The Glass Menagerie is a modern American play written by Tennessee Williams in 1944. The Glass Menagerie entails the genre of tragedy and family drama in the aftermath of The Great Depression. The play is based off of the narrator and protagonist, Tom Wingfield’s, memory. Williams uses several symbols throughout the play, but he focuses mainly on the title of the play as the most important symbol throughout. As the title of the play tells us, glass menagerie are collections of glass animals. Laura Wingfeild, Tom’s sister in the play, is the collector of these little glass animals. Laura is a very peculiar person who struggles both physically and emotionally. She collects them as her own way of coping with her physical disability and emotions. One glass animal of her collection in particular that the author, Williams’s, uses to symbolize and compare her to the most, is the unicorn. The unicorn symbolizes loneliness and uncommonness, directly meant to represent Laura. Most importantly the unicorn represents a very strong connection and similarity of Laura and how she is perceived. In scenes one and two, we get an image of Laura’s personality is before the unicorn is mentioned. Laura’s mother, Amanda Wingfield, wants nothing more, but for Laura to get a business degree so there will be a future for them. Rather than finish, she quits to focus on her glass collection. Instead of inspiring Laura to do what she cares for, her mother selfishly explains that collecting glass is not a future and she has seen what being dependent can do to oneself. The author shows how unusual and lonely Laura can be in scene one, in comparison to how unusual and lonely the unicorn is. To illustrate this, Amanda tells Laura to “stay fresh and pretty!-It’s ... ... middle of paper ... ...he gentleman caller and her old high school crush. As they talk about each other Laura introduces Jim to her glass collection and lets him hold her unicorn of all animals. She tells him, “if you breathe, it breaks” (1692)! This statement symbolizes Laura and how sensitive she is and if not careful she will fall apart. Jim eventually does break the unicorn, which is another symbolization of Laura. She is like the broken horn of the unicorn, because Jim leads her own to eventually destroy from ever believing there is hope of finding a lifelong partner. Tennessee William’s uses this symbolization of the broken unicorn horn in particular, to represent Laura and how fragile she can be. Once she is broken she falls apart and loses all hopefulness. Therefore, the unicorn represents Laura for exactly how she is and helps those reading better understand the importance of it.
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 trying to escape their own reality, and continue desperately to grasp at real life. The powerful use of symbolism in The Glass Menagerie exaggerates their missed opportunities, and their inability to step into a new reality. Through the use of symbolism, Williams continually illuminates the attempts of each character to break their bondage, and cross their own personal Rubicon into another reality. Because of his expert use of symbolism the audience can assuredly feel the full weight and impact of their imprisonment and actions.
It is visible when you look closely at the lines in the play that Tennessee Williams was writing about himself and his family when he wrote The Glass Menagerie. In the end Tom cries, “Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, and I speak to the nearest stranger – anything that can blow your candles out! … For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura – and so good-bye…'; (1188). Tennessee Williams’ entire life’s work was, in many ways, recognition to his sister Rose.
Laura's mother and brother shared some of her fragile tendencies. Amanda, Laura's mother, continually lives in the past. Her reflection of her teenage years continually haunts Laura. To the point where she forces her to see a "Gentleman Caller" it is then that Tom reminds his mother not to "expect to much of Laura" she is unlike other girls. But Laura's mother has not allowed herself nor the rest of the family to see Laura as different from other girls. Amanda continually lives in the past when she was young a pretty and lived on the plantation. Laura must feel she can never live up to her mothers expectations. Her mother continually reminds her of her differences throughout the play.
Tennessee Williams depicts three main symbols that help his protagonist, Laura, escape from reality in his play The Glass Menagerie. The first symbol that Laura utilizes begins with her father’s departure. When her father left, he left Laura his victrola and his old record collection. The record player helps Laura unwind as the record spins repeatedly on its platform. The second representation of escape occurs when Laura forces herself to become sick and vomit. Laura forces herself into a sickness when she finds herself in uncomfortable situations and this occurs multiple times throughout the play. Finally, Laura utilizes her most valuable escape and prized possession, her glass unicorn. The unicorn allows Laura to slip into a realm of fantasy and imagination because unicorns are directly related with fantasy and imagination. The glass unicorn helps Laura escape because they both stand out in a crowd. Throughout this play each individual escape helps Laura to find herself and realize that she can overcome her ailment.
