Jim’s personality is certainly an interesting one, especially when looking at his treatment of Laura. Jim certainly seems to be the most genuine and cheerful of the four characters in the play. Unlike Tom and Amanda, who coddle Laura and treat her differently, Jim talks casually and sincerely with her. In fact, Jim seems to open up to Laura at an immensely fast pace, speeding up the supposed courtship and even kissing her. It is in the aftershock of that kiss where we learn the likely reason for his rushed interest in Laura: he is engaged to be married. Although Jim makes it clear that he is in love with fiancée, he naturally is slightly fearful of this commitment. This fear is focused under the light of Laura’s admiration of him. Laura allows Jim to reminisce about the time in his life when he was successful, when he “was bound to succeed in anything [he] went into” (p 1227). Jim feels attracted to Laura because she provides him an opportunity to dream of what could have been.
In the end, however, Jim sets himself apart from the family by being able to snap out of his delusions and move on with his life. He quickly leaves to pick up his fiancée and departs from the family’s life, assumedly forever. The other three characters, however, remain stuck in their own respective delusions: Tom’s dreamy delusion of being a successful poet; Amanda’s nostalgic delusion of the glitz and glamour which she experienced before her husband’s departure; and Laura’s desperate delusion of solitude and comfort amid her glass menagerie.
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