The Glass Menagerie

Scene 7 occurs an hour later. Laura still rests on the sofa as her family and Jim finish eating. The storm outside begins to taper off, but the lights suddenly flicker and go out. Amanda tells a nervous joke and then looks for a match to light the candles on the table. She asks Jim to check the fuse box as “Tom is at a total loss when it comes to mechanics” (774). Jim informs Amanda that the fuses look fine, and Amanda asks Tom if he forgot to pay the light bill. When Tom hesitates, Amanda scolds him. Jim quips, “Shakespeare probably wrote a poem on that light bill, Mrs. Wingfield” (775). Amanda exclaims, “I might have known better than to trust him with it! There’s such a high price for negligence in this world!” (775). Jim responds good-naturedly, and Amanda sends Tom to wash the dishes as penance. Jim offers to help, but Amanda insists that he go talk to Laura and persuade her to drink some wine. Amiably, Jim agrees and takes the wine and a candelabra into the living room.

At first, “before Jim’s warmth overcomes her paralyzing shyness, Laura’s voice is thin and breathless. […] In playing this scene, it should be stressed that while the incident is apparently unimportant, it is to Laura the climax of her secret life” (775). Jim offers Laura the wine, which she takes timidly. He sits on the floor and invites her to join him, which she does. Jim offers Laura gum, which she declines, musing about how much money the man who invented gum likely made. He tells Laura about the Wrigley Building, which he saw in Chicago when he attended the Century of Progress exposition. Jim describes how his favorite exhibit, the Hall of Science,“[g]ives you an idea of what the future will be in America, even more wonderful than the present time is!” (776). He asks Laura if she is, as her brother states, shy. She doesn’t know how to answer, and Jim says, “I judge you to be an old-fashioned type of girl. Well I think that’s a pretty good type to be” (776). 

Gathering her courage, Laura asks Jim if he still sings as she remembers that he had a lovely voice. Surprised, Jim asks where she heard him singing. She asks, “I–don’t suppose–you remember me–at all?” (776). Jim agrees uncertainly that when she came to the door she seemed familiar, and that he almost started to call her something else but stopped himself because it wasn’t a name. Laura queries, “Wasn’t it–Blue Roses?” (776). With sudden recognition, Jim grins, apologizing for failing to make the connection. Laura asserts, “I didn’t expect you to. You–barely knew me!” (777). Jim asks why Laura didn’t mention their previous acquaintance earlier, and she admits, “I didn’t know what to say, I was–too surprised!” (777). He remembers that they had a chorus class together, adding that she was always late. Laura agrees that it was difficult for her to mount the stairs, describing: “I had that brace on my leg – it clumped so loud” (777). Jim insists that he never noticed any clumping. They discuss her nickname and how it came about when, after she was out of school with pleurosis, he asked her where she had been and misheard her response. Jim says, “I hope you didn’t mind” (777) but Laura tells him that she enjoyed it because she didn’t know many people. He remembers that she tended to keep to herself, and she admits that she was always shy because of her disability. Sympathetically, Jim says, “People are not so dreadful when you know them. That’s what you have to remember! And everybody has problems, not just you, but practically everybody has got some problems” (777). 

Jim tells Laura, “You think of yourself as having the only problems, as being the only one who is disappointed. But just look around you and you will see lots of people as disappointed as you are” (777). He tells her about his own disappointments at his lack of momentum in life, recalling a comment in the yearbook that said he was “bound to succeed in anything [he] went into” (777). Laura fetches the yearbook and they begin to page though it. Locating a photo of Jim in The Pirates of Penzance, Laura admits that she went to all three performances of the operetta in hopes that he would sign her program but couldn’t steel herself to ask because he was so popular. Jim insists on signing the program now, noting that his signature isn’t worth anything now but that perhaps it will someday. He clarifies that although he is disappointed, he is not discouraged. Jim tells Laura that he is 23 and asks her how old she is. She responds that she is almost 24, to which Jim exclaims, “That’s not old age!” (778).

