Glass Menagerie Blog 2

In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams employs both the literary techniques of hyperbole and simile at critical moments so as to facilitate the characterization of Laura and underscore major themes of the play. When discussing her brief enrollment at Rubicam’s business college, Laura employs a hyperbole when remarking that she was so humiliated that she wished to locate a hole in the ground and hide within it forever. Obviously Laura did not really wish to hide forever, but her overly dramatic statement conveys the notion that Laura suffered from great self-consciousness and humiliation. Furthermore, when Laura reminisces with Jim about their high school days, she admits to feeling great embarrassment at the loud noises her leg brace produced. She uses a simile when lamenting to Jim, “To me it sounded like thunder” (Williams, 1276)! Through the utilization of these hyperboles and similes, Williams effectively characterizes Laura as having an intense case of shyness and self-consciousness. Rather than having Tom simply remark during his narration that Laura developed a tendency to be humiliated very easily, Williams intentionally reveals this aspect of her personality through direct comments made by Laura herself. By enhancing her confession with dramatic literary techniques, Williams allows these attributes to become even more evident.

                Furthermore, these two hyperboles and similes aid Williams in illuminating one of the major themes of the book: the impact of memory on an individual. Although Laura recalls the thuds of her leg brace sounding as loud as thunder, Jim insists that he remembers no such noise whatsoever. He insisted that her memory of the clumping was “magnified thousands of times by imagination” (Williams, 1280). This remark brings to light the human tendency to enhance horrors within the mind when recalling particularly unpleasant memories, a theme which is fairly evident throughout the play. Moreover, Jim asserts that this amplification of terror in Laura’s mind prevented her from overcoming limitation and accomplishing her dreams. Through this realization of Jim, Williams reveals the theme of the novel that is the peculiar manner in which memories can influence an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and action in the present. Consequently, Williams’ utilization of this simile comparing Laura’s clumping to thunder proves itself to be a highly significant literary technique in the play.