Discuss the relationship between Tom, Laura, and Amanda. What do you feel is the primary conflict? Your discussion should be at least 50 words. Then, respond to someone's post. This is worth 50 points. Your comment and response are due Monday, December 8 by 11:59 P.M.
Laura, Tom, and Amanda have a strained relationship. When Amanda's husband left, it changed the roles they all play. Amanda resents her kids because her husband left her and now she's stuck. Tom resents Amanda and Laura because he has to provide for them. And Laura resents Amanda and Tom because she is content in her life and doesn't want things in her life to change.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily. Amanda, Laura, and Tom all are effected by an absence by Amanda's husband and they all act out in different ways. Amanda resents her kids because that is the only thing she can do. Amanda feels desperate and has to rely on Tom to provide for her and Laura. Tom would only feel resentment towards her for that. In a way I feel Laura has no resentment and just lives in her own world.
DeleteVery good point indeed. They all have to give up something that should've played a role in their lives to contribute for the bettering of the others. Amanda's would be happiness with a complete family without loss of a love partner and childcare helper and financial issues. Tom has to give up his teen years of adventure and finding his wants and needs to work away and provide for his family. Laura has to give up her innocence of a young girl to help the family by trying to marry a man for money...This all tends to uncover the idea that not only a father, but every family member is essential in the part of making everyone joyous. something this and many other story-living families and too many tangible families have to live everyday single real-life day.
DeleteI also agree. we dont realize how big the father's role plays in a family. The absence of him effects everyone. Tommy is forced to grow up and become the man of the house and it is saddening.
DeleteGlass Menagerie includes love. Tom, Laura, and Amanda all have love for eachother, but in their own different ways. Tom shows his love by staying and providing for his mom and Laura. Laura shows her love by staying calm and sweet to both Amanda and Tom. Amanda shows her love to both Laura and Tom by being stern, and telling them wrong from right. Also by trying to care for them the best she can. I feel the primary conflict here is money. They are all strained in ways because they have no money. If Tom had money he could be on his way doing what he really loved to do without worrying about his family. Amanda wouldn't have to be so stern on her kids and allow them to do what they love. She would be more carefree. Laura wouldn't have to worry about marriage if she had money.
ReplyDeleteRaegan makes a really good point. If they didn't honestly love each other, none of them would act the way they do. They would just go there separate ways and be done. Since they do care for each other they work through their frustration and deal with things.
DeleteI agree with Emily and Raegan. There is love in their relationship because without it there wouldn't be a family. They just deal with their frustration in extremes because of all of the stress caused by Amanda wanting to find a suitor for Laura, Laura having to go to the school, in which she only went two days. Then you have Tom who is having to be the "father" figure they have been missing providing for the family and having to care for them in rough time which could definitely bring on a lot of stress.
DeleteThe relationship of the three (Amanda, Tom, and Laura), is a rather saddening, but content story. Their lives have completely, utterly changed and forever altered due to the absence of the father. They all have to makes certain sacrifices in order to make everything a time of pleasure, but it doesn't always help.
ReplyDeleteAmanda has been left with two children; of whom are a bit hard to take care of. With Laura's slight deformation in her leg, and bashfulness and Tom's 'I-want-excitement' obsession and hunger for high-adrenaline endeavors, she has been smothered in a mess of which she can barely contain by herself. So she blathers on and on and on about how popular she was when she was young and how her life could have been different if just would have married this guy or that man because they're rich now. She feels Laura doesn't particularly want to move on in life achievements and has given up on ever bettering her life. And that Tom just wants to leave them and run away.
Laura has a problem with her leg that causes her to have a bit of a limp. Plus she is a very shy which causes her to not want to leave the house very often. Using old records and tiny, intricate glass treasures to waste away days, filling her mind with daydreams of alternate lives. She feels her mother is working too hard to make her and Tom happy that she is blinded and only making things worse for them and even more for herself. Towards Tom, she seems to feel that he is loving, but wants to leave. But she doesn't want anyone to leave, that they will be happy as long as everyone stays together.
