In the memory play “The Glass Menagerie,” Tennessee Williams uses symbolism to further the understanding of his characters. The clearest example of his symbolism is the dancing sequence between Laura and Jim. As Laura and Jim become closer the glass figurine shatters and Laura’s world suffers the same damage as the figurine. Using examples of symbolism, find other examples of symbolism and motiffs throughout this play.
In "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams, Laura Wingfield is carefully sheltered by her mother, Amanda, and her brother, Tom. For almost the entire play, Laura remains inside the apartment. Near the beginning of the play, Amanda talks about how Laura went out of the house to supposedly attend business school, but went out walking through the park and zoo instead. The only other time that Laura exits the apartment during the play is during Scene IV, when Amanda tells Laura to pick up some groceries at the store. Upon her leaving, Laura trips on the fire escape. Tom rushes to make sure she is okay, upon which she tells him that "[she's] all right" and that she merely "...slipped, but [she's] all right" (1990). Laura's minor incident on the fire escape symbolizes her struggle to function in society, most likely being the reason she is always kept in the apartment. This simple fall separates Laura from the rest of society and shows how she in unable to cope with the outside world, as she later proves with her brief encounter with Jim. Laura is special; she is not like anyone else in the world and this slip proves her incapacity to handle life outside of her home as she literally "trips" on the outside world.
ReplyDeleteTennessee Williams', "The Glass Menagerie," depicts the life of a family struggling to survive under harsh conditions. Laura, a socially awkward and mentally challenged girl, lives with her mother Amanda and her brother Tom on the brink of poverty surviving only by Tom's low wages. The symbols embellish the plot and provide deeper meaning into the emotions of the characters. For Laura, her glass menageries provide a haven from her mother's control. A sense of detachment from her mother appears after she drops out of schooling and continues to wonder around the town by herself rather than returning home to her regular life. While at home, her glass menageries suffice as an escape from the control of her mother that she achieves on her day long walks. Tom believes, "she lives in a world of her own-a world of-little glass ornaments. (1999)" The glass menageries, fragile and delicate, symbolize Laura's dreams because she herself is delicate and fragile. She creates an escape from reality, a dream, inside of those "little glass ornaments." When they shatter because of a lack of respect on someone else's uncaring actions, her dreams of becoming free and escaping her mothers control are shattered, never to be fulfilled.
ReplyDelete@Dan: I love your connection to symbolism! Laura is most definitley not ready to expose herself in society, considering she has been sheltered in the apartment for so long. I also love your explanation of Laura tripping on the fire escape.
ReplyDelete@Jessica: Good textual evidence. Your explanaiton definitley highlights the fragile and childlike nature of Laura's character.
“The Glass Menagerie” is a memory play that focuses on lives of three dysfunctional characters. In “The Glass Menagerie”, Tennessee Williams uses many examples of symbolism to further explain the actions of these characters. One of these symbols are the movies that Tom constantly goes to many nights of the week. The movies, in this play, provide an escape for Tom from his everyday life. Tom is a son and the man of the house because his father left when he was little. This forces him to have to provide for the family although he wishes to be free. Because he feels so trapped at home he likes to venture off at night to drink and see movies which symbolize the adventure he longs for as well as life he may wish he also had. Amanda: …”Laura says that you hate the apartment and that you go out nights to get away from it! Is that true, Tom? (1992). Although Tom denies going out for this reason it is apparent that he does. Tennessee William’s is a great writer who used many symbols, like the movies, to give the reader a better understanding of the character.
ReplyDeleteTwo more symbols that are important are referred to for the first time in Scene 2. The first is Laura's disability, which represents not only her own fears of facing the world but is a physical manifestation of the way that she, Amanda and Tom are all spiritually and emotionally disabled. Amanda is disabled by her obsession with the past, Laura by her intense shyness and self-consciousness, and Tom by his guilt-ridden sense of duty towards his mother and sister which plays an important role in later scenes.
ReplyDeleteThe second symbol is the glass menagerie, the collection of miniature animals made of glass, referred to in the title. Not much of it is seen at this point, except that Laura cares about it deeply. The menagerie, and specifically the unicorn that gets broken later in the play, represents the dreams held by all the characters; it reveals how precious they are, and how easily destroyed. These include Amanda's dreams for Laura and her own dreams about her past, Laura's dreams for love, the Gentleman Caller's dreams of a prosperous future, and Tom's dreams of freedom from the nagging restrictions on his physical and spiritual life imposed by both his mother and his work. The menagerie also relates to the symbol of the Gentleman Caller, in that both symbols represent aspects of hope.
In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams the father’s portrait is a reoccurring symbol. In the portrait he is handsome and smiling, dressed in his military uniform. He abandoned his family without a word, leaving Tom, his son, to take care of and support his family on his own. Tom had dreams and ambitions and plans for his life, and his father smashed them all when he left Tom to shoulder the family duty he was required to fill. Tom is frustrated with his life, being forced to live for others before himself. And even though he loves his mother and sister, his life plans were shattered because of their dependency on him for survival, and he was not ready to accept that his ideas for his future were now deferred dreams. The portrait is a symbol of the life Tom could be living, his free and independent life with no one holding him back. Tom wants to be happy and leave his family obligation, but he can’t. He could walk out any time, but his family is more important to him than his freedom, unlike the father. The portrait smiles down at Tom from the wall, taunting him. Tom’s father was morally corrupt enough to simply walk out and live his own life. This infuriates Tom. Tom has stayed to support his family because he loves them and cares what happens to them. He is frustrated because he has stayed and done the right thing and been unhappy with his life, while his father abandons the family and is off somewhere in the world very content with his life.
