“There is a time for departure even when there is no certain place to go” - Tennessee Williams. In life, individuals will often have to deal with the struggle of their issues and pushing through tough times that may be difficult to handle . During these moments in our life, we look to escape and find an outlet to be rid of reality for a period of time. By engaging in escapism and retreating into our own world it can caused a divide in dealing with our reality which can cause us to ignore the problems going on in our lives. In the play, The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the play suggests that when life becomes too difficult for individuals thet long to escape their reality.
The character, Amanda Wingfield is able to find an escape
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Her disability and introverted personality causes her to lack the ambition and drive to be successful in the world . Her difficulties with social interaction are shown throughout the play as seen when she pukes on the first day of business collage and gets violently sick when her gentlemen caller arrives for dinner. When Laura falls down the stairs going to get groceries it shows how she isn't prepared for the real world and the challenges she would have to face. Laura also finds a struggle in following her mothers footsteps which can also be seen when she is going to get groceries. She wears an old coat of Amanda past as seen in the quote “The coat is one of Amandas , inaccurately made-over, the sleeves to short for Laura” which symbolizes the pressure of being as outgoing and desirable of her mother when she was young . In these troubling times in Lauras life, she finds an escape in many different ways. She visits the penguins at the zoo, which resemble Laura as they are flightless and grounded as well as the Jewel box of exotic flowers which shows her fragility. A major escape for Laura is shown through her fragile glass menagerie collection. She describes the unicorn being her favourite as she is able to connect and relate to it as they both are one of a kind and unique from the rest. Lauras fathers old records also are seen as an escape which brings her back to …show more content…
His love of poetry and adventure is suppressed by his job at the Continental Shoe Company in order to support his family. The longing for interest and a creative outlet in his life causes him to become terribly unhappy with his reality and the direction his life is going. This can be seen when he comes home from visiting a magician who escaped from a nailed coffin and says “There is a trick that would come in handy for me - get me out of this two-by-four situation!’.This comment implies how he is suffering by being trapped in his life living in the small apartment with his mother and his sister. Due to his unhappy situation, Tom finds adventure and an escape through the movies where he finds the excitement that ge wants in his life. In the play he discusses the envy he has of actors and how they get to experience life to the fullest while he is trapped in his unsatisfying reality. When the movies are not enough to help Tom ignore his problems and issues in life, he resorts to alcohol to numb how he is feeling about his situation. When tom also escapes by going to smoke at the fire escape, it symbolizes how all the men in Amandas and Lauras life were able to escape while they can only escape there realities through illusions. This foreshadows and eventually leads to Tom being able to leave his reality at the expense of leaving his family
This early characterization keeps readers interested in Tom and what he will do throughout the novel due to his intriguing early rebellious behavior and personality. To start analyzing Tom’s life one must start with the earliest mention of him as a child, this being a scene of Tom harassing young girls during his own baptism, ignoring those who tell him to stop. This shows early rebellion and an apt for trying societal rules, revealing that he does not care about the outcome of any situation as long as he is enjoying himself. This is backed up later in his life when Tom gets into a fight at a bar and ultimately kills a man, resulting in him going to jail for multiple years, in which he does not break maintaining sanity revealing his aptitude and strength in his ways of leading his life. This philosophy would follow him through his life, ultimately starting to take a new shape when he would later meet again with the preacher who baptized him, Jim
Demonstrated, by her praying when her mother asks her and attending church as well. Furthermore, in combination with references to slavery from Amanda and a few derogatory terms from Tom one can assume Laura and her family are Caucasian American. Moreover, it can be assumed that the play was written for a time period before it was published in 1944. Shown by the play also making references to the Second World War, and the Spanish civil War, presumably meaning the play took place some time in the late 1930’s. In the play the super-objective of Laura is to protect the alternate reality she has created where she feels far less crippled, and far more accepted. However, Laura faces the obstacle of real life, and her issues with her mother and her brother. The importance of protecting this alternate reality is extremely high to Laura because it is the only thing that has protected her from feeling confusion, pain, and anger towards the problems she faces. Meaning, it’s her only defence against something she has no control over (her illness, her families problems, feeling accepted).
