Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie Essay

Amanda becomes a woman bent on finding her daughter either a job or a husband and finding out why her son disappears every night. To help her appear strong and willful, Amanda escapes to her own days as a young girl, finding more than seventeen gentlemen callers, and allows herself to believe her life is stable enough that her daughter and her will be financially taken care of. These facades crumble when she realizes her daughter has never been capable enough to find either a job or a husband. While these expectations of Laura hurt her, they allow her mother to escape to her days of being flaunted over and adorned by men. Once she does see her daughter is struggling, Amanda has to face the fact that her daughter will always be dependant upon her mother. These realities continue to affect how her children act and the results of the

The characterisation of Tom from a strong, guarded lone-wolf figure to a suicidal wreck in need of love and reassurance from those around him is crucial in illuminating the central themes of the novel to the reader. In earlier chapters of the novel, Tom is portrayed as strong and independent, determined to achieve his goals himself. He lives by the

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

Williams’s play is a tragedy, and one of quietude. He once expressed that “Glass Menagerie is my first quiet play, and perhaps my last.” It is a play of profound sadness, and through relationships between characters, portrays the “cries of the heart.” There is no cry more powerful that the cry and inner desperation of the heart. Williams’s has very little social context, but rather focuses on the conflicts within a domestic family. Such a focus is powerful, and the playwright expresses this power and importance implicitly through the estranged relationship between Amanda and Tom Wingfield.

   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.

In the play, The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses many symbols which represent many different things.?Many of the symbols used in the play try to symbolize some form of escape or difference between reality and illusion.?The first symbol, presented in the first scene, is the fire escape.?This represents the "bridge" between the illusory world of the Wingfields and the world of reality.?This "bridge" seems to be a one way excursion.?But the direction varies for each character.?For Tom, the fire escape is the way out of the world of Amanda and Laura and an entrance into a world of new dimensions.?For Laura, the fire escape is a way into her own world. A way to escape from reality.?Amanda perceives the fire escape as a way

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.

The masterful use of symbolism is delightfully ubiquitous in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” He uses a collection of dim, dark and shadowy symbols that constantly remind the audience of the lost opportunity each of these three characters continually experience. This symbolism is not only use to enlighten the audience to their neglected opportunities to shine, but it is also repeatedly utilized to reinforce the ways in which the characters try in vain to cross over turbulent waters into a world of light and clarity. It is thematically a wrenching story of life gone by, and the barren attempts to realize another reality that is made more poignant by symbolic language, objects, setting, lighting and music. The characters are

Amanda loves to remember and remind anyone who is listening about her past when all the male suitors wanted her. She likes to close her eyes and escape from her reality as often as her children do. The only thing Amanda is truly invested in is her kids, who she only really uses as an escape and a distraction. She fills the void of her husband's absence with trying to push her kids in the right direction. Unfortunately for Amanda, what she wants for her kids and what they want is different and her actions only serve to push her children further

Amanda, the matriarch, has also been through a lot during her own life. She was abandoned by her husband and left alone with the children. Consequently, she became more focused on her children and desperately want them to be respected and successful. By holding high expectations for them, she has put immense pressure on their lives, leaving the children crippled emotionally. In one instance, Amanda confesses to Tom, about her concerns and how she relies on him greatly. Amanda admits, “I've had to put up a solitary battle all these years. But you're my right-hand bower! Don't fall down, don't fail!” (30). Amanda explicitly tells Tom that he is her second in command and that if he fails the whole family fails. She orders him to do well in life and succeed, which adds a great weight to his life. After, this Amanda requests Tom to help find Laura a gentleman caller and tells him that after Laura gets married he is allowed to leave the family. Tom is immediately tempted by this and brings home a man the very next day. This eagerness to leave shows how much he despises the boredom and squalor that surrounds him. When arguing with Amanda he tells her that, “Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, and a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse!” (34). Tom is really unhappy with his current surrounding and wants to experience all of life's opportunities, but is bound by his family. Tennessee William creatively uses the symbolism of the fire escape to draw a vivid portrait of Tom’s emotions. The fire escape represents the liberation from all the dysfunction and frustration with his family. Later, when Laura falls down on the fire escape and Tom runs over to help her up, one can see their true relationship. Tom uses this fire escape to smoke, calm down, and ultimately to abandon the

He rants to his mother that he has “no single thing…that I can call my OWN!” (981). He also reveals he lives a double life by working at the warehouse he loathes, and going to gambling casinos. What I find to be the most important thing to Tom is his need for adventure. He wants to escape the household.

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).

Constantly on the run, always hiding in fear. There was no escaping him and his dreaded army. December 8, 1937, is when they finally uncovered Charlotte’s family. The last thing Charlotte recalls from that night is her mother being dragged away to her most certain death by the horrid and repulsive crimson swastika. Symbols have been around since the beginning of the existence of mankind from the ancient egyptians to Christ. Symbols is humanity’s way of expressing feelings, stories, and events through objects or pictures. Symbols can also have different meaning for different groups of people. For the Jews, the swastika represents hate and death, but for Hitler and the Nazi army is represented power and victory. In both plays, The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie, a short play by Tennessee Williams delves into the inner workings of a multifarious family. The Wingfield family struggles together with the past, the yet to come and how to endure each other’s company. Williams’ production utilizes an extensive range of symbolization throughout the short story in order to parallel the struggles and triumphs each character manifests. From the iconic Mr. Wingfield picture frame, to the remedying getaway of the fire escape, Tennessee exposes the audience to a selection of symbols. Ultimately, if one symbol was to represent the story from start to end, the one of a kind transcendent glass unicorn encompasses the story best. The unordinary glass horned horse symbolizes illusion versus reality, and coupled with the story’s four prominent characters, crafts a curtain-raiser with powerful implications.

Through Amanda’s inability to separate the real from the fantasy, William’s proves that Amanda’s main coping mechanism is to retreat from reality. Amanda’s role as the forgotten southern belle also impacts her relationship with her daughter Laura, who suffers from crippling social anxiety and an inferiority complex as a result of her disability.