After finishing The Glass Menagerie and after reading “Tragedy and the Common Man” (Miller), who do you believe is the tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie? On what do you base your claim? Your response should be at least four sentences long.
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I believe the tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie is Tom. In the end on the play, Tom leaves his family, ultimately losing his title as a responsible head of the family. In “Tragedy and the Common Man”, Miller describes the tragic hero as one who is willing to sacrifice his own life and pride to achieve their goal. Tom chose to pursue whatever he wanted to do instead of working in a factory and sacrificed his relationship with his family. Especially during the time this play takes place, it was important for men to take charge and be the breadwinner of their family. Tom risked being unsuccessful and almost shunned from his family to achieve his dreams.
The tragic hero is Tom in The Glass Menagerie. I base my claim on Miller’s claim that tragedy is “the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.” For Tom it was the fact that he was unhappy working at the shoe factory and knew he wanted to leave in order to have adventures. Much like his father in the end he leaves and suffers the consequences. He ends up losing his job and to an extent we can conclude he does not end up having the life he wanted.
After reading the Glass menagerie, I believe that Tom throughout the whole story has been exemplified as the tragic hero. From the reading, what I gather was that it seemed Williams tried to express all of the families overall struggles onto Tom’s shoulders.Reading over “Tragedy and the Common Man”, Miller exemplifies a point about tragedy, which I base my claim on, when he says’ a “ tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing–his sense of personal dignity.” Like Miller states, I found Tom’s constant thoughts of securing a better life for himself as a way he sought to secure his personal dignity.
While reading The Glass Menagerie, Tom is the tragic hero. This is because Miller’s claim on what a tragic hero is, “The flaw, or crack in the character, is really nothing–and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity.” In this case, Tom’s flaw would be the inability to recognize his impacts and influences towards Laura, his mother and daughter. He realizes this situation he’s in and thinks by running away from his problems, disregarding his family problems/relationship the problem, his personal challenge is resolved.
After I read the reading The Glass Menagerie, I think the tragic hero of the story would be Tom. I believe Tom is the tragic hero because it seemed all of the problems/struggles were piled onto Tom. Tom used to work at the shoe factory knowing that he was upset majority of the time knowing that isn’t what wants to do. However, towards the end Tom let go of his family so he can go pursue his dream. Tom ends up facing a lot of consequences since he made a decision that he didn’t know if it’ll be success or not.
After finishing the Glass Menagerie, I believe that Tom is the tragic hero. I base my claim off of Miller’s description in “Tragedy and the Common Man”, in which a tragic hero is characterized as someone who is willing and ready to evaluate and sacrifice anything that might be in the way of their “rightful place”. In this case, Tom sacrifices his honor and family in order to pursue a life that is more fulfilling. While he might not be successful, he does not have to regret what could have been if he never left.
Like everyone else, I also believe that Tom fits the definition of a tragic hero. Him being fired and selfishly leaving for the Merchant Marines has extreme consequences for the people that care for him. Just when Laura was starting to catch feelings for Jim, Tom never tells her that Jim is expected to get married soon, shattering her hopes of finding a suitor which also hurts his mother who was expecting Tom to help Laura find a good husband. Tom runs away from his problems when he knows that the family depends on him for support, proving himself to be a tragic hero.
I believe the tragic hero can be Tom or Laura. Laura does suffer as a consequence of Tom. In the end, Laura is left feeling hopeless, where she was in the beginning. Shy, hopeless, and crippled. She was lifted, but ultimately had her candles blown out by the person that enabled her to do so. Tom. Her pursuit for a suitor becomes better, but it is torn down. Her shyness and diffidence prevented her from accomplishing what she wished for. This happens to show why Tom can also be a tragic figure/hero. He saught to do good for the Wingfields but ends up dismissing their existence in the end. Tom’s actions caused nothing but more pain, misery, and diffusion for the family.
In my opinion, the tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie is Tom. I believe this because in “Tragedy and the Common Man”, Miller thinks “the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing–his sense of personal dignity.” This is what happened to Tom not only throughout the play, but definitely at the end. He decided his job was not what he wanted to do with his life and went after other interests of his. That is what Miller talks about when he says “personal dignity”. Tom didn’t want to be stuck in a shoe factory his whole life so he did something about it. He suffered internally as well because as the man of the house, he was given much responsibility but he felt unappreciated. He also struggled with balancing his personal needs and his family’s.
