Symbolism_Glass_Menagerie

Symbolism in “The Glass Menagerie” “The Glass Menagerie” is often regarded as Tennessee Williams’ most pivotal work. His use of symbolism is easy to observe due to the limited backdrop and set of characters. Williams’ dialogue allows each character’s weaknesses to come alive through their interaction with the objects they come in contact with. There are four main characters in the play: Amanda (mother), Laura (daughter and sister), Tom (son and brother) Wingfield, and Jim. Amanda is an aging Southern belle who has unrealistic aspirations for her children. Laura is a disabled girl in her twenties who lacks self-confidence and ambition. Tom, both the narrator and one of the main characters, is a poet and admits he has a weakness for symbols. Instead of pursuing his dreams of writing and adventure, he works in a factory in order to support his mother and sister. Jim, a proposed suitor for Laura, is a pleasant young man who accepts an invitation for dinner from his co-worker, Tom. One major symbol presented in the play is the Wingfield’s fire escape, which has a different meaning for each member of the family. For Tom, it is a means of escape from "the slow and implacable fires of human desperation." This is especially true of Tom’s apartment because of the unbearable restraints his mother and sister have created in his life. His mother, devastated after Laura’s failure to cope in college-level business courses, becomes obsessed with finding her a gentleman caller so that she can marry and be well-supported. When a caller finally comes, Amanda believes this dream is finally being fulfilled. As Jim and Laura dance and eventually kiss, he abruptly apologizes announcing he is engaged and dashes her hopes. The ever-fragile Laura, temporarily drawn out of her dream-world shell of her glass collection, draws further back into herself. Now a terrible desperation fills the apartment, and Tom decides he must escape the suffocating environment to follow his true passions. For Tom, the fire escape represents a path to the outside world, which he ultimately uses for this purpose. For Laura, the fire escape symbolizes the exact opposite--a path to the safe world inside the apartment, a world in which she can hide. Especially symbolic is Laura’s fall when descending the steps to do a chore for her mother, after leaving the security of the apartment. This fall symbolizes Laura’s inability to function in society and the outside world. For Amanda, the fire escape is symbolic of a gateway to her hopes and dreams. She dreams that a gentleman caller will arrive to marry her daughter and result in happiness for the both of them. Jim comes to the apartment when Amanda’s hopes have peaked. Symbolically, Laura does not want to open the door when Jim arrives. This act shows her reluctance to let a person from the world of reality invade the comfortable non-existence of the apartment and her insecurity in dealing with the outside world. Another recurring symbol in the story is that of the glass menagerie. This collection of glass figurines represents Laura’s hypersensitive nature and vulnerability. Symbolically, the first time the menagerie is mentioned in any detail is when Tom and Amanda have a heated argument at the beginning of the play. Tom ends the dispute by calling Amanda an "ugly babbling old witch," and struggles to put on his jacket intent on leaving. When he cannot put the coat on properly, he becomes frustrated with his clumsiness, and flings it across the room, breaking some of the glass collection. Laura "cries out as if wounded." This shows how fragile Laura really is and how she reacts when the slight balance of her apartment is shifted. The most prominent use of this symbol comes at the turning point of the play, when Jim is left alone with Laura. The conversation turns to Laura’s glass collection, when she remarks "glass is something you have to take good care of," again showing her fragility. More parallels are drawn between Laura and the glass collection with the introduction of Laura’s favorite piece, the unicorn. Jim says, "Poor little fellow, he must feel sort of lonesome" to which Laura replies, "He stays on a shelf with some horses that don’t have horns and all of them seem to get along nicely together." The unicorn becomes a symbol for Laura because she is different from her peers just as the unicorn is. When dancing with Laura, Jim accidentally knocks the unicorn off the table and its horn is broken; it loses its uniqueness. Similarly, when Jim kisses Laura and then shatters her hopes by telling her that he’s engaged, she becomes broken-hearted, and less unique. Part of the innocence that made Laura different is gone, because both Laura and the glass menagerie break when exposed to the uncaring outside world. When Laura gives Jim her broken unicorn, it symbolizes her broken heart that Jim will take with him when he exits. The unicorn is no longer unique to Laura; rather it is common now, so she lets him keep it. Just as she gives Jim a little bit of herself to take with him, he leaves behind a little bit of himself with her shattered hopes. In addition, the symbolism of rainbows is used throughout the play, but is less prominent and obvious than those of the fire escape and the glass menagerie. Rainbows are traditionally a symbol of hope, and each time the symbol is presented it is in a hopeful situation. For instance, Tom comes back from a magic show with a rainbow-colored, "magical" scarf that can turn goldfish into canaries that fly away. Just like the canaries, Tom also hopes to fly away from the imprisonment of the family apartment. Secondly, the chandeliers that create rainbow reflections at the Dance Hall can be interpreted as foreshadowing for the dance between Jim and Laura. This dance gives Laura hope that her problems will soon be solved. And finally, when Tom looks at "pieces of colored glass, like bits of a shattered rainbow," he remembers his sister and hopes that he "can blow her candles out." There is a great irony tied up in the symbolism of rainbows in the play, in that although rainbows are often portrayed as positive signs, here they all end in disappointment. Tennessee Williams created a powerful play using symbolism as a key element. The most significant symbols in “The Glass Menagerie” are: the fire escape, as a sense of hope and an escape both to the outside world and from it; the glass menagerie, a symbol for Laura’s fragility and uniqueness; and rainbows, a symbol of unrealized hopes and aspirations. Collectively, these symbols aid in making "The Glass Menagerie" a powerful and unforgettable classic of the twentieth century. Works Cited Balestrini, Nassim W. "Shattered Rainbows in Translucent Glass: Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1945)." Women in Literature: Reading through the Lens of Gender. 115-117. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. Cardullo, Bert. "Through the Looking Glass: The Role of Memory in The Glass Menagerie." Notes on Contemporary Literature 38.4 (2008): 5-7. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. Fambrough, Preston. "Williams's The Glass Menagerie." Explicator 63.2 (2005): 100- 102. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. Sengupta, Ashis. "The Glass Menagerie: Bits of Shattered Rainbow." A Mosaic of Encounters (India and USA: Literature, Society and Politics). 21-28. New Delhi, India: Creative, 1999. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. Williams, Tennessee. “The Glass Menagerie.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2009. 1438- 1453. Print.