Symbols are a tool writers like to use to make the readers think deeper into the meaning and message of their stories. ?The Glass Menagerie? by Tennessee Williams is full of these symbols. There are three major symbols that seem to be most important.
The first major symbol is fire. The symbol of fire for Tom is a symbol of escape. Tom first uses fire in the form of cigarettes.
Amanda: ?(He rises and crosses downstage.) You?re not excused from the Tom: I am getting a cigarette (164).
He escapes conversations and arguments by going outside and smoking a cigarette. Another example of this escape is when his mother tells him he should save his money and go to night school. He replies ?I?d rather smoke?(Williams 181).
Tom uses smoking to escape social situations, which he finds undesirable and uncomfortable. Tom also physically uses the light from fire to escape other forms of entrapment. Tom then uses fire in the scene where he drops his key. Since the light from the match never fell upon the key this helped to aid Tom in his escape. As the story progresses fire becomes more and more associated with Tom?s urge to leave.
Another form of escape by way of fire is the glass menagerie Fire Escape">fire escape itself. The fire escape represents different forms of escape for each main character. Tom uses the fire escape to escape from reality and eventually to escape from his family. For Laura the fire escape represents something completely opposite. When Laura leaves for the store to go get the family some butter she slips and falls on the fire escape. This symbolizes the Laura is unable to leave her situation. It also serves as a boundary between reality and a safe dream world for Laura. The boundary is broken when Laura finally opens the door for Jim O?Connor, but when reality (Jim) leaves the boundary is back. The fire escape is also Amanda?s symbol of hope. She goes out on it and wishes on the moon for a gentlemen caller for Laura. The second major symbol is the glass menagerie. Unlike the previous symbols in the play the glass menagerie represents something completely different. ?The glass menagerie?embodies the fragility of Laura?s world?and stands in vivid contrast to the harshness of the outer world which can shatter it so easily? (Stein 36).
The Essay on Symbols in Glass Managerie
... the horn refers to ways that Laura is a strange person. Laura?s escape includes her glass managerie, listening to records on the ... adventure by going to movies and sitting on the fire escape. Tom?s mother, Amanda, is quite controlling and confused. Her husband ... still hope in fulfilling their dreams. Tennessee Williams places symbols around these characters that creates a variety of attitudes ...
The first time the link between Laura and the glass menagerie is shown in the scene where Tom and Amanda are fighting. Tom in a fit of rage throws his jacket and breaks some of the glass out of the menagerie. Laura cries out as if she was the one who was hit. This shows the fragility of Laura. Tom: She lives in a world of her own – a world of ? little glass ordainments, Mother (186).
What Tom is trying to say is that Laura lives in her own little world just like her little animals in the glass menagerie. Laura?s little world is invaded by a gentleman caller who is not of the glass world. The gentlemen caller does not belong because he is not fragile. He also does not belong because when light is shined through glass it creates a rainbow, but when light is shined on him it creates a big black shadow.
One special piece of glass stands out from the rest as a symbol. This piece is the Unicorn, and directly represents Laura in every aspect.
Laura: Oh, be careful ? if you breath it breaks Jim: I better not take it. I?m pretty clumsy with things. Laura: Go on, I trust you with him! (Places it in his palm.) There now you?re holding him gently (205).
The Term Paper on Glass Menagerie Symbolism Laura Jim Tom
... of her breaks too. When Jim breaks the glass unicorn's horn, he is unintentionally bringing Laura into the real world. This also ... symbolizes the breaking of Laura's ... being. Symbolically, the horn of the glass unicorn (Laura's favorite piece) breaks off when Jim is exposed to it. Metaphorically, ...
This quote shows how fragile Laura really is, and it also shows Laura?s complete trust in Jim not with the glass menagerie, but with herself. It also shows Jim?s gentleness towards Laura. The unicorn also has uniqueness just like Laura does. The unicorn has a horn that separates it from the rest of the horses, and Laura is shy and innocent which separates her from the rest of society. When Laura and Jim dance the unicorn is knocked off the table and the horn is broken off. This makes the unicorn just like the rest of the horses. When Jim kisses Laura she seems to lose some of her shyness and her innocence. This makes Laura less unique and more like other girls.
