they feel by his rejection.
Moreover, while addressing her son Tom, Amanda states: "Irish on both sides". This phrase implies the conflict which existed between Jim’s parents, namely the known civil war history of the Irish people.
Jim was born into a family where he experienced rejection and abolition. This lead him in accepting the invitation of 'Tom the son', so that he would feel accepted by the Wingfield family. When 'Tom the son' invited him for dinner, Jim was not aware of Laura’s existence. But, when he met her, he didn’t set adult boundaries from the beginning, as he should have done; on the contrary, he made Laura part of his goal for acceptance, spreading pain in the Wingfield family.
Although he behaves in an adult way, showing that he genuinely cares for Laura, in reality this is just part of his plan for acceptance. He supposedly tries to help Laura by showing her that the basis of her unhappiness is the fact that she does not accept herself (‘inferiority complex’) and goes on to justify his claim, by telling her that the same thing used to apply to him as well.
As soon as he wins the proven acceptance of Laura (she lets him kiss her), he rejects her by saying “I can’t take down your number and say I’ll phone. I can’t call up next week and ask for a date”. Of course, he had warned us for what was about to follow, when he was talking to Laura about the very important issue of her ‘inferiority complex’ and suddenly left her to deal with his gum (even a chewing gum was more important to him than Laura’s fragile psyche).
Laura gives him her Unicorn, a symbol of purity, which is not allowed to be touched by anyone and which he symbolically breaks.
Jim does not know what he wants.
He does not accept his job and he tries desperately to change it.
He takes a radio engineering class at night school and also studies public speaking. He wants to gain "Knowledge - Money - Power" in order to feel accepted.
Jim is a cold, indifferent and an exploitative person, in order to gain acceptance. He is a self-centered man who needs constant confirmation and acceptance. This behavior of Jim mobilizes anger in others and in the audience.
Jim is a man on the downfall, decadent from moral values, who has no understanding, acting according to his egocentric devious plan and selfish goal.
Jim lives inside his own reality, in which the acceptance of others is of utter importance. He will do anything to feel accepted, making himself an explosive catalyst in the relationship of the protagonists.
Jim’s parents didn’t desire each other and had conflicts between them. For Jim to feel accepted inside this confrontational relationship, he had to give his parents everything (in an emotional level). Their rejection though, was always present throughout his childhood. In his adult life, he also gives everything in order to gain acceptance, but as soon as he gets it, he acts like his parents and rejects those who accepted him.
The confirmation of his parents’ confrontational relationship comes in his teens when he struggled for the acceptance of everyone. This means that the introjected mother does not accept him (does not care for him with love and interest) and the introjected father does not support him.
'Tom the narrator' while addressing the audience, says about Jim’s adolescence:
- “He had tremendous Irish good nature and vitality with the scrubbed and polished look of a white chinaware" (he did everything to feel accepted because he was fragile when it came to rejection).
- “He was shooting with such velocity through his adolescence” (his energy was always high in order to amaze everyone into accepting him).
- “You would logically expect him to arrive at nothing short of the White House by the time he was thirty” (manic energy).
The abovementioned phrases of a neutral observer ('Tom the narrator') reveal that Jim didn’t have acceptance from his mother nor support from his father and he struggled to get them. In his adult life he makes others believe that he accepts them and when he gives them what they need and they accept him and they show him interest (love), he then rejects or abandons them; just like he was rejected and abandoned by his parents. Through this action he experiences his introjected parents, by becoming just like them. In the end, he succeeds in being rejected and unhappy, since the persons he took advantage of (sucked their energy), in turn reject him because of the pain they feel by his rejection.
Moreover, while addressing her son Tom, Amanda states: "Irish on both sides". This phrase implies the conflict which existed between Jim’s parents, namely the known civil war history of the Irish people.
Jim was born into a family where he experienced rejection and abolition. This lead him in accepting the invitation of 'Tom the son', so that he would feel accepted by the Wingfield family. When 'Tom the son' invited him for dinner, Jim was not aware of Laura’s existence. But, when he met her, he didn’t set adult boundaries from the beginning, as he should have done; on the contrary, he made Laura part of his goal for acceptance, spreading pain in the Wingfield family.
Although he behaves in an adult way, showing that he genuinely cares for Laura, in reality this is just part of his plan for acceptance. He supposedly tries to help Laura by showing her that the basis of her unhappiness is the fact that she does not accept herself (‘inferiority complex’) and goes on to justify his claim, by telling her that the same thing used to apply to him as well.
As soon as he wins the proven acceptance of Laura (she lets him kiss her), he rejects her by saying “I can’t take down your number and say I’ll phone. I can’t call up next week and ask for a date”. Of course, he had warned us for what was about to follow, when he was talking to Laura about the very important issue of her ‘inferiority complex’ and suddenly left her to deal with his gum (even a chewing gum was more important to him than Laura’s fragile psyche).
Laura gives him her Unicorn, a symbol of purity, which is not allowed to be touched by anyone and which he symbolically breaks.
Jim does not know what he wants.
He does not accept his job and he tries desperately to change it.
He takes a radio engineering class at night school and also studies public speaking. He wants to gain "Knowledge - Money - Power" in order to feel accepted.
Jim is a cold, indifferent and an exploitative person, in order to gain acceptance. He is a self-centered man who needs constant confirmation and acceptance. This behavior of Jim mobilizes anger in others and in the audience.
Jim is a man on the downfall, decadent from moral values, who has no understanding, acting according to his egocentric devious plan and selfish goal.
Theatrological Elaboration: Maria Metropoulos
Psychotheatrological Analysis: Maria Metropoulos/Panos Mavitzis
Psychotheatrological Analysis: Maria Metropoulos/Panos Mavitzis
Photo Composition: Theodoros Mavrogiorgis