The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams

"Laura's separation increases till she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf." This symbolism of the glass menagerie plays an important part in the play. Although the reader is expressly told that Laura is like the glass menagerie, the reader has to think about  the characteristics she has that make her like glass.

Laura is shy. Shy is one of the main words I would use to describe Laura. Williams confirms this when Jim (who is apparently a good judge of character) says she is shy. Laura quit High School because her "clumping" embarrassed her and Business college because she was embarrassed on the first day. She allows herself to be so brittle and inflexible that she breaks when she is bent out of her comfort zone. Similarly, her glass menagerie breaks when knocked off the shelf. Laura's shyness causes her to be too fragile to move out of her comfort zone, the shelf.