The Glass Menagerie Scene Seven Summary

  • The lights go out.
  • Amanda asks Tom about paying the light bill and the screen says, "Ha!"
  • Amanda sends Jim into the other room to, er...keep Laura company on the couch. Wink wink.
  • The screen reads, "I don’t suppose you remember me at all!"
  • Laura is all hot and bothered. Or maybe just bothered. Laura’s on the couch to start off, but Jim has them both sit on the floor.
  • Jim’s all talkative and breaking through Laura’s shy exterior. They reminisce about that time when they barely knew each other and he called her "Blue Roses."
  • Laura talks about having a limp from her crippled leg in high school, but Jim says it wasn’t noticeable and that she ought to be more outgoing and confident and all that.
  • They look together at their old high school yearbook, called "The Torch." Laura praises him for his performance in a high school play and confesses that she used to want his autograph. So Jim graffiti’s away on her program (that she saved from his play) with his signature.
  • Laura discloses that she dropped out of high school.
  • She asks about Jim’s old girlfriend, but he says they’re not together anymore. You know how high school relationships go.
  • Laura is all, "Hey baby, want to see my...glass collection?" And the tinkly, thematic music plays again.
  • She shows Jim a unicorn, her favorite piece of glass, because its horn makes it different from all the other horses.
  • They listen to the music from the Paradise Dance Hall across the street and Jim has them waltz to it.
  • During their rambunctious dancing, they break the horn off of the unicorn, but Laura calls it a blessing in disguise.
  • Jim hits on Laura. "Blue Roses" comes up on the screen again. He kisses her, exclamation point!
  • He backs away and the screen reads "a souvenir."
  • Jim gets all awkward and then explains that he has a fiancé named Betty.
  • He waxes poetic about love. The screen, very helpfully, says "Love."
  • Laura gives him the former-unicorn in its post-horn state as a souvenir.
  • Williams gives the director two options for the screen, either "Things have a way of turning out so badly!" or the image of a gentleman caller waving goodbye. Definitely the biggest decision of our day.
  • Amanda comes to see how things are moving along and finds out about the engagement just as Jim takes off. The screen says, "The sky falls."
  • She yells at Tom after Jim leaves so he takes off for the movies while the screen reads "and so, goodbye..."
  • OK, here’s the deal: Tom gives an ending speech while the audience watches Amanda comforting Laura.
  • The speech goes something like, "I took off and left my family behind, etc., etc., I couldn’t stop feeling guilty about leaving Laura, I can’t blow her candles out."
  • Then Laura blows the candles out while Jim theatrically says, "And so, goodbye..."