Character Analysis - Jim

In this play and this scene, Jim is a very low key character and doesn't really say much and isn't really a main character. For me, I feel like Jim's purpose is to show a potential love interest for Laura, who is a very conserved and shy character with a probable social anxiety issue. The significance of Jim's character to Laura is the fact that she's the only one that she can seem to communicate with and not be shy. Before Jim comes to the house, Laura is having a panic attack and her and Amanda (mother) argue over who's going to answer the door for Jim and Tom (brother). Throughout the scene, Amanda tries to make Laura out to seem like a put together woman who can cook and do all these things when in fact Laura is very shy and doesn't have many skills if indeed she has any. It has been established early on in the play that Laura will not get a job and her only chance at living a decent life is to get a husband with a decent job. It is shown that Jim is a hopeful solution to that problem. The two originally hit it off, finding out that the two went to school together, and then Laura's favorite glass piece, the unicorn, is shattered. Jim then goes on to reveal that he is engaged and will soon be married which breaks Laura's heart and ruins everything. Earlier on in the scene, we realize that Jim is the boy that Laura showed her mother when she told her she had a crush on a boy. It is shown that Laura seems to have less anxiety around Jim and I guess, to me, Jim is her medicine because from watching the conversation, Laura seems to calm down, although starting very tense, she seems to calm down and open up to Jim before the glass piece is shattered. I feel even though Jim is not a main character, he is a very influential character because it shows that Laura does have a medicine and with her it seems to be emotion for the opposite sex.