Essay on Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie

In The Glass Menagerie, the main character, Tom, lives a life of grave disappointment as he tirelessly works to provide for his mother and sister. However, eventually, at the end of the play, Tom finally loses his nerve and describes how he “descended the steps of [the] fire-escape for the last time and followed from then on, in my father’s footsteps...”(7. Tom) after having a fight with his mother. So, just as Tom’s father had abandoned Tom and his family, Tom deserted his sister and mother. Though there are many causes of Tom’s abandonment of his family, the three main reasons are because of his dysfunctional relationship with his mother, his hatred of his job, and of the absence of Tom’s father.

Another means of Tom’s escape are his outings to the movie, which are aided by the fire escape. Tom goes to the movies for several reasons; to satisfy his need for alcohol, to escape his home life, and to experience some adventure. Walter is a black man in the 1950’s supporting himself, his wife, son, sister and mother in a small apartment in Chicago. He and Tom are both treated less than what a human is worth.

In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses the theme of escape to help drive the play forward. None of the characters are capable of living in the real world. Laura, Amanda, Tom and Jim use various methods to escape the brutalities of life. Laura retreats into a world of glass animals and old records. Amanda is obsessed with living in her past. Tom escapes into his world of poetry writing and movies. Jim also reverts to his past and remembers the days when he was a high school hero. Mr. Wingfield is referred to often throughout the play. He is the ultimate symbol of escape. This is because he has managed to remove himself from the desperate situation that the rest of the family is still

   Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, describes three separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they face in a modern world.  The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Williams' use of symbols adds depth to the play. The glass menagerie itself is a symbol Williams uses to represent the broken lives of Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield and their inability to live in the present.

Soon after he makes his way out on the ledge, fear starts to consume Tom. All he can picture is himself falling and dying, he just desperately wants to get back inside his home. He makes the mistake of looking down and seeing the street below them and shakes, “a violent shuddering beyond control, his eyes squeezing so tightly shut it is painful, though he is past awareness of that. His teeth are exposed in a frozen grimace, the strength draining like water from his knees and calves” (103). Tom’s selfishness and ambition has diminished and is being replaced by fear.

In the play “The Glass Menagerie” of Tennessee William, he wrote a drama play to emphasize readers about the life is at a standstill the Wingfield family. Through of the Wingfield family, he uses many symbols which represent many things, but the important main symbolization is fire escape that shows three main characters; Tom Wingfield, his fire escape is the way out of Amanda and Laura. Amanda Wingfield, hope gentlemen callers to enter their lives, and Laura Wingfield, who wants in her own world by collecting unicorn animals. They express successfully in the play by using the fire escape portrays each of characters as literal exist from their own reality.

family uses escape in some way to cope with their unhappiness, but Tom is the only one to make

In Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, all four members of the Wingfield family have chosen to hide from reality. Amanda tries to relive her past through Laura, and denies anything she does not want to accept. Laura is terrified of the real world, and choses to hide behind her limp, her glass menagerie and the victrola. Tom hides from his reality by going to the movies, writing poetry, and getting drunk. Mr Wingfield hides from his reality by leaving his family and not contacting them after he has done so. Each member of the Wingfield family has their own escape mechanism which they use to hide or escape from the real world.

Author’s have different tactics with how they convey their themes, and how the message impacts the reader. Themes can be conveyed through characters, plot lines, or symbols. In Tennessee William’s play, The Glass Menagerie, the author effectively uses symbolism to convey that escaping reality is a method of coping with life’s hardships. First, William’s effectively uses the fire escape as a symbol of inward issues Tom tries to escape. Not only does the fire escape serve as a physical entrance to the Wingfield's apartment, it also serves as "a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth” (I.i.9).

Both of them symbolizes the uniqueness of Laura in comparison to her surrounding. As described by the stage directions, she has an 'unearthly prettiness'. Furthermore, the entrance of Laura is always associated with soft lighting which imitates the soft light on the Saints in medieval paintings, suggesting her sainthood. In the scene when Laura is alone with Jim, the only light on stage was the candle that once stood on the altar of a church, thus again confirming the Christian

People who are different are sometimes seen as inferior individuals with subordinate lives. Tennessee Williams, playwright of the famous, The Glass Menagerie, exposes these ideas through the development of the character Laura, while tying her to strong symbolic features such as her glass unicorn in order to show the audience everyone has hope. On the surface, Laura is seen as a bleak character with an empty future, but with the symbolism utilized by Williams, Laura’s tremendous strength is revealed as she recognizes her abilities as well as a positive future for herself. At first, the breaking of the glass unicorn can be seen as a troubling experience for Laura, because throughout the play the reader has seen her emotional attachment with

Tom had a double role in the play as both the narrator and a main character that lived through a recollection of what life was like living with his mother and sister before he abandoned them to seek adventure. Tom’s behavior in the play could lead to question if his memory is truly accurate. SparkNotes comments, “…But at the same time, he demonstrates real and sometimes juvenile emotions as he takes part in the play’s action. This duality can frustrate our understanding of Tom, as it is hard to decide whether he is a character whose assessments should be trusted or one who allows his emotions to affect his judgment” (SparkNotes.com). Through his behavior a person is reminded that memory can be flawed by emotions or time elapsing, this would need to be taken into account when analysis of such a character is done. Tom is full of contradictions as he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of an escape; however he also felt bound by duty to his sister and mother. Another contradiction was that while he professed to care about his sister as seen in his ending comments in the play, “…I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!...” (Williams), Tom never went back to reconnect with his sister. This could be because of the great shame he felt for abandoning his sister or because of another reason. He stated that he had been in several cities over the years but never speaks of going back to St. Louis, making it unclear if he

Written in 1944, Tennessee Williams wrote a play during World War II when people were barely making ends meet. Centering on the Wingfield family, the story consisted of five characters: Amanda Wingfield (the mother), Laura Wingfield (the daughter), Tom Wingfield (son, narrator, Laura’s older brother), Jim Connor (Tom and Laura’s old acquaintance from high school) and Mr. Wingfield (father to Tom and Laura, and Amanda’s husband)- who abandoned the family long before the start of the play. The title, “The Glass Menagerie”, represented a collection of glass animals on display in the Wingfields’ home. At one point or another, these animals then represented each character when they couldn’t accept reality. The theme of this play were about the

            Laura appears to be the most important character in the play, perhaps the main character intended by Williams.  Although she also engages in a world of illusion, hers is much different then Amanda's.  She has no pretenses, no real faults to speak of.  She is who

Imagine if you had a father that left, a crippled sister, and a mother that only cared about herself. For Tom Wingfield, this is exactly what his family is like. Tom's father left years before the play takes place, Amanda only cares about herself, and Laura is crippled and painfully shy. For Tom, this means he has to help his family and stay at home because Amanda does not help Laura. Tom, Amanda, and Laura each try to escape reality and resort to things they love to do.