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Glass Menagerie Essay

Decent Essays

In contrast to red, white, or yellow roses, blue roses are not found in nature. Blue roses are special because they can’t be achieved naturally and, therefore, they represent the desire for the unattainable. In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the symbol of blue roses is used to represent Laura Wingfield’s unfulfilled desires as a result of her shyness. In the first place, the blue roses represent Laura’s incomplete goal for a successful education. Laura hesitantly tells Jim that she dropped out of high school because she made poor grades (79). There is a correlation between Laura missing many days of school due to her pleurosis and her poor grades. Blue roses is the nickname that Jim gives Laura because he mishears the word “pleurosis” (17), which was ultimately the cause of her having to drop out of high school. In that manner, the blue roses represent the start of Laura’s academic downfall. Furthermore, Laura was insecure about walking to the back row of a class because of the clumping of her limp, which wasn’t even noticeable according to Jim (81). Laura’s …show more content…

Laura keeps a picture of Jim, her high school crush, similarly to how Amanda hangs a picture of Mr. Wingfield in the living room (16). This demonstrates that Laura likes to live in the past and Jim holds a special place in her heart. Amanda makes Tom invite a gentlemen caller to find an alternative for Laura’s bleak future since she dropped out of business school. Ironically, the gentlemen caller is Jim - the source of Laura’s infatuation. Laura’s initial hesitation to see Jim is captured by this quotation: “There was a Jim O’Connor we both knew in high school [then, with effort] If that is the one that Tom is bringing to dinner - you’ll have to excuse me, I won’t come to the table” (55). Although evident that Laura is fond of Jim, her shyness omits her from initially interacting with

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