Senouci 1

Yasmin Senouci
Miss Hou
English 11
February 7th 2014
Living in a fantasy:
Set in the late 1930s The Glass Menagerie showcases the struggles
and hardships of family life. The play is a memory play, it is a memory of
Tom the narrator. Tom is a hardworking young man who is torn between his
dreams and being happy; Laura a socially awkward cripple and Amanda,
their mother, an extremely querulous woman who is very much stuck in the
past. These three characters have each found different ways to distract
themselves from their dull present day lives. Symbolism plays a major role
in this throughout the play. Williams uses symbolism by relating people to
certain objects; he does this to allow the reader a deeper understanding of
each character and their ways of escaping reality.
Tom as the man of the house is obliged to provide for the family and
has done his best to do so ever since his father left. He aspires to be a poet
and has high hopes and dreams for himself but his duty to look after his
family is holding him back, and it is clear he somewhat resents them for it.
He wants nothing more than to leave but he knows if he does it will have a
deleterious effect on both Amanda and Lauras lives. One of the objects
Williams uses as a symbol is the coffin. But the wonderfullest trick of all was
the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin
without removing one nail. There is a trick that would come in handy for me

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(IV 17-20). It is evident that Tom is in total awe of this trick; this is because it
relates to how Tom is feeling trapped. It shows his want to escape from the
reality of having to sacrifice his life dreams to keep his mother and sister
happy. Tom feels as though he is trapped inside the coffin and whilst he is
confined inside although he is alive he is not living but once he is able to
break out of the coffin he will finally be living and able to do what makes him
happy. Another symbol used to represent Toms desperation to escape is the
movies. Every time a problem occurs in the Wingfield household or he is just
tired of listening to Amandas constant nagging he flees to the movies.
When asked why he goes to the movies he replied with I go to the movies
because I like adventure. Adventure is something I dont have much of at
work, so I go to the movies (IV 6-8). This makes it clear that he is unhappy
with not only his life at home but also his job. Tom also often comes home
drunk indicating that drinking is also an escape for him. He leads a rather
mundane life and the only exciting thing there is for him to do is go to the
movies, which is why he goes so often. Another reoccurring symbol
throughout the play is the fire-escape in which Tom leaves to the movies, or
goes to smoke his cigarettes. It is literally his only way out and the only
thing keeping him sane. Tom has endless responsibilities and struggles to
cope with them all therefore he has created many different means to escape
them.
Williams uses symbolism to portray Amanda as a woman who is
desperately clinging on to the past to escape from her present. Amandas

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life is not quite how she thought it would turn out to be so she chooses to
live in the past, because to her it is much better than the life she is leading
right now. Throughout the play Amanda is often seen reminiscing about her
younger years where at one point she had up to seventeen gentleman
callers in one day. I made the young gather the jonquils! It was a joke,
Amanda and her jonquils! Finally there were no more vases to hold them,
every available space with jonquils (VI 21-25). The jonquils represent her
past and when talking about them a different side of her is shown, she seems
much calmer and happier. She finds great happiness in talking about the old
days and how her life was as a young woman.
Lauras way of escaping of reality is to hide from her reality. A
childhood illness named pluerosis resulted in her becoming crippled, because
of this she grew up feeling an extremely different from the other children
around her. Growing up as an outcast left her with a low self-esteem and
inability to interact with people around her, because of this she dropped out
of her business college after very little time there. The thought of being
around people seemed to terrify her and on the first day she was given a
speed test in her typewriting class she shook uncontrollably, threw up and
never returned. Instead she spent her days going on walks around town.
During scene two when Amanda eventually finds out Laura has been ditching
college, Laura is seen [crossing] to the victrola and [winding] it up (II 5960). This quote is a example of how when she is nervous she runs to the
victrola for comfort. On seeing Jim OConnor, her highschool crush, she says

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Excuse me- I havent finished playing the victrola..(VI 69-70). This quote is
a perfect example of how everytime things get uncomfortable or she doesnt
know what to do or how to deal with things she runs and hides behind the
victrola. This shows that Laura relies on the victrola to help and support her
in difficult situations, she winds it up and plays records to comfort herself
and rid herself of all her worries. Listening to music seems to relax her and
free her mind. Another way Laura escapes from reality is through her glass
menagerie, the glass menagerie is a collection of glass animals. Laura has
spent her whole life growing up without friends, so she never had any one to
converse with about problems or even talk to. Laura finds comfort in her
animals because she can relate to them. When Laura is explaining her glass
menagerie to Jim she mentions the unicorn being her favorite one and that it
is different from all the other ones on the shelf because they are horses. The
unicorn represents Laura, it is fragile, peculiar and different from the rest of
the horses like she is considered different from the other girls. Laura uses
the glass menagerie as her escape; she doesnt live in the real world, she
lives in a world of glass animals. Oh be careful- if you breathe, it
breaks!(VII 89). She genuinely believes that these animals have feelings
and has grown to love them deeply because they are the only friends she
has ever really known. Lauras escape is different from Amandas, she does
not talk about anything to anyone. Her escape is different from Toms
because she does not leave everytime things get tough. Lauras escape is
inside the apartment, inside her world of glass figurines and music.

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In conclusion Tenessee Williams uses a great deal of symbolism

throughout the play to show how different people cope with not being able to
accept reality. Everybody has their own way to escape be it listening to
music, walking in the park or simply getting out of the house. Each
character seemed somewhat nave and incapable of living in the real world
and Williams captured their desiree to escape and their reasoning for it
flawlessly.