Laura's Insecurities (Essay Sample)

Student Instructor Course Date Laura’s Insecurities Insecurity in The Glass Menagerie is evident in the life of different characters. The most affected individual in the play due to her insecurity is Laura. People always tend to escape from reality through different ways. In the play, The Glass Menagerie by William, the members of the Wingfield family has chosen to hide from reality. Amanda tries to revive her past through her daughter Laura and denies those things that she wants to forget. Laura on the other side is terrified of the real world and hides behind her limp and her glass menagerie. In their attempt to escape from reality the characters create a world in which they are disillusioned by the present. The characters achieve disillusionment by resorting to separate worlds where they can find a haven. The characters develop their world far from reality since they have a different view of the world. They feel different from others to make them fit in the society they form a world of fantasy. This essay discusses Laura's disability and insecurities. In the play, The Glass Menagerie William's presents Laura as someone who is shy and sensitive. The author emphasizes her shyness by contrasting her character with Amanda's forceful nature. Her sensitive nature is evident from the beginning of the play, Laura is afraid to attend business school and her nervousness causes her to become violently sick (Weiso, 8). She even becomes tense when Tom and Amanda have a fight. Her insecurity in life makes her withdraw from the real world into a world of fantasy. Laura's belief in her difference is what worsens her situation, she thinks that she different from others and thus everyone only notices her and looks down upon her in the society. She fears that everything around her is not how it should be due to her disability. Laura is slightly physically disabled, she limps but she has exaggerated her disability to an extent that it has affected her whole personality. She feels that everyone notices her limp thus hindering her from living a normal life. Laura cannot overcome her disability thus causing her to withdraw into a world of chimera. The limp turns symbolic of Laura's inner nature, her friend also comments about this. He says that what makes Laura different is just not her disability but she is just different. She lives in a life of old phonograph records and glass animals (Elliot, 584). Laura is different from inside and this difference is mainly created by her and not other people. Her disability is not the reason for her difference but she wants to believe that it is the reason for the disparity. Without others even talking about it, she thinks that others will not accept her as she others thus she opts to build a barrier between her and others. She hides behind her menagerie of glasses as an escape from the real world. Laura exists in a world of glass, which is considered to be pretty and flawless; she represents the glass menagerie. Her family considers her to be fragile thus treat her as if she can break throughout the story. Laura's family seems to intervene in everything that she tries to do. The protection given to Laura by her family makes affects her life. Even after they stopped offering protection Laura did not change since she felt insecure that she could not perform her duties like any normal person (Vandecarr, 57). Her insecurities can be as a result of too much protection her family offers her. She grows up feeling incomplete and incompetent since they always wanted to do things that are approved by them. Laura feels she can never be perfect and that no one can accept a person like her thus she prefers spending her time cleaning her collection of glasses instead of socializing with others. Her fragility is visible in the play, Laura is ashamed of her disability and she fears that others will judge her poorly for it. She tells Jim how she had to wear braces in high school to support her leg but still, the braces did not help her but made her more afraid of people. Laura feels that the society only sees her in terms of her faults and that is why she is not ready to mingle with others. Even with the braces she still feels that the society can still notice her due to the sound made by the braces (Vandecarr, 54). Laura feels that the braces made her life worse since the sound made by it could still attract the attention of other students. She feels that wherever she goes people only talk about her and notices her limp. Laura's feeling about other people are the psychological ideas she creates in her mind since no one noticed her limp neither did they even talk about her. She believed that people only look at her and discuss her disability and financial status. She thinks that people like her are not supposed to live a normal life and do not fit in the society. Laura cannot live a normal life for fear of being judged by others, she thinks that if she socializes with them they will ignore her or discriminate her. Her physical disability has also affected her whole life and she lacks self-esteem; she cannot do anything for fear of failing. Laura's charm is only visible when Jim arrives; she manages to portray her charm in an individualistic way. She forgets about her physical handicap and responds to Jim since she feels that Jim also responds to her difference. She uses her difference as an asset when with Jim, unfortunately, her dreams are shattered by Jim and she goes back to her unique world. Laura's Insecurity is illustrated in the conversation between Laura and Jim (Weiso, 14). Jim discovers that Laura has low self-esteem while they are conversing. Jim thinks that Laura is extremely self-conscious and that the things she worries about are not that bad, but amplified by her imagination. Laura is the only one who sees her weakness and develops this into a reality. Show believes in her imaginations, as she thinks that everyone sees her as incomplete and cannot manage to live like others. Laura's insecurity is demonstrated by both her physical disability and her distorted psychological point of view. When Jim accidentally breaks one of Laura's glass collections she cries as if she is wounded. Her reaction proves how fragile she is and how she reacts when even a minor issue arises. Her insecurities can be said to be created in her mind since they do not exist in real world. No one also notices her disability but she has sunk it into her mind that her disability is noticeable and wherever she is she is the only one being discussed by the public (Elliot, 485). She has learned that she is not worth being with anyone and she does not deserve anything better. Her insecurities make it impossible for her to socialize with other people. Whenever she tries this she becomes sick in the stomach. However, when she meets Jim she manages to open up and shares her life story with him. At this point, one may think that she has finally come out of her shell and is learning to overcome her shyness. At this point, she can be compared to the unicorn glass piece whereby the barrier she created around her is broken and she becomes like other people (Elliot, 485). From here she shall feel at home with others but Laura ends up hurt when she discovers that Jim is engaged to Betty. This makes her go back to her old self, her encounter with Jim proves that if she gives other people a chance in her life she can change for the better and come out of her world. Laura's relationship with other characters results in her original paralysis and the changes she undergoes. Her relationship with her father sets the stage for her insecurities. Mr. Wingfield abandons his family leaving them in poverty family (Weiso 11). The effect of Mr.Wingfield's abandonment is evident when Laura is not ready to buy groceries on credit. She tells her mother that people make faces whenever she does that, she expresses her fear of being exposed to the society which she sees as ugly and brutal. She also fears of how people judge her by her economic status. This portrays Laura's fear of what others think of her financial status. She believes that her family's financial problem makes her different from other people and that she cannot feel in their world. People may not have noticed any difference in her but due to her insecurities; s...