Laura is a Tragic Figure in The Glass Menagerie. 

Answer

Discuss Laura as a tragic figure in ‘The Glass Menagerie’. [2020] ✪✪✪ 

A tragic figure suffers deeply because of weakness, fate, or society. The Glass Menagerie (1944) by Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) presents Laura Wingfield as a tragic figure. Her fragility, loneliness, and broken dreams make her life full of pain. She lives in illusion but cannot face reality.  

Laura’s Fragile Nature: Laura is the most delicate and gentle character in the play. Her physical limp and shy nature make her different from others. She hides from the real world and finds peace in her glass toys. Williams uses these glass animals to show her weakness and purity. Tom says in Scene 1,

“In memory, everything seems to happen to music.”

The soft music often plays when Laura appears. It gives a feeling of sadness and tenderness. Her beauty is fragile like her glass world. She fears society and cannot live freely. When Amanda sends her to business college, Laura fails to stay there. The noise of the typing machines scares her. She tells Amanda that she became sick and stopped going. This shows her inability to face the world. 

The Symbol of the Glass Unicorn: Laura’s favorite piece, the glass unicorn, symbolizes her life. It is rare and beautiful but fragile and unreal. Like the unicorn, she is special but lonely. Her world is small, full of delicate dreams. When Jim, the gentleman caller, visits her, Laura becomes nervous but happy. For the first time, she feels noticed. They talk about her nickname, “Blue Roses,” which means a rare and tender beauty. But this beauty cannot survive in the real world. When Jim dances with her, the unicorn’s horn breaks. Laura Wingfield says  in Scene 7,

“Now he will feel more at home with the other horses.”

This moment shows her quiet pain. The broken unicorn becomes a symbol of her broken heart. She loses her specialness and hope.

Laura’s Isolation and Fear of Life: Laura’s tragedy also