The Glass Menagerie Weakness Quotes

Laura is seated in the delicate ivory chair at the small clawfoot table. She wears a dress of soft violet material for a kimono – her hair is tied back from her forehead with a ribbon. She is washing and polishing her collection of glass. (Scene Two, stage directions).

"‘I wonder,’ she said, ‘If you could be talking about that terribly shy little girl who dropped out of school after only a few days’ attendance?’

"And she said, ‘No – I remember her perfectly now. Her hands shook so that she couldn’t hit the right keys! The first time we gave a speed test, she broke down completely – was sick at the stomach and almost had to be carried into the wash room! After that morning she never showed up anymore. We phoned the house but never got any answer.’" (2.16, Amanda)

"I couldn’t go back there. I – threw up – on the floor!" (2.25, Laura).

"When I had that attack of pleurosis – he asked me what was the matter when I came back." (2.45, Laura).

Laura utters a startled, doubtful laugh. She reaches quickly for a piece of glass. (Scene Two, stage directions).

"But mother—"

"Yes?"

[in a tone of frightened apology]: "I’m crippled!"

"Nonsense, Laura, I’ve told you never, never to use that word." (2.47-2.50, Laura and Amanda).

With an outraged groan he tears the coat off again, splitting the shoulder of it, and hurls it across the room. It strikes against the shelf of Laura’s glass collection, and there is a tinkle of shattering glass. Laura cries out as if wounded.

[Music.]

[Screen legend: "The Glass Menagerie."]

"My glass!—menagerie…[She covers her face and turns away.] (Scene Three stage directions, 3.18, Laura)

She crosses through the portieres and draws them together behind her. Tom is left with Laura. Laura clings weakly to the mantel with her face averted. Tom stares at her stupidly for a moment. Then he crosses to the shelf. He drops awkwardly on his knees to collect the fallen glass, glancing at Laura as if he would speak but couldn't. (Scene Three, stage directions).

A second later she cries out. Tom springs up and crosses to the door. Tom opens the door.

"Laura?"

"I’m all right. I slipped, but I’m all right." (Scene Four stage directions, 4.29, 4.30, Tom and Laura).

"Laura!"

[Legend on screen: "Laura." Music: "The Glass Menagerie."]

"—Oh.—Laura."

"You know how Laura is. So quiet but—still water runs deep! She notices things and I think she—broods about them…A few days ago I came in and she was crying." (4.53, Scene Four stage directions, 4.54, 4.55).

"I mean that as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent-why, then you'll be free to go wherever you please, on land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows you! But until that time you've got to look out for your sister. I don't say me because I'm old and don't matter! I say for your sister because she's young and dependent." (4.93, Amanda).

"I put her in business college—a dismal failure! Frightened so it made her sick at the stomach. I took her over to the Young People’s League at the church. Another fiasco. She spoke to nobody, nobody spoke to her. Now all she does is fool with those pieces of glass and play those worn-out records. What kind of life is that for a girl to lead?" (4.93, Amanda).

"Mother, you mustn’t expect too much of Laura."

"What do you mean?"

"Laura seems all those things to you and me because she’s ours and we love her. We don’t even notice she’s crippled anymore." (5.120-5.122, Tom and Amanda).

"Laura is very different from other girls."

[…]

"…in the eyes of others—strangers—she’s terribly shy and lives in a world of her own and those things make her seem a little peculiar to people outside the house."

[…]

"She lives in a world of her own—a world of little glass ornaments, Mother…She plays old phonograph records and—that’s about all—" (5.126, 5.128, 5.132, Tom).

"I knew that Jim and Laura had known each other at Soldan, and I had heard Laura speak admiringly of his voice. I didn’t know if Jim remembered her or not. In high school Laura had been as unobtrusive as Jim had been astonishing." (6.1, Tom).

A fragile, unearthly prettiness has come out in Laura: she is like a piece of translucent glass touched by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting. (Stage directions, Scene Six).

"Why are you trembling?"

"Mother, you’ve made me so nervous!"

"How have I made you nervous?"

"By all this fuss! You make it seem so important!" (6.2-6.5, Amanda and Laura.)

"There was a Jim O’Connor we both knew in high school—[then, with effort] If that is the one that Tom is bringing to dinner—you’ll have to excuse me, I won’t come to the table. (6.30, Laura).

"Please, please, please, you go!"

"You’ll have to go the door because I can’t."

"I can’t go either!"

"Why?"

"I’m sick!" (6.51-6.57, Laura and Amanda).

"Excuse me—I haven’t finished playing the Victrola…"[She turns awkwardly and hurries into the front room. She pauses a second by the Victrola. Then she catches her breath and darts through the portieres like a frightened deer.] (6.69, Scene Six stage directions).