Destruction of Beauty in Glass Menagerie

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There are many ways in which beauty was destroyed in the Glass Menagerie. The glass menagerie itself was destroyed, which then lead to destruction of Laura’s personality, as well as the beauty of their families relationships. Throughout the story, it is obvious that Laura’s glass menagerie was a very important part of her life, and the reader comes to learn that parts of this menagerie represent different aspects of Laura’s personality, such as the unicorn. In the beginning of the play, the family relationships were not very strong, and in the end, Amanda’s family ended up completely falling apart when all of their relationships grew even weaker than they already were. In the play, Tom and Amanda were having a fight about Tom going to the movies so often, and when Tom was putting on his jacket, he knocked over Laura’s glass menagerie and glass shattered everywhere. “Laura clings weakly to the mantel with her face averted. Tom stares at her stupidly for a moment. Then he crosses to the shelf. Drops awkwardly to his knees to collect the fallen glass glancing at Laura, as if to speak but he couldn’t” (Scene 3) This glass menagerie was Laura’s way of escaping the real world, just as Tom escaped by going to the movies, and Amanda escaped by telling stories of her Blue Mountain days. This was the destruction of beauty because Tom was trying to hurt Amanda, but ironically ended up hurting Laura instead. When Laura’s glass menagerie was destroyed by Tom, Laura seemed to be upset, but the second time, when Jim knocked over the pieces of glass, Laura did not seem to care as much. Another reason that this was considered destruction of beauty was because all of Laura’s pieces were constantly polished and cleaned and she always took such good care of them, and once Tom got angry and careless they were ruined very quickly. Because Tom accidentally broke Laura’s pieces

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