Tom has been burdened with a weight of having to raise a family from an early age. He spends long, excruciating hours working to support them, and then takes long periods of time wandering around the city watching moves, fantasizing of adventurous situations. He watches with starving covetous eyes for any piece of raw action anything that will give him heart-pumping pleasure. He feels that his mother doesn't appreciate all that he does for them and what he wants for himself. He feels sad for Laura because she has just sat and let her life go by without ever trying to change it.
All three are resentful towards the nameless, but not faceless father. He up and left them where they were with no means of better welfare when he decided to leave them. His selfish fatuous, vacuous actions have left them in absolute misery for long years behind, with and ahead of them. But even in the lowest of all times, they are all extremely joyous to know for sure that they will always have each other, anytime. And that they all genuinely, unconditionally love each other. That each other is everything they will ever need and is the most important thing in all of humanity...each other.
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ReplyDeletesorry, made a couple of grammatical errors I didn't realize until after publishing...
DeleteOops...forgot primary conflict. Personally I think it is a mosaic of a few controversies. All between money, an unfulfilling father figure, a little lack of encouragement( or rather too much harsh encouragement), and communication...all of these seem to play as inevitable chapters in their unhappy story.
ReplyDeleteI think Amanda is kind of insane (just like my mom). Raising children without a man in the house can put a very heavy weight on her shoulders. Tom, who is the main source of income, is so stressed out because of his mom & sister that he turns to going out late at night and drinking. Laura, who is a very shy person, grew up with a disability. She has become very reclusive because of that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement as a whole. I truly think Amanda is insane so I don't blame Tom for drinking. Laura is straight weird.
DeleteI agree also just hearing Amandas voice makes me want to headbutt her. You can help but feel sorry for Tom because he has to deal with that everyday. Id want to leave too.
DeleteI agree with Logan Blaine about most of this. Tom hates he fact that he is tied down and has to provide for his mother and sister. Amanda had gone crazy from her husband leaving and her daughter being so shy.
DeleteIn the relationship between Tom, Laura, and Amanda there is quite a bit of tension. This tension is due to the lack of a father/ husband figure. Tom is so stressed from having to work and provide for his family that he takes it out on his mom. Laura is very shy and just wants to keep peace with everybody. Amanda just wants the best for her kids as does every parent. They all love each other very much as Raegan said, but they just have their weird ways of showing it.
ReplyDeleteRyanne has a good point with the weird ways of showing there love, but also I believe that Amanda wants her kids to be just like her and be so perfect that it drives Tom crazy and Laura to shut down. It is just a very stressful house for them all.
DeleteI agree with both of these. The lack of a father figure makes Amanda feel like she has a duty to make her kids into who she wants them to be. Amanda being very stubborn she has to do everything for them
DeleteIn the Glass Menagerie, Laura and Tom have somewhat of an incestual relationship. With Tom assuming the father figure role after the father left the family, Laura just began to depend on her brother just tad bit too much. While it may seem somewhat incestual, their relationship is just merely a "normal" brother sister relationship with just a dash of awkwardly intimate moments.
ReplyDeleteI think Amanda is an overbearing mother who wants to micro manage her childrens life in order to keep the same thing that happened to her from happening to Tom and Laura. But trying to constantly find laura a husband and keep Tom from growing his career and moving away slowly pushes Tom and Laura away, we see this when Laura lies about going to business class and also when tom and Amanda get in the big argument. Also Laura and Tom have learned to lean on each other more then a usual brother sister relationship and it gives a little bit of awkwardness to all of those watching. i agree with Emily in the fact that even though they are very irritable with each other they still must love each other or Tom would have already left the house and Amanda would have given up on finding Laura a husband.
ReplyDeletei agree with Emily in the fact that even though they are very irritable with each other they still must love each other or Tom would have already left the house and Amanda would have given up on finding Laura a husband.
