WC final draft

Analysis of Laura based on Act 1, Scene 1,2 from “The Glass menagerie”

 In a story filled with madness, sadness and hopeless, Laura plays an important role to show the reason of hopeless. I transformed the excerpts from Act 1, Scene 1 when Amanda, Tom and Laura were having a dinner. The scene basically emphasizes the background and situation of the family. Laura is quite nervous and depression while Amanda and Tom are fighting since she would like to have a cozy and warm family. Amanda's nagging about gentleman callers annoyed her, which shows she doesn't care about any gentleman callers. The whole scene describes Laura as a person who is immersed in the world which is filled with the glass menagerie. The scene is significant because it is the foundation of the whole story since it illustrates the background and their relationships. Moreover, the scene implies their strong personalities through fighting. The scene straightly points out Laura is so sensitive and different through fewer lines. Those are reasons why I chose the scene.

In Act 1, Scene 1, the conflict starts when Tom is coming back, while Laura and Amanda are having dinner. At the time when Amanda and Tom's fight attract the audience, Laura's depression and sadness due to the family situation also influence the audience's emotion a lot. When Amanda is arguing Tom that he chews food, Laura tries to leave in order to escape from this situation. When her mother asks her about the gentleman callers again, she says "I don’t believe we’re going to receive any, mother." (Tennessee 14) The quote illustrates her unconfident about herself because she thinks she is not attractive to get any gentleman callers. It points out her personalities about inferiorty.Then, when Amanda argued her about her answer, she replies “it isn’t a flood. It’s not a tornado, mother. I’m just not popular like you...I’m going to be an old maid.” (Tennessee 15) Her resignation about her mother’s arguments implies that she doesn’t except any gentleman callers. Then, when Tom and Laura are arguing each other, she immersed in her own world, which is telling the audience about her glass menagerie through a monologue, "They are the thinnest little animals in the world. Mom calls them the glass menagerie!Here's an example of one,  if you'd like to see. Oh, be careful, if you breathe, it breaks." (Tennessee 61), which illustrate how she enjoys into the glass menagerie. At the second scene, Laura only has one line by implying that Tom is writing. When Tom and Amanda start arguing again, Laura is hurting by their fights. She is hopeless and feels depressed by sitting away with them.All the scenes basically imply Laura’s personalities as a quiet and unconfident character.

      
Since Laura has fewer lines in the scene.Instead of shaping her character by speaking lines, the body language and details movements would help me to shape her character. Moreover, Amanda and Tom’s fight would always attract the audience so I would not get ignored by the audience by walking around on the stage and express my sadness and depression by variable movements. From the beginning of the table scene, when Tom comes back and Amanda starts nagging at him. As the one who is in the middle of them, I would try to remind Tom to be polite to Mum since I don’t want them to argue each other. However, at the same time, I’m afraid to persuade. When they are arguing, I approach to prevent Tom by dragging her clothes or touching his hands to remind him calm down. Since he ignores me, my head down and I look down at my shoes. When Tom says he is getting a cigarette, I was worried by looking up and make eye contacts with Tom.Then, I realized that the contradiction would become larger, so I would like to escape from the situation. Amanda refused her request and mentions the gentleman callers. I say “I’m not expecting any gentleman callers.” (Tennessee 14) I want to against Amanda by telling her that I don’t care the gentleman callers any more, but I’m afraid that mum will be worries again. After I say “I’m not expect.” with impatient tone, I stop a little bit and my voice down in a weak voice tone. So, I should act as a weak girl who is in the middle of Amanda and Tom’s fight. I want to interrupt them since i would like to have a cozy families. However, because of my weakness, I failed.

