The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams describes Jim the gentleman caller as ‘the long delayed but always expected something that we live for’. This idea can be applied to many other instances in the play, where something is long delayed but at the same time expected by certain characters. There are instances of covering up the truth, especially by Amanda. Amanda has always tried to protect herself from the brutal reality of life. We can see …

…has nothing much to look forward to in life, but is happy enough to stay in her present. Perhaps this saddening ending of a family is what should have been expected. After all, Jim was described as ‘the long delayed, but always expected something that we live for’ in the play, and he turned out to already have his future worked out. They are left with nothing much else to live for. Bibliography n/a