ReplyDeleteThe Glass Menagerie shows that the family of Tom, Laura, and Amanda is definitely different. Tom provides for the women in his family by a job he resents. He wants to travel the world but is restricted by his nagging mother and awkward sister. He takes up drinking and going to the movies as an escape. Amanda is the prototypical nagging mother that is always on Tom's and Laura's back. She wants Tom to stay and provide and Laura to find a man and get the money. Laura is simply happy where she's at and sees no reason to change.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hunter's point about Amanda being a nagging mother. She tries to get Laura a gentleman caller and becomes upset with Tom for staying out late at night, making her very annoying after awhile.
DeleteTheir relationship is tight and strained from all the stress they are going through. The brother Tom has to be the dad and brother figure for his sister Laura. He had to take the spot that the dad didn't want to step up and do for himself. The mother honors the dad by having his picture hanging up in the living room for everyone to see. He did give her children and they are what keeps her going when time gets hard. She cares very dearly about her children. She is a over bearing and over protected mother in the end its only going to push Tom and Laura away from her. Her and Tom already have a conflict going on it would not take much of her over protecting to set him off. I believe the main conflict is Tom begin the dad figure and it hard on him and the whole family.
ReplyDeleteI for sure agree with you! Overbearing is not cool and it will push the ones closest to Amanda (her Chillins) far far away, and stepping up their roles in the family puts a strain on all of them.
DeleteI believe that Amanda does not know how to act raising two kids on her own. I think she is trying to live through them since her husband left her lost and alone. Laura seems like she has just shut down, not letting the outside world in, maybe because of her getting hurt when he father left. Tom is struggling with anger towards them, maybe because of his father or maybe because of just how far his mother pushes him. Amanda is very harsh to the kids and how perfect they must be and act, also I think she is embarrassed of them for not meeting her standards. They all have problems they face and they don't know how to handle them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, on the fact that Amanda has high standards for her children, one being angry and one being timid. She expects them to be successful and live lives of high quality someday, but they are damaged from the absence of a father. Tom's anger hurts his relationship with his mother, and Laura's shyness separates her from the rest of the world.
DeleteI think that laura, amanda, and tom are greatly affected by the absence of laura and toms father. Tom has to provide for the family because of his absence. Laura is very shy and and socially awkward. Amanda just wants her daughter to get a husband. The primary conflict is that amanda wants her daughter to get a gentlemen caller.
ReplyDeleteThe relationships they all share is definitely an awkward and strained relationship, especially with all the role changes they face. By stepping up as the father figure it makes Tom dislike Amanda and Luara because he is their sole provider, this also makes the relationship between Luara and Tom a tad bit wierd, because Luara acts as a daughter towards Tom and takes care of him in other ways. I think they all get annoyed with Amanda because she wont shut up, but she is always forcing her self on them and try's to live the life she wants through them, what she doesn't realize is that that may end up pushing both of them away. I think that the main conflict in the play is trying to stay afloat with little money, find a suitor for Luara, and get over the feeling of resentment they all feel for being left by their father/husband.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cade, they do have an awkward and strained relationship, and it is because of their father being absent in their lives. Tom has this resentment because he had to grow up so fast, and has to pay the bills for the house. What worse is that Amanda complains about how Tom spends his own money though he provides for both Amanda and Laura. This relationship that they have could lead to the breaking of their family.
DeleteI agree with Cade. Changing the roles they play as a family can be very stressful, especially if they have to make the transition at a young age. The relationship they all have is more than weird and the roles they play don't help the awkwardness.
DeleteI feel the same way Jordan does. Just having to be so young and provide for your entire family even though you seek adventure. I feel bad for Tom because he has to deal with his mom who is extremely annoying. Then Laura on the other hand I feel kind of sorry for, she is so socially awkward and she is a cripple I don't really have much sympathy for people but she really gets to me.
