Laura's temporary metamorphosis in The Glass MenagerieLaura Winfield in The Glass Menagerie goes through a temporary metamorphosis over the course of the play. She is a slightly crippled and very shy young girl who has difficulty finding her way in the world. She is desperate and beautiful at the same time. She is trapped in a world that is rapidly falling towards ruin. Laura lives in Depression-era St. Louis with her restless brother Tom and her half-crazy, overbearing mother Amanda. His father left the family for a life on the road. “He worked for the telephone company and fell in love with long distance.” This left Tom as the family's sole breadwinner and his mother in a desperate and emotional condition. Tom got a job in a warehouse. He deeply resented this and longed for freedom and adventure. He disappeared every evening to go to the cinema and find his release. But soon that wouldn't be enough, and both Laura and her mother felt it. The mother constantly persecuted Tom. He continually pointed out his every flaw. They broke out in fierce arguments that made it difficult to tell whether he was arguing with Tom or his absent father. His mother was Southern; a place called Blue Mountain. She was a beautiful girl there and received many gentlemen who called her. She pined bitterly for the loss of this place and time and for the wrong choices she had made regarding husbands. Even if Laura had no physical defects, it would have been difficult for her to succeed under these circumstances. At the beginning of the show Laura is wrapped up in her own little world of glass creatures and phonograph records. He is afraid of people and he is afraid of the world. It's like one of the beginnings in his glass menagerie. It is a thing of fragile beauty in a difficult world. She doubts herself and her abilities. Her mother, however, is determined to ensure that her daughter does not become a victim of her situation. Her mother tries, almost with too much effort, to support her daughter. However, it is through the mother's attempts that we witness Laura's temporary metamorphosis. In the second scene we find out that Laura's mother discovered that she dropped out of business school..