The Glass Menagerie Character Analysis

The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, with the greatest American tragedies, is a play that mainly focuses on the difficulty of accepting reality and the impossibility of true abscond. Williams presents each character in a unique behavior, realistically in some opinions, impractically in others’, or both. This piece of writing will focus on Jim O’Connor. Although he is the most realistic character in the play, he obtains a sense of improbable qualities, too. Jim is portrayed as an ordinary “plain” man, a leader that is connected to the real world, and a believer in self-improvement and betterment.
To begin with, Tennessee Williams’ stage directions describe Jim as “a nice, ordinary, young man.” Meaning, he is typical, usual, and not more out of the ordinary than most of the men around him; one that occupies a job, sets goals and dreams, reaches the community’s expectations, and this is what makes him realistic. Williams also interprets him

Throughout his younger years in high school, he was a hero: a star in basketball, the captain of the debating club, the president of the senior class and the glee club, the male lead in the annual light operas, and more. Jim appeared to proceed in an interminable honor and was always on the spotlight. According to Tom, “He was always running or bounding, never just walking. He seemed always at the point of defeating the law of gravity.” (6.55-57). Jim is confident – has a super secure sense of self – and valuable and it is this value that he brings to the world around him as well as the people he interact with. Some might argue that Jim is an impractical character, for he obtains a status that is close to a perfect one. On the other hand, others may claim that his position is not one that would be considered close to being perfect, and therefore, would believe he is