Jim asks if Laura completed high school, and Laura confesses with difficulty that she didn’t. Tensely, Laura asks Jim about Emily Meisenbach, his high school girlfriend. Jim calls her a “kraut-head” (778) and informs Laura that they don’t keep in touch. Although, as Laura points out, their engagement was announced in the newspaper, Jim proclaims that it was only real “in Emily’s optimistic opinion” (778). Anxiously, Laura fidgets with a piece of glass as Jim asks what she has done since high school. She tells him that she hasn’t done much, adding: “Oh, please don’t think I sit around doing nothing! My glass collection takes up a good deal of my time. Glass is something you have to take good care of” (779). Laura becomes timid again when Jim asks about her glass. Suddenly, he states, “You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex!” (779). He goes on to explain that he used to have one too but overcame it through public speaking. Jim asserts that he is good at analyzing others, and Laura tends to magnify her faults to herself, such as her disability, which undermines her self-confidence.

Jim advises Laura: “Think of yourself as superior in some way?” (779). When she asks which way, he exclaims, “Everybody excels in some one thing! Some in many! All you’ve got to do is discover what!” (779). Jim tells her that he is fascinated with electro-dynamics and is therefore studying radio engineering because he wants to be a part of the rise of television. Jim’s “eyes are starry” as he excitedly pronounces, “Full steam–Knowledge–Zzzzzp! Money–Zzzzzzp!–Power! That’s the cycle democracy is built on!” (779). Jim presses Laura, “Now how about you? Isn’t there something you take more interest in than anything else?” (779). Laura mentions her glass collection again, and Jim asks her to explain what she kind of glass she is talking about. Laura describes, “Little articles of it, they’re ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie!” (779). She shows him her oldest piece, and begins to hand it to him warning him, “Oh, be careful–if you breathe, it breaks!” (779). Jim suggests that he shouldn’t because he’s clumsy, but Laura says, “Go on, I trust you with him!” (779).

Laura lovingly describes the way the glass catches the light, and Jim asks what figure is meant to be. Laura points out that it is a unicorn, and Jim, commenting that unicorns are “extinct in the modern world” (780), asks if he isn’t lonely. Laura smiles and responds that he doesn’t complain. She tells him to place him on the table, as “they all like a change of scenery once in a while!” (780). Jim notes that the rain has stopped, hearing the music from the Paradise Dance Hall, asks Laura to dance. She says that she doesn’t know how, and he says, “There you go, that inferiority stuff!” (780). Laura insists that she will only step on his feet, and Jim replies, “I’m not made out of glass” (780). Jim leads as they dance clumsily. Laura is beginning to have fun when they accidentally hit the table, knocking the unicorn to the floor and breaking its horn off. Jim apologizes profusely, but Laura reassures him: “It’s no tragedy, Freckles. Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are” (781). She tells him that now he will fit in better with the other horses.

Jim laughs and tells her that she is “surprisingly different” (780) from anyone he has met before. Gently, he clarifies, “I mean it in a nice way…You make me feel sort of–I don’t know how to put it! I’m usually pretty good at expressing things, but–This is something that I don’t know how to say!” (780). He tells her that she is pretty, adding: “I wish that you were my sister. I’d teach you to have some confidence in yourself” (781). Jim asserts that Laura is unique, and that other people are “as common as–weeds, but–you–well–you’re Blue Roses!” (781). Laura points out that “blue is wrong–for roses” (781) and Jim insists, “It’s right for you!–You’re–pretty!” (781). He describes the ways that she is pretty, promising that he is being sincere and not just being kind because he is a guest. Jim emphasizes to her: “Somebody needs to build your confidence up and make you proud instead of shy and turning away and–blushing–Somebody–out to–ought to–kiss you, Laura” (781). He kisses her suddenly and then releases her, stepping back. Laura looks at the damaged glass figure in her hand “with a tender, bewildered expression” (781). Amanda’s “girlish laughter” (781) chimes in from the kitchen. Jim chides himself, “I shouldn’t have done that–That was way off the beam” (781). He offers her a cigarette, then a mint, but Laura doesn’t seem to hear. Jim becomes uncomfortable, as he “senses her feelings, dimly, with perturbation” (781). 

