Glass Menagerie Figurative Language

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Recommended: Symbolism and Imagery in the glass menagerie

‘ The Glass Menagerie’ is a very poetic play. The play has a great deal of metaphors and symbolism in each and every scene. Each character has their own way of saying things. Both Tom and Amanda use heavy figurative language in their dialogue; but each in a different way. Laura, on the other hand, does not talk much but her small actions and the different objects she uses speak louder than words. Tom starts off the play with a clever play on words: “Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.”(1.4)

Tennessee Williams’ style of writing consists of metaphors, alliterations and an ample amount of symbolism. As mentioned above, Tom and Amanda are the characters that regularly fit some metaphorical phrases and sentences into their everyday dialogues. Amanda uses very colorful and imaginative metaphors whenever she is giving her children a lengthy speech. “I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South- barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband …show more content…

Most of the symbolism lies with Laura’s glass menagerie. The glass menagerie symbolizes Laura’s fragileness. Just like the glass menagerie if something or someone new or unknown pushes into Laura’s life and makes her feel uncomfortable she’ll shatter. Another symbolism that was found with the glass menagerie was the glass unicorn. That unicorn symbolised Jim O’Connor. Just like the unicorn, he was supposed to be the unique one, the one man that showed interest in Laura out of all the other ordinary men. But just like how the unicorn became ordinary when its horn broke off, Jim ended up being like all the other men when the facade of his love-life crashed down and Laura found out he was engaged to be married. “Now it is just like all the other

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