The identity Jim OConner in The Wine glass Menagerie is of the gentleman caller. Tom identifies Jim in his opening monologue as the utmost realistic personality in the play, as an emissary from an environment of reality that people were somehow placed aside from. " (858) Jim is portrayed as having attributes that are wonderful and without any flaws. These features are shown by Jim up until the very end of the play when his true characteristics are completely discovered through his actions.
Jim can be an acquaintance of Tom and Laura from when these were in senior high school. He was extremely popular during his time at Soldan High School. He now works as a shipping and delivery clerk for a sneaker warehouse where Tom and Jim conclude become better friends. It is the same boot warehouse Tom works for. Jim is the gentleman caller who's invited to evening meal by Tom, and who Amanda is hoping is a husband to be for Laura. Tom truthfully feels that Jim differs from all the people of the Wingfield family because he is facing reality instead of surviving in denial from it.
Jim was a superb success in high school "He was capturing with such speed through his adolescence that you would logically expect him to arrive at nothing short of the White House by the time he was thirty" (879) and everyone thought he would flourish in life. He is currently working as a delivery clerk, which is merely a just a bit better position than Tom's. However, Jim is a cheerful, positive young man, who's identified to get ahead in life. He's studying presenting and public speaking and radio anatomist at night school, and would like to go into the fledgling tv industry. "I really believe in the future of television! I would like to be ready to move up right along with it. Therefore I'm planning to get in on the ground floor. Actually I've already made the right associations and everything that remains is perfect for the industry itself to get under way! Full steam - Knowledge - Zzzzzp! Money - Zzzzzp! - Vitality! That's the circuit democracy is built on. " (894)
When he has meal with the Wingfield family, Jim tries his best to sketch Laura out of her shell. He ends up being the one character able to break through into Laura's top secret world. He appears to be the most honest person in the play and appears to be very genuine and friendly. The reader is made to feel they can trust him. Jim's character seems to become more active in his chat with Laura. Even though he is standard, it is connection with the normal that Laura needs. It is not surprising that typical seems to be magnificence to Laura. Since Laura got known Jim in senior high school when he was considered the all-American guy, she could never bring herself to look on him now at all apart from exceptional. He's the one boy that she has got a crush on and he is her ideal desire.
In the candlelight dialogue Jim has with Laura he becomes covered up in reliving his own history. He seems to once again think that he is that high school hero who swept the girls off their ft. Due to the fact that Jim is becoming engrossed in participating in the role of senior high school hero and also amateur psychiatrist, he didn't see what feelings he was building up in Laura. Jim simply acquired an honest want to help Laura with her shyness. He is obviously very attracted to Laura in a romantic sense as well. He admits this to her while describing her beauty" In every respects-believe me personally! Your eye- your wild hair- are fairly! The hands are rather!" (896) how she makes him feel different than any other woman does. "I wish that you were my sister. I'd educate you on to involve some self-confidence in yourself. The various people are not like other folks, but being different is nothing to be ashamed of. Because other people are not such wonderful people. They're a hundred times one thousand. You're one times one! They walk all over the earth. You just stay here. They're common as - weeds, but - you - well, you're - Blue Roses!" (896)
To Laura Jim has always been and still is wonderful and exceptional. He is so different from her world that he is apparently the prize she's been longing to earn. Since Laura lives in a world of illusion, he is her royal prince. Jim's desires run away with him and he makes the mistake of kissing Laura. He makes her heart swells up with romance and then pierce it with the disclosure that he is engaged to be married.
Laura is similar to a piece of her cup menagerie. She is fragile and must be treated meticulously. When she says "Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are" she is giving foresight in to the occurrences that will unfold. Jim has damaged her without noticing it. "You imagine of yourself as getting the only problems, being the only one who is disappointed. But just look around you and you will see lots of men and women as disappointed when you are. " (891) Probably the most accurate explanation of Jim comes near the end of the play when Jim identifies himself as a "stumble-john. "(897)