In my opinion, I believe that Tom is the tragic hero after reading and finishing The Glass Menagerie. Every decision that Tom made in the story had a lasting impact on the people around him such as Amanda and Laura. Tom failed to mention to his mother and sister that Jim was already engaged which caused his sister to fall deeper into her secluded world and greatly disappointed his mother. He was not able to solve any of the dire issues in his family and decides to run away from all his problems by joining the Merchant Marines. Tom can be seen as the tragic hero specifically because he was supposed to be the savior in his family by bringing a suitor that would please both Laura and Amanda, but instead, he failed the expectations of his family and made matters worse. I do believe that these expectations put onto Tom were unjust because he had to carry the burden of being the only man in the house and he worked a job he didn’t like for the sake of his family. However, even with the odds against Tom, he still made. a grave mistake by inviting Jim and then later escaping from the responsibility for his actions.
After finishing The Glass Menagerie, Tom is the tragic hero in based on “Tragedy and the Common Man”. Tom is portrayed as a gifted and great potential but he is trapped in a difficult situation in which he is unable to realize his full potential due to his commitment to caring for his mother and sister. Tom epitomizes a tragic hero because with his struggles, after reading the play, Tom has a huge dilemma and is forced to make an impactful decision similar to a tragic hero. In the end, Tom chooses to give up on taking care of his mother in order to achieve his goals and dreams to reach his full potential.
The tragic hero in the Glass Menagerie is Tom. Miller wrote, “The commonest of men may take on that stature to the extent of his willingness to throw all he has into the contest, the battle to secure his rightful place in his world.” This is a perfect definition of Tom since he did what he needed to do to get a better life. His final decision, leaving his family, affected every person he ever cared about including himself. He took the chance and was not sure what the final result would be.
A tragic hero is someone who struggles but demonstrates the achievement of his humanity. Although the ending may not be as happy as the readers hoped, it fulfills the desire of the tragic hero to discover the unknown and pursue new things. With this in mind, I believe Tom is the tragic hero in this story because he made so many sacrifices for his families (Amanda and Laura) and had to work in a factory, which he disliked. He took on the burden of his father, as the family’s man. Tom attempted to assist Laura in finding a man who can provide for her and satisfy his mother’s wish, but it backfired and hurt Laura’s feelings. Next, Tom eventually left his family and set out on an unknown journey to fulfill his dream, abandoning everything and following his father’s doings.
In the play , I believe that Tom is the tragic hero of the story. Mainly because Tom had a lot on his shoulders.He had to take care of his family. However , he had to sacrifice his own true happiness in order to do so. The burden of his mothers problems and his sisters problems ended up on his shoulders since he was “the man of the house”. In the end he left to embark on his own journey in the world. In the “Tragedy of a common man” it says “The commonest of men may take on that stature to the extent of his willingness to throw all he has into the contest, the battle to secure his rightful place in his world.” This relates to Tom because he had to put his family behind him in order to find himself. He made a huge sacrifice for the sake of himself.
I believe that Tom is the tragic hero of the story because he had to overcome obstacles and change his ways. He was the breadwinner of the house and as such carried the wellness of the family on his shoulders. However, as he toiled on working a job he hated and leading a life of nothingness, he realized that he was unhappy and decided to change course by leaving the family. As such, you can certainly classify each of the four main characters as tragic but only one decided to try to find his own meaning after going through adversity. Therefore, Tom is the tragic hero of the story.
The tragic hero in “The Glass Menagerie” is Tom because as a result of examining his desires, he is prepared to abandon his family. Although he assumes paternal responsibilities in his home, his repetitive lifestyle forces him to venture out for freedom and adventure. The real tragedy he experiences is the chaotic home life that he recognizes as a “scheme of things that degrades” him (Miller). Instead of being passive, Williams shows Tom’s willingness to leave this scheme, i.e., his unchanging home life, in search of what he believes to be greater.
Throughout “The Glass Menagerie”, Tom makes decisions that affect his life and the lives of those around him, thus portraying himself as a tragic hero. Tom sacrifices the happiness of his mother and sister in order to make a living for his own pursuits, and he leaves both Laura and Amanda disappointed and frustrated, unaware that his mother and sister have fallen into despair. And Tom proves himself a tragic hero by further hurting his mother and sister in order to escape his own troubles.
After reading “The Glass Menagerie” i’ve concluded that the tragic hero is Tom. From the beginning of the story we saw that Tom was discontent with his living conditions and his life. For example he compared himself to his sister’s possible suitor stating that he made less money than him. Also, Tom had also taken the responsibility of the household. He also took the place of the father figure in the household compounding the pressure on his soldiers brought from his family and personal life. All of these factors forced Tom to make a change and leave his family for the bettering of himself.
I believe that the tragic hero in “The Glass Menagerie” is Tom. He was the breadwinner of the house and was placed the responsibility to take care of the family. This caused him so much pressure that in hopes of helping his family out and making them happy even if it was temporal (by inviting Jim for example) only caused pain in the end. He became overwhelmed and decided to live life the way he wanted to by leaving his family just like his father had abandoned them. His departure, however, only led to misery. “Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.” (Miller)