Jim is considered by most critics to be the most important character in the play. Although he makes his appearance towards the end of the play, he has a key role in the life of the other three characters. Tom looks up to him as a man who has made of his life what he could, and squeezed out of it as much juice as he could. Amanda sees him as a Messiah that will …showed first 75 words of 1154 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1154 total…Laura's idea that she was inferior, and that she was in disadvantage to anyone. Tom, on the other hand, sees in Jim what his life could have been if his mother had not put the charge on taking responsibility on the family when he was so young (in fact in the play he is slightly over his twenties). Jim represents a hope for all of them, yet finally he is just an illusion, a deception.