This play takes place in the mid forties. It is about a mother, Amanda Wingfield, a daughter, Laura Wingfield, and a son, Tom Wingfield. There are five characters in this play. The other character is a friend of Tom's, Jim O"Connor. .
Amanda was always successful with men when she was younger. She was always getting proposals from rich and famous boys. She fell in love and married an unsuccessful poor man. He worked for the phone companies. He liked long distances and one day went to one, he never came back. She is very controlling and she is stuck in the day of when she was a child.
Laura has always been shy and unsuccessful with men. She had very few, if any friends in high school. She collects little glass figurines. Laura is crippled, although it is never stated how. She is two years older then Tom. She gets very nervous very easily. She often gets sick when she gets scared. She joined business school and after a few days she got so sick she threw up on the floor and never came back to school. .
Tom is the youngest. He is incredibly sick of his mother and her craziness. He does not like her attitude on everything and how she acts. She is stuck in her day he thinks. She plays favorites to Laura, and babies her. He is planning on leaving them one day and going until he finds somewhere he can call home. He feels like a puppet on a string with her. .
Jim went to high school with Tom and Laura. He now works at the factory with Tom. He is dating a girl named Betty and they are engaged. He is brought to the Wingfield home as a gentlemen caller, and when Top brings him home, he is unaware that he is going to be married.
Amanda always complains that Laura just sits home playing with her glass toys. One day she asks Tom to bring one of his friends from the factory over as a gentlemen caller. Some one smart, has a future, and is nice. Tom decides to ask Jim over. Jim always calls Tom Shakespeare.
