The Glass Unicorn Symbolism

Laura is a very shy, sensitive person who is very fragile. Society in The Glass Menagerie wants her to go to business college, find a gentlemen caller, and not be so fragile. However, she has become so shy and vulnerable that she has forgotten almost completely about the real responsibilities of life. When Laura’s high school crush, Jim O’Connor, comes to Laura’s house for dinner she escapes her make-believe world. Laura’s make-believe world is characterized by “ I haven’t heard any arguments among them!” (Williams 122). Laura imagines her glass menagerie to be real which comes to show how

In the glass castle, Jeannette Wells lives with such parents that she was much of the time homeless. She had no idea that her father’s drinking abuse was so wrong, or that living in such run down homes with animals that came and go could be seemed as unfit for a family with children. So young, with her three siblings, they wouldn’t know at the time they were being treated poorly by the people they believed loved them the most. Scroungy and dirty, but tough from living in such horrible conditions as a child. Growing up has shown difficulty for the young girl.

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

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 this quote, it becomes evident that T.Williams uses glass as a symbol of weakness. Clearly seen through Laura’s breakable, glasslike fragility, shyness can be a weakness.

Laura is the character in the story that everyone feels compassion for once they finish reading. She’s different from the other characters. For some different is bad for others different is good. Tom

   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 conclusion, Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams expresses the use of literary device such as metaphor to convey meaning towards Laura’s life. As described through the eyes of the unicorn, Laura was also fragile and could easily be broken. Her strength came within after the breakthrough of the unicorn. She was able to regain her strength and walk away from her glass collection unto her real life. Furthermore, the action taken into the course of Laura can be brought up to the scenario in which Jim broke her glass unicorn. Without this event we can infer that Laura would of have not been courageous to leave her glass collection behind in order to start living a healthy, fearless life.

The qualities of glass parallel Laura's characteristics: like the tiny glass animals, she is delicate, beautiful in her oddness, terribly fragile. The little collection, like Laura, in an entity that is locked completely in the realm of the home. The animals must be kept on a little shelf and polished; there is only one place where they belong. In a similar way, Laura is kept and cared for, dependent on her mother and brother for financial support. The Blue Roses are another important symbol of Laura. The image of blue roses is a beautiful one‹and it is the image that is on the screen at the start of Scene Two. But blue roses are also pure fantasy, non-existent in the real world. Laura, like a blue rose, is special, unique even, but she is also cut off from real life. When Tom accidentally breaks some of the pieces in the glass menagerie, the incident foreshadows Laura's heartbreak later on in the play. The event emphasizes the collection's fragility, and so metaphorically we are reminded of Laura's fragility. Tom is the one responsible, and the pain of his position is made clear. As much as he would like to live his own life, his actions have a great effect on the well-being and security of his mother and sister. By being reckless, he destroys the pretend-world of his sister. Later on, he chooses to live his own life rather than live up to his responsibility for her security.

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

The glass unicorn in Laura’s collection, is her favourite figure, it represents her individuality and uniqueness. As Jim points out, unicorns are “extinct” in present times and are lonely because they are different from other animals. Laura is lonely because she feels like she is not well adapted to the real world. In scene seven, the fate of the unicorn is also a scaled down version of Laura’s fate. When Jim dances and kisses Laura, the unicorn’s horn breaks off, and it becomes just another regular horse. This shows that Laura is starting to become normal and adapting to reality. Eventually, Laura gives Jim the unicorn as a “souvenir.” Without its horn it blends into society. The broken figurine is shown to represent everything that Jim has taught Laura and also that she has changed into a normal well-adjusted

It is fair to say she may be somewhat out of touch with reality due to a slight disability, in which her glass menageries comfort her. Amanda views her daughter, Laura as fragile, like glass. As the title of the play informs us, “The Glass Menagerie,” or collection of animals, is the central symbol. Her collection of glass animal figurines represents the different facets of Laura’s own personality. Comparable to the figurines, Laura is delicate.

Whenever the outside world threatens Laura, she seeks solace and retreats to her glass animal world and old phonograph records. Amanda, her mother hints at the alternative of matrimony for fiasco in business careers and Laura "utters a startled, doubtful laugh. She reaches quickly for a piece of glass." (Williams SCENE 2. STAGE DIRECCIONS). The glass menagerie becomes her tactile consolation. The little glass ornaments represent Laura’s self and characterize her fragility and delicate beauty. In particular, the glass unicorn greatly symbolizes her. As the unicorn is different from all the other glass horses, it adds a unique quality and virtual "freakishness" to her very characteristics (Kapcsos).

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.

Objects in stories are not always just things, authors sometimes use these objects to represent more abstract ideas. They use t characterization to give information about the character and then use objects to represent unique qualities in that person. In the play, The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the author uses the unicorn glass piece to show Laura’s unique qualities of her shy and timorous character that make her less functional in society. Tennessee Williams uses the unicorn figure’s uniqueness to represent how Laura doesn’t truly fit anywhere in society. She is presented as extremely diffident and is unable to help support her family.