Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie Essay

In his drama, Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses the theme of escape to help drive the play forward. Every character in the play has a symbol associated with escape from the reality. The first symbol is introduced to us in the very first scene – the fire escape. For Tom this is an escape from his sister Laura and his mother Amanda.

The fire escape is like a flee from the reality of his irritating sibling. Tom leaves his house to go for a smoke at the fire escape at any given opportunity, just so he doesn’t have to be around his family. Amanda’s means of escape are through her constant reminiscing of old memories, when she apparently had “seventeen gentlemen callers waiting” in the Blue Mountain. Nobody knows whether this was ever true or not, but it was mentioned by Tom’s mother on several occasions throughout the play.

Another symbol for Tom’s escape is his habit of going to the “movies”. The way Tom talks about his experiences, we are unclear if he is actually going to the movies or is just going to the bar to get drunk. Amanda is unhappy with the absence of her son, but has no control over it, for Tom feels the need to get away from his family as much as possible to escape the real world. However going to the movies is just a steppingstone, for in the end when he spends the money meant to pay for the electric bill on his dues to the Merchant Seaman’s Union, in order to run away form his mother and sister.

Father’s picture on the wall, which had left 16 years ago, is a representation of his dream to leave his house and set out to see the world. Tom wishes to do the same and is not ashamed of it. He has no remorse towards wanting to leave his siblings behind with no future and no income. This relates back to the theme of escape, which he is reminded of on the post card from his father “Hello – Goodbye”.

Amanda’s obsession and constant dwelling of the past is her escape from reality. Anytime she would talk about her gentlemen callers she would suddenly become happy. Amanda refuses to acknowledge that her daughter is “crippled”, and she continues to believe that Jim is going to become a serious man in her future. When Jim arrives, she begins to behave as he came to see her; she flirts, talks a lot about herself and does not really care too much for her daughter. Jim represents one of her gentleman callers from the past.

Much like Amanda, Jim’s escape from reality is through his memories as well. Although his memories are of his school years, when he was popular, he played basketball and all the girls admired his singing. This is one of the main reasons he remains friends with Tom the “Shakespeare”, because he still remembers him as the stud. However, in reality, Jim is just a regular guy, working at a warehouse, aiming for an executive job by taking night courses. He is very happy that Laura acknowledges him and keeps a picture of him; this makes him go back in time and makes him feel like a big shot again.

As for Laura, her escape is being by herself, in her own world, with her glass menagerie. She does not know what she wants in life; se is very dependant, not confident and extremely shy around people. When she pretended to go to business school, she would leave her house and spend the whole day by herself then, when her mother caught her doing that, Laura was telling about her escapes as she was having the time of her life. Laura’s collection of glass statues, play a very important role in her life, by acting as a means of escape from reality. When Amanda tells her to practice her typing skills, the minute she leaves, Laura begins to play with her glass figurines. By doing this she is able to get away from the real world and be somewhere else where she is happy and cannot be bothered. When her mother returns she quickly goes back to her typing machine where she pretends to have been practicing all this time. When Laura shows her unicorn statue to Jim, the unicorn is a representation of her and how she is different and stands out from all of the other girls. Jim knows this and even says that it is hard to find a shy girl these days, when he arrives at Wingfield’s place. Later on when the unicorn falls and the horn breaks, it becomes just another regular horse. This symbolizes how Jim broke her heart after he had talked to her and kissed her, and turned her into a regular girl by changing some of her perspectives and attitudes towards life.

Tennesse Williams uses the theme of escape throughout his play to demonstrate the hopelessness of each character. Tom, Laura, and Amanda all seem to think escape is possible. In the end however, no character can completely escape their illusionary world. Perhaps Williams is trying to send a message that running away is not the way to solve life's problems, and the only way to escape is by solving your problems, not avoiding them.