The Glass Menagerie

The different people are not like other people, but being different is nothing
to be ashamed of. Because other people are not such wonderful people.
They're as common as - weeds, but - you - well, you're - Blue Roses! (304).
Jim recognises Laura's self-defeat, her "inferiority complex" that keeps her "from feeling comfortable with people"(304) yet, ironically he exacerbates this sense of defeat as he reveals he is already engaged and in doing so shatters Laura's illusions. The unicorn, as a part of the glass menagerie, is symbolic of Laura's attempts to escape into an unreal world. Just as the unicorn is broken through contact with reality, represented by Jim, Laura suffers the same fate. The broken unicorn provides us with a fleeting glimpse of how life could have been for Laura:
I'll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less - freakish! Now he will feel more at home with the other horses, the ones that don't have horns..."(303) Scene 7.
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