The Glass Menagerie is a famous memory play written by Tennessee Williams. A narrator, Tom presents the story before audiences which is based on his memories. There are three main characters in the story and story is knitted around them. The story succeeded in wining hearts of people because of strong idea of the story. This paper discusses, ‘The Glass Menagerie’, discusses symbolism of the story, along with several related aspects of the story and further presents an analysis of the story.
Glass is usually translucent but it refracts different colors when light contacts it with a particular angle. Like glass, Laura also was very quiet and featureless before strangers but when she came into contact of someone whom she liked, she became very colorful and energetic. The glass menagerie or compilation of glass animals also suggests that Laura used to live in an imaginary world, a world where she used to feel comfortable and happy than the real world.
The glass unicorn was Laura’s much loved among her collections of glass menagerie which symbolizes Laura’s idiosyncrasy. Jim says unicorns are different from other horses because of their horn, they are lonely, do not exist in modern times and are vanished out, he adds. Like unicorn, Laura is also lonely as well as impractical and lacks the requirements that are necessary to live in this world. The horn of unicorn breaks and it becomes like other normal horses while Laura dances with Jim and Jim kisses her. It symbolizes that Jim’s presence, his behavior and kiss makes Laura normal like other girls (Dramatica).
Blue roses and jonquils symbolize two different characters. Blue rose is high school nickname of Jim which is unique and different from other flowers. Laura is also different from other girls because of her features and blue rose symbolizes her in a true sense. Blue roses are rare and mythical and Jim’s dancing and kissing also turned out to be like blue roses. Laura was happy to have Jim but after spending some moments with Laura, he left her as if it was a dream.
Jonquils belong to her mother Amanda. She often remembers her old days how she was happy in her young age and was surrounded by many gentlemen. It also shows her wish for her daughter, she wants to see Laura being loved and happy (Maloutas and Malouta). Amanda wants a groom for Laura and requests Tom to find one.
Fire escape outside the apartment symbolizes real escape from frustration and problems. Laura loses balance and falls because she is not capable in escaping from her problems as well as circumstances while Tom escapes because he was competent to do so. Tom escaped and also escaped from all his responsibilities and problems but memories of his family kept hanging around him.
Works Cited
"Dramatica." dramatica. 5 November 2013 <http://dramatica.com/analysis/the-glass-menagerie>.
Thomas Maloutas and Maro Pantelidou Malouta. "The glass menagerie of urban governance and social cohesion: concepts and stakes/concepts as stakes." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (June, 2004): 449–465.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1999.
