Laura e a Metáfora de "Rosas Azuis"
Autor: Marco Túlio | Publicado: 2009-10-25T13:10:00-07:00





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O Zoológico de Vidro (The Glass Menagerie) - 1973On the significance of Blue Roses in the playThe Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee WilliamsMarco Túlio de Urzêda Freitas<!--[if gte mso 9]>     Normal   0         21         false   false   false      PT-BR   X-NONE   X-NONE                                                     MicrosoftInternetExplorer4                                                   <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   <![endif]--> <!--  /* Font Definitions */  @font-face 	{font-family:"Cambria Math"; 	panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; 	mso-font-charset:0; 	mso-generic-font-family:roman; 	mso-font-pitch:variable; 	mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;}  /* Style Definitions */  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal 	{mso-style-unhide:no; 	mso-style-qformat:yes; 	mso-style-parent:""; 	margin:0cm; 	margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:12.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p 	{mso-style-unhide:no; 	mso-margin-top-alt:auto; 	margin-right:0cm; 	mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; 	margin-left:0cm; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:12.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault 	{mso-style-type:export-only; 	mso-default-props:yes; 	font-size:10.0pt; 	mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; 	mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 	{size:612.0pt 792.0pt; 	margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; 	mso-header-margin:36.0pt; 	mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; 	mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 	{page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]>   /* Style Definitions */  table.MsoNormalTable 	{mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; 	mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; 	mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; 	mso-style-noshow:yes; 	mso-style-priority:99; 	mso-style-qformat:yes; 	mso-style-parent:""; 	mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; 	mso-para-margin:0cm; 	mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:11.0pt; 	font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; 	mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; 	mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; 	mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; 	mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; 	mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}  <![endif]-->    It is a sure thing that a work of Art somehow represents reality. That is why most of readers often identify with the proceedings of a story. In this perspective, some people would say: This is the magic of Literature! Moreover, books use to hide secrets. For this reason, we can state that writing literarily involves a whole process of concentration and creativity, that is, of building up a narrative surrounded by symbols. According to Mark Flanagan, symbols are people, colors, places, or things used to represent something beyond the text. Thus, we could say that a symbol does not refer to a single literal meaning, but also contains additional possibilities of significance. Such as in the play The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, we have lots of symbols to portray the circumstances under which the characters Amanda, Tom, and Laura live. First of all, it is important to consider that this play symbolizes the attempt of some people to escape from reality. While Amanda tries to create a time that she has never lived in order to mask her present-day life and Tom insists on going to the cinema so as to run away from a kind of insatisfaction with his own profession, Laura seems to be outside the world for she does not have any sense of what it means to exist. In terms of symbology, she could be related to glass ornaments, that is to say, to being fragile, beautiful, and unchangeable. However, despite all the aspects we could take to explain Laura’s character, there is a moment in the play, to be precise, in the scene 2, where the reader is led to go deep into what a symbol suggests about her. It refers to when she tells Amanda about a high-school boy who used to call her Blue Roses.  But, what does Blue Roses mean? Firstly, let’s consider both terms separately. As an adjective, the word blue characterizes the noun roses. According to some dictionaries concerned with symbolism in Literature, blue is normally used to express feelings of spirit and intellect. Besides, it is the color of the sky, the heaven, and the water, which gives us a sense of transparency, loyalty, constancy, truth, eternity, and immensity. The same way, it might suggest innocence and purity, since many babies are born with blue eyes. On the other hand, with reference to the word roses, we could say that, in relation to mythology, it refers to what budded from the blood of Adonis for the love of Aphrodite. As a result, it has become a symbol of kindness and resurrection. Differently, regarding Christian symbolism, it implies two main possibilities of significance: the red rose referring to the blood of Jesus on the cross and the rose itself representing the Virgin Mary, namely beauty, perfection, grace, and virginity. Of course, I could not finish this explanation without mentioning the most common and traditional meanings of blue and rose: the first as an indication of sadness and the second as something related to love, sensuality, and seduction.    If we pay attention to Laura, we will see that she is the only character in the play that does not hurt anyone. Although she is physically and emotionally crippled, she is not worried about getting money or building up a different life, since she is a kind of dream herself. In opposition to her mother, who tries to create a world to pretend she does not have problems,  and her brother, who faces the movies as an alternative way to triumph over his own insatisfaction, Laura seems to be afraid of living. For instance, Tom and Jim see her as an exotic creature, totally different from the rest of the world.  Maybe for this reason her presence is almost ghostly and her lack of connection with others makes her dependent on both Tom and Amanda. By this means, regarding the word blue as the color of the sky, the heaven, and the water, we could say that Laura is really transparent and loyal as a human being, seeing that she does not get to hide what she is feeling and all the fears she cultivates inside. Also, she can be considered pure and innocent for the reason that she faces the world as a kind of mystery - just like a little child. Conversely, with regards to the word roses, we could add some more information about her, such as her beauty and the fact that she seems to be perfect at a time of great sadness and depression.   Here there must be a question: What about the Blue Roses? How would these words operate together so as to define Laura Wingfield? In order to explain it, I think it is necessary to consider the traditional significance of blue and roses, to be exact, sadness and love/seduction, to understand how this symbology works to portray Amanda’s daughter. Therefore, as Blues Roses Laura would be a beautiful and sad girl who tries to avoid life due to the fears she cultivates in relation to it. As a consequence, she becomes an attractive image for the men, given that her private characteristics are presented as both atypical and admirable. In other words, she becomes a kind of person who seduces through what is not common in a woman. Like this, considering that Blue Roses do not exist in the natural world, Jim may have referred to Laura’s unusual manners when he started to call her that way. In brief, despite all the meanings which rely on the words blue and roses, we could say that more important than seeing Jim’s nickname for Laura as an allusion to her constancy, truth, transparency, love, and beauty, is to consider its attempt to suggest her sadness and isolation. After all, regardless of the family she has, Laura seems to be always alone and different from others.