While Tom’s role in the plot of the novel is small, his contribution to the overall message is integral. His nonsensical antics and wild imagination provide for amusing scenes and moments, however they share a deeper meaning that Twain means to convey to his audience. Representing the juxtaposition of a privileged man in Southern Antebellum society in the character of a young boy contributes to the satiric nature of the novel by providing a certain hilarity to the seriousness of Tom’s cruel
Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son Tom's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.
Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.
Amanda was a woman who lives in a world of fantasy and reality. In the past memory and the future of the fantasy made Amanda very strong, but in the face of reality she was fragile. Just like Tom used to explain “I give you truth in the
Reality is hard to face, when everything going on around a person is not in the greatest conditions. The Wingfield family does not live in the greatest conditions. Tom, Amanda and Laura all live in an apartment together. Tom, the main character and narrator of the play, is the brother to Laura and the son to Amanda. Tom is forced to take on the role of the breadwinner of the family because his father left them. This has thrown the entire family off the rails. It has altered the reality in which all of the characters live. In Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, The Wingfield family has difficulty differentiating reality versus non-reality. The world we are living in today relates
The characters inhabit their private realities in order to detach themselves from a world that confuses and alienates them. Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim prefer to immerse themselves in their narrow view of time rather than embrace the flow of time. Laura remains isolated as she has failed to find love. Amanda judges Laura as she imposes her own narrow expectations on her. Tom believes that he can escape reality and become inseparable from the imaginary worlds of movies. Jim's idealistic view of Laura suggests that he is out of touch with reality. The play demonstrates that the characters desire to escape reality due to their inability to live in the present and embrace the flow of
Tennessee Williams employs the uses of plot, symbolism, and dialogue to portray his theme of impossible true escape, which asserts itself in his play, The Glass Menagerie. Each of his characters fills in the plot by providing emotional tension and a deep, inherent desire to escape. Symbolism entraps meaning into tangible objects that the reader can visualize and attach significance to. Conclusively, Williams develops his characters and plot tensions through rich dialogue. Through brilliant construction and execution of literary techniques, Williams brings to life colorful characters in his precise, poignant on-stage drama.
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.
Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.
Quinn Keehn Roe English 17 March 2024 Jim Crow Laws in the 1930s Have you ever been curious about what it was like for African Americans during the 1930s? Can you imagine the discrimination, unfairness, and unjust accusations that Blacks are commonly subject to? Jim Crow laws enforce segregation based on race and affect Blacks in many ways. Jim Crow laws affected all of America in so many ways during the 1930s. The Jim Crow Laws of the 1930s were disgraceful laws that were designed and implemented to continue to control the lives of Black people.
Amanda loves her children and tries her best to make sure they do not follow her path to downfall. Unfortunately, while she is trying to push her children toward her ideals of success, she is also pushing them away. Amanda Wingfield is a kind woman stuck in the wrong place and time; she is trying to make her children’s life perfect while attempting to get a re-do on her love life with Laura and forcing Tom to fill the role that her husband abandoned. Amanda Wingfield was never meant to be in the situation that she finds herself in.
Tom escaped from the fantasy world of Amanda and Laura by hanging out on the fire escape, even though he could never fully escape. Unfortunately for Tom, his life was cramped like the coffin and he was slowly suffocating emotionally and spiritually. Unhappy with the lifestyle he followed in the footsteps of his father, he searched for adventure, escaping the nagging of Amanda.
Tom is the main character and is known as the man of the house since his father left them some years ago. Laura is the shy daughter of Amanda and is stated in the character list as “having failed to establish contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions” (Williams 1247). Laura has a physical handicap, with one leg being shorter than the other. With this handicap Laura was picked on and led to 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.