Then, I’m hesitate whether I should persuade Tom, I walk into Tom slowly. I play with my fingers and clenched my skirts. When I request Tom to apologize to mum, I feel nervous with shaking voice since I’m afraid that he refused. Tom said nothing and at that time, Amanda walks into and starts to memorize her gentlemen callers. When Amanda and Tom are talking since Laura is not interested in any gentleman caller. In her mind, she is playing with her glass menagerie. Then, when the background raises up, I’ll speak out my monologue which I have indicated before. Laura is naive and kinds of childish when she is immersed in her world worlds. In addition, she is full of happiness in her world. So I will dance to the center of the stage and dance by turning around. I’ll speak to the audience directly in a soft and magical voice tone in order to show my careness to the glass. When I say “Here’s an example of one if you’d like to say…” I hold the glass with both of my hands and lift it on the position of my eyes flat. I look at the glass and the light go through the glass. I’ll say “Oh, be careful, if you breathe, it beaks” with lowest and softest voice tone. The background is positive and happy with faster melody. The monologue is one of the most significant part to show Laura’s characteristic and her crazy to glass. I have a lot of movements on the stage. I’ll jump to the front and face the audience. The whole speed should go slowly through my movements and soft voice. So, I should mainly express how she immersed into her glass menagerie world and she is really careful for her glass, which expresses her difference with others.

Then, I come back to my position while Tom and Amanda are still arguing each other. I feel nervous in this situation. So i look down on my shoes and play with my fingers. Their loud voice make me afraid which I would like to escape from the table. So I’ll say “Mother, I’ll clear the table.” (Tennessee 13) quickly and go towards the table. However, she interrupted me by mentioning the typewriting and gentleman callers again. And I would be kinds of surprised since Amanda thinks that no gentleman callers is the most terrible concerns. So I said, “It’s not a flood, it isn’t a tornado.” (Tennessee 15) My voice would be louder since I don’t think having no gentleman callers is an issue. I could not understand why mother thinks like that. I’ll look at Amanda with frown and make eye contact at her this time. I spread out my hand to show my Moreover when I say “I’m just not popular as you were in blue mountain.” It’s better for me to look down on the ground and voice goes down again, which could show my unconfidence. She thinks she is a coward and not attractive at all. Then, I go in front and face to the audience and say “Mother’s afraid I’m going to become an old maid. I should act stronger in this part since I argued Amanda about the gentleman callers. I should more express her inferiority.

In the second scene, I only have one line that is “Mother, look, look, Tom’s trying to write.” (Tennessee 21) The lines also provoke Amanda and Tom fighting. Amanda and Tom start fighting in a fierce way, their loud voice makes Laura afraid. At the same time, she feels guilty to the family. She thinks she is the one who causes the conservation every time. She would like to have a cozy and warm family, but Amanda and Tom always fight with each other. So at that time, I immersed in myself world again to escape the reliable life. So I would walk back and look at their argument at first, then I approach to interrupt the fighting by grabbing Tom's clothes, but he refuses by yanking my hand away. They ignore me and keep arguing each other. I feel so disappointed and walked back to the table slowly. When I walked towards the table, I look back their argument at the same time. However, they ignore her by paying no attention to Laura and the voice is louder and louder. I feel so depression by sobbing quietly and I sat know and huge myself. I locking myself by tightening on my own. Their voice is continuing, I start trembling and crying. When I heard Amanda's shouting and yield, I heard the heavy locked sound by the door. I look up and stand up. Tom's back is disappeared into the dark. Then, the lights turn off. So, my function in this scene is cause of the fight between Amanda and Tom. I should more focus on my movements and crying sounds while they are fighting.

When I prepare for my character, I faced a lot of challenge due to Laura's characteristic, she is so sensitive and quiet that scrips could not be helpful to shape characterize. In addition, in order to shape the character better, we discussed several acting theorists to practice. I have used Michael Chekhov's theorists that memorizing one event which is connected with Laura's experience. I recorded that my father and mom was fighting while I was young. They fight every day due to my education concerns. So I feel nervous and afraid at that time, which has the similar emotion with Laura. I imagined what movements I had at that time, and pretending I was Laura. Moreover, for our group, we changed scripts a lot even though at the ending time, so it causes so problems. We focus more on the scripts edits instead of our performance, So we should also concentrate on our movements on the stage and how we should express our emotion through lines.

Playing Laura is absolutely a challenge since she has fewer lines. Usually, we express the character’s personalities and emotion by scipes. Her character requests me to have more movements on the stage and detailed actions on body languages. It’s easier for the audience to ignore her character since Amanda and Tom’s fight must attract the audience a lot. However, as part of the scene, my movements on the stages is so important that the audience would not ignore me. The most significant part is that I should express her weakness and unconfident through body language. At the same time, the scene helps me understand more about her relationship with Amanda and Tom and her own characteristic.

Citation:

Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2017.