The Glass Menagerie: Scene 2 Summary & Analysis

An image of blue roses appears on the screen. Laura sits in the apartment, polishing her menagerie of glass figures. When she hears Amanda ascending the fire escape stairs, she hastily puts away the glass figures and pretends to be studying a keyboard diagram at the typewriter.

Amanda enters, dressed in the outfit she wears to her Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) meetings: cheap velvet coat, outdated hat, outsized pocketbook. She looks upset, and Laura becomes visibly nervous and guilty. Amanda tears the keyboard diagram and typewriting alphabet in two.

Amanda tells Laura that she stopped by the business college where Laura has supposedly been enrolled. One of the instructors informed her that Laura stopped coming to class after the first few days, when she was so anxious that she became physically ill. Laura explains that instead of going to school, she has been walking in the park, the museum, the zoo, and the “Jewel Box” greenhouse.

Amanda wonders what will become of Laura, now that her career opportunities have been ruined, and warns her about spinsters dependent on the “crust of humility” their entire lives. The only alternative, she says, is marriage.

Amanda asks whether Laura has ever liked a boy, and Laura admits that she once had a crush on Jim, the high school hero, who sat near her in chorus. Laura once told Jim that she had been out of school for a while because she had pleurosis, but he misheard the word as “Blue Roses,” which became his nickname for her. Amanda declares that Laura will marry some nice man. Laura reminds her mother that she is crippled, that her two legs are different lengths, but Amanda insists that she not use that word and that she must develop charm.