ReplyDeleteThe primary conflict in the Glass Menagerie is that Tom's and Laura's father had left them at a young age. With their father leaving them they had to learn to do adapt to this living. Which gave Tom no choice but to grow up and be the fatherly figure in the house. Amanda(their mother) sees Tom turning into his father by the late nights without good excuses and accuses him for drinking(like his father). Amanda also wants Laura to marry a good man that will take care of her, unlike her father, but Laura is a shy lady who wants to stay inside. Where she is away from the public, and in the warmth of her old record music and glass menageries. Amanda had created a fantasy for Laura though she is forgetting that Laura is crippled, and that might drive some of the suitors away. She seems so overbearing on them because she doesn't want Laura to marry a man like father or for Tom to become like his father. She wants her kids to have a good life, but little does she know that her overbearing self could lead to the loss of her son Tom. There is a lot of stress among the family leading to many of their arguments that might lead to the breaking of family because they never truly had an father in their lives.
ReplyDeleteIn the Glass Menagerie, the primary conflict is that Tom and Laura were left by their father when they were very young and this has a great effect on them. Tom stays out late at night causing Amanda, their mother, to worry about him becoming like their father. Laura is an incredibly shy girl who is crippled and hardly ever leaves the house, usually listening to her records. Amanda becomes obsessed with trying to find a gentleman caller for Laura, even going so far as to ask Tom to find somebody for her. Not to mention that Amanda is still angry at her husband for leaving. The whole dynamic of the family is a bit odd, and it all started with the poor choices of their father.
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ReplyDeleteAmanda, being the most extroverted and theatrical character, is very entitled to her opinion and shares her feelings strongly, until it comes to her refusal to see Laura as she really is. Although Amanda does seem strict and hard on her children, she shows willingness to make sacrifices for them. Emphasizing her beauty and glamour she had in the past, she tries to recreate that in Laura. Laura is both physically and emotionally crippled, and very selfless and patient with her mother and Tom. She notices Tom's unhappiness. Tom, always dreaming of escape and adventure, knows his duties and is often compared to his father by Amanda. He does love his mother, but isn't afraid to be cruel. His relationship with Laura is precious to him and he understands her, and being the man of the house, he's her protector, although not always as kind as she. Tom knows that Laura is different, as unique as a blue rose or a glass unicorn. He sees the family isn't as stable as most and desires to run away from his struggles, but the dependence on him causes him to stay and the relationships between the three characters to build and change.
ReplyDeleteThe primary conflict is the instability in the family from being left by the father. This is the reason Amanda is overbearing and worried all the time, the reason Laura is so independent, and the reason for Tom's anger.
I agree with Sarah, the leaving of the father puts the pressure of raising and making the kids the best she can and that makes her come off as overbearing and annoying. She is being a mother and is trying her best no matter how much Tom and Laura (and us) don't like it.
DeleteI agree sure Amanda may come off overbearing but she has a right to after all she raised two children without any help once so ever. The absence of another parental member indeed most be a hard thing to grow up around.
DeleteThe relationship between Amanda, Tom, and Laura is a very strang one. Amanda seems very controlling and its as if she wants to live the life she didnt get to when she was younger through her children. Tom and Laura have a 'friendly' relationship of being close siblings to the point of it being kind of uncomfortable. Tom and Amanda have a strained and troubled relationship. Tom wants to get out of the house and live his own life. Amanda depends on him to bring home the income while trying to make him the man she wants him to be. Their main conflict is because Amanda is controlling and if she doesn't get her way, she will keep on till she gets it as close to what she wants as she can.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between the characters/family members are estranged. Indeed they do have love for one another although, there is still tension in the household. There are more than one factor to the tension brewing in their lives, actions, and relationships. The primary factor for the estranged relationship between the family members would have to be the absence of a older male role model. Amanda may be a tad bit overbearing but she only has the best interest in her children's lives. Raising two children on her own she has every right too. Tom is a dreamer yes but he is just tired and has every right to be. He had to grow up at a younger age than he should have, he had to provide for his family at a young age. Then there is Laura, she seems to be to overprotectived by both her mother and brother. She may be physically crippled but she also may be physiological and emotionally crippled from the absence of a father.
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