The Glas Menagerie Essay, Research Paper

Some families don t function normally. Because of

several reasons. One may be that a member in the family is

not very open with their true feeling and becomes

intolerable. Or there has been tragic things happen to

them early on. Or they just do not get along well with each

for some reason or another. In the play The Glass Menagerie

Tom, Amanda, and Laura Wingfield made their family

dysfunctional because of their problems and incompatibility

they had at home living together. Because of the attitude

that they had towards each other.

Tom Wingfield who is the son of Amanda and the brother

of Laura contributed to the dysfuntionality of the Wingfield

household by his inability to be open with his feelings.

By not being open he was publicizing the fact that he was

not happy with living in that apartment with his mother and

his sister. He was also expressing that he was not satisfied

with his current position in life either. Because of his

attitude towards being there was quite obvious that made his

sister unhappy because she believed he was unhappy. His

mother was not happy to hear this which made her unhappy.

Which all contributes to this family s dysfunctional state.

Now, Amanda she seems to have the opposite problem that

her son Tom has. She seems to be a little to open with her

feelings and criticizing everything that Tom and Laura does.

She interferes with their lives too much and because Tom

feels as though he is obligated to stay there to show his

mother he is nothing like his father, he must stay there and

the same with Laura. In away Amanda seems to be holding

them both back from doing what they really want to do.

Amanda may have good intentions, but I don t believe she

know how much aggravation she brings to them. To me she is

the center of the problems in the problems in the Wingfield

household and contributes the most to their

dysfunctionality.

Laura, who is the daughter of Amanda seems to just be

going along with everything and trying not to cause any type

of disagreement. She wants everybody to be happy and to not

upset anyone. She, like Tom has a problem in not expressing

her true feelings about things. She is not open enough with

her mom to tell her when she does not want to do something.

Like when the gentlemen caller was coming Amanda seemed much

more excited about it than Laura did. Implying that she did

not want to go along with it but in order to make her mom

happy she went along with it anyway instead of just telling

her mom she did not want to do it.

Because of Tom, Amanda, and Laura problems and

incompatibility at home they made their family a

dysfunctional one. Tom s not being open causes himself to

be bossed around by his mother. Amanda s interference in her

children s lives and Laura s problem being truthful with her

mother all contribute to their family s dysfunctional state.

It seems as though if everybody remained truthful and open

with each other their family could function normally.