Understanding of the Characters by Quoting

Tom

       "Look, Mother---I haven't got a thing, not a single thing left in this house that I can call my own."  

      Tom does not think the house and the family are belong to him.  In other words, Tom does not have any second thinking about he belong to the family, even though he earns money to support his family.  We can know that Tom is seeking the world out of the small valley from other sentences, but the deep concern in his heart to push him make the decision is lacking a feeling of belonging.  The reason of it probably is that his mother does not support his hobby and his dream, or his mother talks too much about her sweet memories and expectation to truly care about the inner thoughts of Tom.  Therefore, Tom is frustrated about the situation and wants to leave. 

Laura

       "But, Mother--- I'm--- crippled!"

       Laura does not have too many lines in the play, so it is easy to show that the girl is really quiet.  For this personality, someone are quiet with birth, but someone are quiet when they grow up.  The sentence above classifies Laura is probably the second one.  Laura used to like a boy, but then she is not confident to contact him now.  She use her crippled excuse to stop her mother's nagging.  Amenda desires Laura to communicate to other people, but Laura makes a lot of excuses to run far away from the society.  However, from the sentence we can know that, all the excuses are to cover her inferiority.

Amenda

       "We can't have a business career.  No, we can't do that--- that just gives us indigestion."

       Amenda is still living in the old ancient time, who not only looks to the past and misses her husband but also keep a traditional old concepts about women.  She believes the destiny of a woman is marriage, and she regards being a wife as a position of women's lives.  For her concepts, unmarried women are lost in the society because she cannot rely on anyone.  Even though it is reasonable for her to have an extreme concept because her husband's leaving dragged the family into poverty, she could not deny a woman's value.