The Glass Menagerie

In the play, “The Glass Menagerie”, Tennessee Williams writes about a situation in where a person can be so shy that they become essentially unable to function in society. His character Laura displays such predicament. Throughout the play, we see laura develop through her shyness from previous as well as current issues.

At the very beginning of the play Laura’s mother, amanda, brought to light an event that lead laura to show this exact situation. Her mother comes home after visiting Laura’s college and finding out that she had dropped out from business school after an embarrassing class lesson. During the lesson, Laura’s “hands shook so that she couldn’t hit the right keys.” the teacher gave a speed test over typing and Laura “broke down completely.” During both the lesson and her test Laura became very ill and so sick to her stomach that she had to be carried out to the washroom to clean herself and finish her business. After that she never returned to class and dropped out from the college course and college all together. She was physically unable to function because she was too shy to finish the class or do the simple tests. This proves the idea that you can become essentially unable to function in society due to having too much shyness.

Not only does her shyness overcome her out in public but in a private setting as well. While she is having a small date type evening with a gentleman caller, jim, he asks her simple questions like “ can you hand me a pillow” and it seems is tho she is overcome with shyness so much that she does not hear not speak loudly enough to communicate well enough throughout the evening. The amount of shyness she shows even proves to ruin her personal relationships possibly more than her business ones.

Tennessee williams proves that you can be unable to function in society if you are too self-conscious through his character Laura in his play “The Glass Menagerie”. By showing Laura unable to function in society, he proves the idea. Laura is so shy that she physically can not function in her small college class. She can not even function to perform a simple typing test.