Generally when some one writes a play they try to elude some deeper meaning or insight in it. Meaning about one's self or about life as a whole. Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is no exception the insight Williams portrays is about himself. Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments (Kirszner and Mandell 1807). The play centers itself on three characters. These three characters are: Amanda Wingfield, the mother and a women of a great confusing nature; Laura Wingfield, one who is slightly crippled and lets that make her extremely self conscious; and Tom Wingfield, one who feels trapped and is looking for a way out (Kirszner and Mandell 1805-06). Williams' characters are all lost in a dreamy state of illusion or escape wishing for something that they don't have. As the play goes from start to finish, as the events take place and the play progresses each of the characters undergoes a process, a change, or better yet a transition. At the beginning of each characters role they are all in a state of mind which causes them to slightly confuse what is real with what is not, by failing to realize or refusing to see what is illusioned truth and what is whole truth. By the end of the play each character moves out of this state of dreamy not quite factual reality, and is better able to see and face facts as to the way things are, however not all the characters have completely emerged from illusion, but all have moved from the world of dreams to truth by a whole or lesser degree.
The Glass Menagerie is a play about the memories of a young man named Tom Wingfield. Tom dreams of escaping his complicated and completely dependent family. Tennessee Williams uses symbolism to emphasize Tom’s yearning to leave. The first symbol of this the fire escape which serves as a bridge to reality from the illusive wo...
She is a shy, quiet girl who keeps herself at a distance. She loves glass figurines and prides herself on them. To her brother, she is seen as crippled because she cannot walk well and is socially awkward. This results in Laura’s reality being different than the rest of the family’s because she closes herself off into a space where it is only her. Amanda wants the best for Laura, for her to have a husband or finish business school, because she wants Laura to get out of the house and get living. However, Laura does not want to live in that world, and it is shown when she skipped her business classes and through her interaction with Jim, her high school crush. Jim is the only person who is able to take Laura out of her own weird reality, and bring her into the reality of an ordinary girl. Laura breaks through her reality when she talks about the unicorn horn that Jim broke off her glass figurine, she tells Jim that, “It doesn’t matter. . . . [smiling] I’ll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less—freakish!” (Williams, 2009). Therefore, Laura being with Jim makes her feel a little less odd. This brings Laura out of her own reality for a bit, but then she retreats back into it when she finds out that Jim is engaged to someone else right after he kisses her. He broke her free of her own reality for a bit, just like how he broke the horn off of the
Tennessee Williams's brilliant use of symbols adds life to the play. The title itself, The Glass Menagerie, reveals one of the most important symbols. Laura's collection of glass animals represents her fragile state. When Jim, the gentleman caller, breaks the horn off her favorite unicorn, this represents Laura's break from her unique innocence.
Laura is the owner and caretaker of the glass menagerie. In her own little fantasy world, playing with the glass animals is how she escapes from the real world in order to get away from the realities and hardships she endures. Though she is crippled only to a very slight degree physically, her mind is very disabled on an emotional level. Over time, she has become very fragile, much like the glass, which shatters easily, as one of the animals lost its horn; she can lose control of herself. Laura is very weak and open to attack, unable to defend herself from the truths of life. The glass menagerie is an unmistakable metaphor in representing Laura’s physical and mental states.
The main symbols in The Glass Menagerie are the glass menageries themselves. Laura, the daughter in the story, collects little glass figurines or animals; these figurines are called menageries. The small, glass, figures represent numerous elements of Laura’s personality. Both Laura and the figurines are fragile, whimsical, and somewhat behind the times. As Anita Gates writes, in her article "When Appearances Aren't What They Seem" Laura “is as delicate as the tiny glass animals she collects” (10). Laura is very fragile and weak in body, mind, and spirit. The menageries are weak also because they are made of glass. Therefore, both the figurines and Laura have to be cared for and treated lightly because of the possible damage that could be done to them if they were not properly taken care of.