ReplyDeleteIn 'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennessee Williams, symbolism is very prevalent to the story. Tom spends a lot of time on the fire escape. The fries escape serves as a portal between the outside world and the disillusioned world that the family is living in. Since Tom spends most of his time outside smoking or just avoiding his mother who is stuck in her glory days and handicapped sister, he clearly wants no part of the world inside the tiny tenant apartment. The fire escape allows Tom to sneak out to his movies and drunken nights which further supports the fact that Tom just wants to be a writer and not deal with his family. Although Tom sees the fire escape as a bridge to the outside world, Laura sees it as a way of keeping her inside the apartment and out of the world. Laura trips over the fire escape as she leaves symbolizing that being sent out into society alone is not going to be an easy journey for her.
ReplyDeleteThe characters' emotions and situations, in "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams, are reinforced by the use of symbols throughout the play. Amanda, the mother of Tom and Laura, cannot let go of her Southern glory days even though she is well into the mid -years of her life and has had two children. There are many symbols of her youthful fantasies throughout the play, but one important symbol is her dress that Amanda wears to host Laura's gentlemen caller Jim. To Amanda it is a symbol of the prime of her youth when she had many gentlemen callers and was dancing away to her heart's desire. It is the hopeless dream that she can return to that state of mind and be giddy and carefree like she was in her youth. However to Tom and Laura it represents their embarassment of her overzealous attempt to welcome Jim. This dress is the concept of Amanda trying to transform herself back to a 17 year old girl to flirt with Laura's caller, which is mortifying to Laura and Tom. This yellow dress represents Amanda's joyous youth and her failed attempts to relive that time in her life.
ReplyDeleteJust stepping outdoors gives one a feeling of freedom when embraced by the fresh air after being constrained by the walls of a room. In the memory play ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Tennessee Williams, Tom is forced to step outdoors to escape the pressures and thick air of his small apartment. Williams uses a fire escape in this memory play to symbolize a door to another world, when the one he lives in is simply too much to bear. Tom resorted to escaping to the fire escape “On the evenings in the spring [when] the windows and doors were open and the music came outdoors” (1455). On the fire escape, he is able to watch movies, smoke, and simply forget about the handicaps of his sister, and the tensions within his family. This symbolism depicts Tom’s need to get away from the pressures of his family and world. His mother, Amanda, warns Tom to be cautious of “break[ing] a leg on those fire escape steps” (1451), which symbolizes her fear of the dangers of the outside world, and her obvious comfort within the walls of her small apartment.
ReplyDeleteAs in many plays, especially memory plays, light serves as a primary symbol. “The Glass Menagerie,” serves as no exception to this rule. Often, writers will use bright lights to set a happy mood on the scene, or dim lights to set a gloomier scene. Sometimes, a small, sharp light can be used to focus on a particular object or character. While at other times, light is used to symbolize something. Tennessee Williams uses candles to symbolize a small, temporary happiness or hope in the story. At the end of the play Tom says, “blow out your candles, Laura- and so goodbye.” These candles represent the false sense of hope Jim had given Laura temporarily, before she returns to her state of being a disabled, husbandless woman. The candles also represent Laura finally being left alone. Laura, considering her circumstances, seems to be content with who she is. It is Tom and Amanda, particularly Amanda who want to see her be someone she is not. At the end of the story these candles represent the fact that maybe Laura can be left to be content with herself and that her family’s hope of her being a normal human being is gone.
ReplyDelete"The Glass Menagerie," by Tennessee Williams, is full of interesting symbolism. A prime example of such is Amanda Wingfield, the main character's mother. Amanda is a middle aged woman stuck in her idyllic Southern girlhood. Amanda's once charmed life has stopped being filled with gentleman callers and is now spent watching over her drunken son and emotionally unstable daughter, both of whom are in their 20s and should be long gone. Amanda is not just their mother but a representation, a symbol, of everything that is wrong in the lives of the Wingfield children. Tom is away drinking so often because he can't stand his mother and alcohol allows him to escape her. Laura stays inside all day because her mother, the popular southern belle, has given her big shoes to fill, and Laura knows that she will never fill them by being admired by boys and the like. Amanda is symbolic of vanity and narcissism. She is symbolic of tables being turned - yes, she was once expected to lead a life of luxury and grace but is now living in a slum. While not many people would expect a character to be symbolic, Amanda Wingfield is certainly representative of the world's negativity and its impact on her children.
ReplyDeleteIn Tennessee Williams memory play "The Glass Menagerie", one of the major themes is individuality and self-acceptance. This theme is depicted through one of the major characters Laura, a socially awkward young girl that marches to the beat of a different drum. While most people of this time strive to achieve conformity, Laura is happy to stand out. The nickname that Jim, her high school crush gives her exemplifies this. What Jim calls Laura "wasn't a name", as Laura replies, "wasn't it Blue Roses" it shows that she not only remembers the name he has given her, but she is almost proud of it. The name blue roses is a symbol for uniqueness, but a strange sense of unconventional attraction at the same time, because blue roses are not found, but they sound alluring and beautiful, but not typical when you think of a rose. You can make the comparison of Laura as a Blue Rose, to other women that fit in as plain roses, Laura is still beautiful, however it is in her own unique way.
ReplyDelete@Allison-Great point about the movies fleshing out Tom's character.
ReplyDelete@Emily- Great imput!
@Virginia- Great original symbol!
@Haley-Very interesting interpretation of the firescape.
@Lindsay- I liked the choice the choice of a symbol that some people might not have picked up on.
@Ciara- I loved the hook into your post!
@Brooks- Nice use of stage lighting as symbolism
@Erin- Your post is very perceptive
@Alex- Using the nickname was great for picking up on a more obescure symbol.