Laura?s heart also breaks like the unicorn after Jim tells her that he has a girlfriend. In the end Jim not only has broken the unicorn, he has also broken her heart. Laura gives Jim the broken unicorn just like she gives him her broken heart to take with him when he leaves. The unicorn can also be shown as a symbol of hope, the hope of finding love and leaving her lonely secluded lifestyle. When Laura gives Jim the unicorn she is giving him her hope of leaving the apartment. It seems when the glass menagerie when exposed to the outside world pieces seem to break just like when Laura is exposed to the cruel outside world pieces of her seem to become more reserved and broken. The final major symbol of the play is Jim O?Connor, the gentlemen caller. Jim represents many ideas in the play. The first idea Jim symbolizes to Laura is reality.
?Gentleman caller who is the symbol, as Tom describes him, of ?the long delayed but always expected something that we live for.? Jim, the narrator goes on to say, is ?the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of reality that we were somehow set apart from? (Hirsch 38) Jim is a perfect example of the common man. He has no real outstanding qualities. He works as a clerk in the same factory Tom does, and he goes to night school. Jim is a very down to earth character.
The second Idea Jim symbolizes is Amanda?s youth. Jim makes her remember picking jonquils till there was no more vases to fill. Amanda even puts on her old dress from when she was a girl.
Amanda: Something I have resurrected from that old trunk. This is the dress in which I led the cotillion?I wore this on Sundays for my gentleman callers (189) Even though Amanda desires to see Laura settle down with a nice man, it is hard to tell whether she wanted a gentlemen caller to be invited for Laura or for herself.
The Essay on The Glass Menagerie Laura Amanda Play
The Glass Menagerie, is a adorable little play written be Tennessee Williams. The play takes place in tiny apartment, behind an ally, during the 1940 s. There is three main characters, Amanda, Tom, and Laura. Amanda, the mother takes care of her two children as a single mother. She likes to have whats best for the both of her children, but sometimes favors Amanda more. Amanda is a worrier, who is ...
The final idea Jim symbolizes is one of a savior. ?Tom also tends to remember events symbolically, and so he describes Jim as a kind of savior from a ?world of reality? in which the Wingfields do not live? (Presef 26).
When Jim first arrives he is surrounded by images of light and warmth. Jim?s warmth actually comes over Laura. When Laura is lying on the couch Jim brings her light in the form of old altar candles. He even refers to himself as if he were a ?superman.? In the family?s mind Jim is supposed to ?save? Laura from being an old maid. The whole savior symbol is destroyed when Jim finally tells Laura that he has a girlfriend. Through symbolism Tennessee Williams managed to create a wonderful and powerful play. Each of the symbols is equally important in setting the tone and intensity of the play. Fire as a symbol for escape and Jim representing hope and the saving grace in the life of Laura show that even in the worst of situations there is still the possibility of redemption, even though the redemption in Jim and Laura?s lives never comes to pass. The representation of the unicorn and Laura?s love is also a unique and powerful theme in ?The Glass Menagerie.? This shows how much people can become attached to their personal affects and how people can see their personalities and traits reflected in those belongings. Even the people of the play represent certain aspects and ideas of the story. Such as Jim representing a savior for Laura is particularly ingenious. Due to the clever and fascinating representations that Tennessee Williams uses in ?The Glass Menagerie? this play will be associated with some of the greatest plays of all time.
Bibliography:
Works cited Hirsch, Foster. A Portrait of the Artist the Plays of Tennessee Williams. London:
National University Publications Kennikat press, 1979. Presef, Delma. The Glass Menagerie: an American Tragedy. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990. Stein, Robert B. The Glass Menagerie Revisited: Catastrophe without Violence.
The Essay on Glass Menagerie Blanche Laura Plays
'A Streetcar Named Desire'; and 'The Glass Menageries were written by Tennessee William in the late Thirties, where the depression made countless of people struggled in poverty. Both of the plays used the typical American family during the Thirties as the background setting. There were many similarities between the plays: including characters and events. Did Tennessee William write the same play ...
Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prenticeitall Inc, 1988 Williams, Tennessee. ?The Glass Menagerie.? Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience, Shorter Seventh Edition. Eds. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin?s, 2000. 161-213.
