A 26-year-old woman kneels on the floor, like a child, playing with glass figurines on a coffee table. Too tormented by her own humility, Laura only envisions one future for herself; isolation from the outside world where bad encounters predominate the desire for good experiences. The lack of positive growth for Laura, as well as the rest of her family, is Tennessee Williams' trap, where he taps into the despair of his fellow men in The Glass Menagerie to ultimately produce despair. Expressing the turmoil of life he sees before him. , Tom swears "How lucky the dead are!" (1.3.34). The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, depicts a dysfunctional family succumbing to the recurring fate of despair and remorse. Amanda, a mother of two grown children, is desperately trying to inspire her children to seek a better future. She pushes her son Tom to the point that he considers escaping his mother's dominating presence. Her older sister, Laura, is so withdrawn by the embarrassment of a crippling disability that she is unfit to enter society. From there, her mother decides to find a man for Laura in hopes of marrying her. She cajoles Tom into bringing home a suitor for dinner from the factory where he already feels the bondage of his job. The result is Jim, charming and ambitious, who sees Laura for who she is: a shy, introverted girl withdrawn in her own teenage world. He attempts to shock her into reality through a kiss which ultimately backfires as Laura, in love with her savior, is soon heartbroken to discover that Jim is in fact engaged to a girl named Betty. The play ends with all the characters reflecting the quintessence of despair: Laura in her mother's arms...... middle of paper ......34) I felt I could never repeat this same sentence to my own children without remembering the disdain I imagined in Tom's voice. Another interesting factor was that of Tom as narrator. This tactic offered another avenue to explore Tom's personality. Amanda's character also inadvertently sparked some interest. His character inspires disdain in the reader and ultimately this indicates an effective character. This, along with Tom's interaction, carried the story. A scenario in which Laura stands up and courageously vows to achieve some sense of fulfillment in her life, coupled with Tom's ultimate acceptance of Jim's guidance advice, would have provided a more optimistic and satisfying conclusion to this work . Unfortunately, the reality is that the reader remains dissatisfied after enduring a play that ends in an even more hopeless mood than at the beginning...