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Analysis Of ' From The Glass Menagerie ' And Hamlet '

Decent Essays

Ashwin Punj
Ms. Nelson 4A -17
AP English IV
15 January 2017
Prompt 2 Amanda Wingfield, from The Glass Menagerie, and Hamlet, from the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, are two characters who, through their noble intentions, unintentionally become the instrument of suffering for the people around them. Their surrounding characters go through pain and leave them because of the tragic flaw which each of theses characters exhibit within themselves. The mother from The Glass Menagerie, Amanda Wingfield, is a woman who is stuck in the past, but is dealing with her current life. In her attempts to regain her upper-class life through her children, she maps out their lives and keep them on a leash. After being abandoned by her …show more content…

Although she truly wants the best life for her kids, she fails to realize what her kids really want. In doing so, she sends Laura to business school, which leaves Tom to be the man of the family, and bring in most of the income. Laura drops out of business school and so Amanda’s only hope for her daughter is through marriage. She obsesses over finding suitors for Laura and it drives her children insane. Amanda puts great pressure on Tom to bring in suitors for his sister and in doing so Tom realizes that hates his life. Tom is treated like a child by Amanda but has the responsibilities of an adult, as the only male in the house. Fearing that her son will leave her like her husband, Amanda clings onto Tom. She attempts to steer the reigns over his life and eventually pushes him to the point where he decides to leave his family for the Merchant Marines. Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest tragic pieces in modern literature. Prince Hamlet is the tragic hero in the play, he starts off as the innocent kid whose father has just been murdered and wants to get retribution. He devotes his life from that point on to avenging his father’s death. Later a group of actors arrive to the town and Hamlet decides to put on a play about a king and his murder. Hamlet has the traveling actors reenact a scene exactly the way Claudius killed King Hamlet, in hopes of getting King Claudius to react poorly while watching the

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