Like the glass menagerie, the only people who see her unique beauty are the ones who take the time to look at her in the right light. One of the first people outside the family to see the more vibrant side of Laura is Jim, a friend of her brother’s as well as an old high school crush of hers. While having dinner at their house, Jim takes interest in Laura’s collection of glass animals and records. They reminisce about high school and when Jim begins to understand why she is so shy, he says, “You know what I judge is the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! Know what that is? That’s what they call it when someone low-rates himself!” Seeing her now as the vibrant creature she is, Jim is intrigued by her exotic beauty. Though Laura’s entire collection represents her personality, the unicorn in particular, symbolizes her unique and rare soul. When she shows Jim her menagerie, she declares the unicorn to be her favorite. “Aren’t those extinct in the modern world?” Jim replies. He also says that the unicorn must be lonely because he is not like the other horses. It seems that the unicorn is Laura’s favorite because she can easily identify with it, its beauty, its distinctiveness, and its solitary
Laura has a physical handicap with one leg being shorter than the other. With this handicap Laura was picked on and led to having high anxiety and stress. The anxiety and stress led to her not going to business college as stated when Amanda went to Laura’s class and talked to Laura’s teacher. To escape from the stress, Laura has a collection of glass sculptures. This is stated in the scene information of Scene II with “She [Laura] is washing and polishing her collection of glass” (Williams 1251). In Scene III when Tom and Amanda are fighting Tom through his jacket and broke a sculpture “With an outraged groan he [Tom] tears the coat off again, splitting the shoulders of it and hurls it across the room. It strikes against the shelf of Laura’s glass collection, there is a tinkle of shattering glass. Laura cries out as if wounded” (Williams 1257). Laura has one piece in her collection that wasn’t broken till later and means the most to her and that is the unicorn, Laura states this with “I shouldn’t be partial, but he is my favorite one” (Williams 1282). The unicorn represents her because the unicorn is different from a normal horse just like how she is different from other women, she then allows her gentleman caller Jim O’Connor to hold the unicorn and saying “Go on, I trust you with him”
The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.
The unicorn is a mythological figure. Closely related to the horse, it is uniqueness comes in the form of a long horn located on the center of its forehead. In Laura's menagerie, it is unlike the other figures. In fact, Laura refers to the unicorn as being "freakish." (109) Her characterization of the unicorn reflects how she feels about herself. It is because of its uniqueness that Laura chose to identify with it. She creates a world with her figurines in which the abnormal coexists with the normal. When Jim, the gentleman caller, inquires about the unicorn being lonely, she replies, "He stays on a shelf with some horses that don't have horns and all of them seem to get along nicely together."(101) In her imaginary world no one judges her because of her limp and it is that world she is capable of coping in. Laura's characterization of the figurines hints at her inner desires to be able to deal with the outside world and become less "freakish." Laura tells Jim, "[the figurines] all like a change of scenery once in a while." (102)
In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses the roles of the members of the Wingfield family to highlight the controlling theme of illusion versus reality. The family as a whole is enveloped in mirage; the lives of the characters do not exist outside of their apartment and they have basically isolated themselves from the rest of the world. Even their apartment is a direct reflection of the past as stories are often recalled from the mother's teenage years at Blue Mountain, and a portrait of the man that previously left the family still hangs on the wall as if his existence is proven by the presence of the image. The most unusual factor of their world is that it appears as timeless. Amanda lives only in the past while Tom lives only in the future and Laura lives in her collection of glass animals, her favorite being the unicorn, which does not exist. Ordinary development and transformation cannot take place in a timeless atmosphere such as the apartment. The whole family resists change and is unwilling to accept alteration. Not only is the entire family a representation of illusion versus reality, each of the characters uses fantasy as a means of escaping the severity of their own separate world of reality. Each has an individual fantasy world to which they retreat when the existing world is too much for them to handle. Each character has a different way of dealing with life when it seems to take control of them, and they all become so completely absorbed in these fantasies that they become stuck in the past.