Blog #9

Amanda:

“Why, you're not crippled, you just have a little defect - hardly noticeable, even! When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it - develop charm - and vivacity - and - charm!”

Amanda uses this quote to comforts Laura when Laura says she has a disadvantage of being crippled. Superficially, we can see that she loves her daughter. Although her words sounds more like a demand, she tried her best to comfort her daughter.

On the other hand, the quote illustrate Amanda as a self-liar. All she says in this quote can be condensed into one sentence such as: “Never say you are crippled.” However, she says it repetitively; we also know that Laura IS crippled. For me, rather than emphasizing the meaning, Amanda seems more like convincing someone. Because she is not listening to Laura, she is convincing herself that her daughter is gorgeous. She is also comforting herself that she has a beautiful daughter though she has a “slight disadvantage.” The quote thus shows that Amanda is in her own world and illusion.

Additionally, the charm she talks about related to the father. She says she was fallen by Laura’s father’s charm. It is a beautiful memory to her, but also a bitter reality. What is more miserable is that she now hopes Laura to lean on the “charm”, too. Without other skill to live a life, Laura will just like her mother, falling into a life-long dream, too.

Laura:

“Laura is seated in the delicate ivory chair at the small clawfoot table…. She is washing and polishing her collection of glass.”

The stage direction shows that Laura sees glass collection importantly. It is almost the bed time because she is wearing bedcloth, and delicate Ivory chair makes this practice like a ritual. Even like a prayer before sleep.

Laura polishes the glasses, to show that these glass animals are fragile that need to be taken care of. It gives a sense that Laura is also vulnerable. In reality, she does need to be taken care of by her mother and brother.

I chose stage direction to show Laura’s character because she does not have many lines. There are two explainations. First, she is shy and in reality she does speak little. Second, because Tom is the narrator, he might make Laura speak little because he has impression that Laura is always with her glass collections and speaks little. Tom wants this to make the family also like an illusion of him: a speechless sister and a talktive mother.

Tom:

“Every time you come in yelling that Goddamn "Rise and Shine! Rise and Shine!" I say to myself, "How lucky dead people are!" But I get up. I go! For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever! And you say self - self's all I ever think of. Why, listen, if self is what I though of, Mother, I'd be where he is GONE!”

In this quote Tom shows his tendency to leave the family. Although he says he would not be gone, he thinks family is not what him-“self” would choose. He is unwilling to do his job. However, he choose to stay. Amanda wants Tom to seek out men for Laura by stating Laura’s condition. His reactions show that he has already thought about her condition. It might inferr that he stays for Laura.