Jim tells Laura that if she were his sister, he would have brought suitors home to meet her. It’s revealed that Tom was mistaken to choose Jim because Jim has a girlfriend. Although he doesn’t want to hurt Laura, he’s in love with another woman. Laura becomes faint as Jim, oblivious, declares, “Being in love has made a new man of me!” (782). He tells Laura that he didn’t know that Tom was inviting him to meet Laura, saying, “I wish you would say something” (782). Finally, Laura smiles. She “gently takes his hand and raises it level with her own” (782) and presses the broken unicorn into it. Jim asks why she is giving it to him, and she replies, “A–souvenir…” (782). As Laura goes to wind the Victrola, Amanda enters with refreshments. Cutting through the seriousness of Jim and Laura’s conversation, Amanda declares that she is “rejuvenated” (782) and expects Jim to call on them much more often. Amanda promises to “skip back out–I know where my place is when young folks are having a serious conversation” (783).

But Jim suggests that Amanda stay, as he has to leave. Amanda tries to convince him to stay, but he tells her that he has two “timeclocks to punch” (783), his day job and with his fiancée, Betty, who he plans to marry in June. Amanda notes that Tom didn’t tell them that Jim was engaged, and Jim responds that he hasn’t spread the word at work. Amanda and Laura wish Jim well as he leaves, thanking the family for their hospitality. Laura begins to wind the Victrola again, but Amanda stops her. She calls Tom in to “tell [him] something awfully funny” (783). Amanda accuses Tom of playing a prank on them by inviting an engaged man to dinner. Tom insists that he had no idea, but Amanda doesn’t believe him. He claims, “The warehouse is where I work, not where I know things about people!” (784). Amanda accuses, “You don’t know things anywhere! You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions!” (784).

Brusquely, Tom crosses to the door. When Amanda asks where he is going, he tells her that he is going to the movies. Amanda raises her voice, reproaching her son for allowing them to spend so much money and effort to “make such fools of [them]selves […] [t]o entertain some other girl’s fiancé!” (784). She tells him to go to the movies: “Don’t think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who’s crippled and has no job! Don’t let anything else interfere with your selfish pleasure!” (784). Tom threatens that he will go and not to the movies if she continues to yell. Amanda responds, “Go, then! Then go to the moon–you selfish dreamer!” (784). Tom throws his glass on the ground, smashing it, and storms out as Laura screams. Tom speaks to the audience again as, inside, Amanda silently soothes Laura. In a pantomime that occurs during Tom’s final monologue, “now that we cannot hear the mother’s speech, her silliness has gone and she has dignity and tragic beauty” (784). After her silent speech to Laura, Amanda stops and gazes at Mr. Wingfield’s portrait before exiting. 

Meanwhile, Tom explains, “I didn’t go to the moon, I went much further – for time is the longest distance between two places” (784). The warehouse fired him after he was caught penning a poem on a shoebox lid. Subsequently, Tom left his mother, sister, and their apartment, following “in [his] father’s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space” (784). Tom describes traveling the world, never stopping because he always felt “pursued by something” (784). Whether triggered by a piece of music or glass, “all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes… Oh, Laura. Laura, I tried to leave you behind me but I am more faithful than I intended to be!” (784). He continues to be haunted by the memory of his sister, even as he tries to distract himself with movies and strangers, “anything that can blow your candles out! For nowadays, the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura–and so goodbye…” (784). Inside the apartment, Laura extinguishes the candles and the play ends.