Subjected to an unhappy marriage, an alcoholic father often away from home, and an unsafe, abusive environment, Tenessee Williams defied all odds with his astounding success in the drama industry. Though his home life was troubled, he grew to be an author known across the country for his wildly popular novels and plays, most notably of the latter being The Glass Menagerie. Modeled after Williams’s own family, Tom, Amanda, and Laura Wingfield are the artfully created main characters of The Glass Menagerie, each with their own distinct personalities constructed carefully through symbolism. With consideration of the motif of memory, Tennessee Williams uses recurring music, the victrola, jonquils, and Laura’s crippled leg to characterize the members …show more content…
One of the most stressed elements of her physical appearance is her leg, which is held in a brace consequent to a childhood illness. To Laura, her leg is a constant reminder that she doesn’t fit in. She associates it strongly with her memories of high school, where she always felt like her handicap held her back and made her different from everyone else. In the literary view, Laura’s leg symbolizes her crippling social anxiety. Like her leg, her emotional instability is not obvious to outsiders, but from a closer distance, it is clear that it controls her life. In Laura’s mind, the severity of her handicap is blown far out of proportion in the same way that she overreacts to the stress of social interaction. This is clearly shown when Jim expresses, “Well well well, never even noticed!” in regards to the clumping of Laura’s leg brace. Even though her disability is extremely obvious to her, Jim did not notice even though he saw her daily in high school. The situation is the same for her social anxiety; before, Jim believed she was only shy, however after conversing with her it is clear that her problem runs much deeper. This contributes to her characterization because it brings to light just how self-conscious Laura is over such a small disability, as well as her anxiety and her inability to cope with her