The Glass Menagerie Research Paper

1201 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Characterization in the glass menagerie

“The Glass Menagerie” portrays characters who find difficulties in facing reality, and they struggle to escape from it. Except Jim O’Connor, none of the characters in this play move forward or improve their lives. Jim goes to night school to improve his skills while all the members of the Wingfield family are either in a fantasy world, talking about the past, or going outside to the fire escape to flee from the situation. Tennessee Williams adds the character Jim O’Connor to make the struggles of the Wingfields stand out even more. Williams draws contrasts between the Wingfields and Jim. Before I read this play, I did not understand people’s lives after the Great Depression. After reading the play, I was able to grasp how some people like the …show more content…

I enjoyed reading the play, and I really liked how Tennessee Williams uses symbols. The biggest symbol that revolves around the whole play is the collection of Laura’s glass animal figurines; also called the glass menagerie. These animal figurines depict the fantasy world that Laura lives in; the peaceful world that Laura wants to stay in forever. She spends all day admiring her glass unicorn and listening to old records rather than interacting with people. All her figurines are made out of glass, and glass is very easy to break. Williams writes, “She wears a dress of soft violet material for a kimono – her hair is tied back from her forehead with a ribbon. She is washing and polishing her collection of glass.” (Williams, 8). This quote shows the fragility of Laura. She is weak just like glass. Laura is also …show more content…

A pack a day at fifteen cents a pack. How much would that amount to in a month?...
TOM I’d rather smoke.” (Williams, 29).
The fire escape also shows the pathway to the outside world and that Laura is unable to walk into society. We can see this by the following quote:
“LAURA Going – going! (A second later she cries out. Tom springs up and crosses to door. Amanda rushes anxiously in. Tom opens the door.)
TOM Laura?
LAURA I’m all right. I slipped, but I’m alright.” (Williams, 22).
While reading the play, I was amazed at how often Williams related these two examples of symbolism to the story and the various interpretations the reader could derive from

Show More
Related

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: Characters and Symbols

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Glass Menagerie, the main characters are Laura, Amanda, Tom, Jim, and Father.  Each character can be found with symbols that best represent them.  Laura 's two symbols are Blue Roses and her glass menagerie, Unicorn.  Amanda 's  yellow dress and bathrobe can express her love she has of the past event.  Tom 's symbols are the movies and merchant marine.  Jim's symbolize itself as a gentlemen caller for Laura.  The Father 's portrait portrays his abandonment of the Wingfield family.

    Read More

  • Symbolism and Crossing the Rubicon in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”

    1781 Words  | 4 Pages

    The masterful use of symbolism is delightfully ubiquitous in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” He uses a collection of dim, dark and shadowy symbols that constantly remind the audience of the lost opportunity each of these three characters continually experience. This symbolism is not only use to enlighten the audience to their neglected opportunities to shine, but it is also repeatedly utilized to reinforce the ways in which the characters try in vain to cross over turbulent waters into a world of light and clarity. It is thematically a wrenching story of life gone by, and the barren attempts to realize another reality that is made more poignant by symbolic language, objects, setting, lighting and music. The characters are trying to escape their own reality, and continue desperately to grasp at real life. The powerful use of symbolism in The Glass Menagerie exaggerates their missed opportunities, and their inability to step into a new reality. Through the use of symbolism, Williams continually illuminates the attempts of each character to break their bondage, and cross their own personal Rubicon into another reality. Because of his expert use of symbolism the audience can assuredly feel the full weight and impact of their imprisonment and actions.

    Read More

  • Use of Metaphor in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Laura is the owner and caretaker of the glass menagerie. In her own little fantasy world, playing with the glass animals is how she escapes from the real world in order to get away from the realities and hardships she endures. Though she is crippled only to a very slight degree physically, her mind is very disabled on an emotional level. Over time, she has become very fragile, much like the glass, which shatters easily, as one of the animals lost its horn; she can lose control of herself. Laura is very weak and open to attack, unable to defend herself from the truths of life. The glass menagerie is an unmistakable metaphor in representing Laura’s physical and mental states.

    Read More

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: The Destruction of Laura

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Tennessee William's play, The Glass Menagerie, the character of Laura is like a fragile piece of glass. The play is based around a fragile family and their difficulties coping with life.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Doll's House And The Glass Menagerie

    1944 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is said in the character description that Laura “[has] failed to establish contact with reality” (Glass 83). This illustrates how Laura is childlike and naive, in that, Williams literally says that she has not established contact with reality. Laura is naive because she refuses to face life and all that comes with it, she is also childlike because she has sheltered herself and is unaware of her surroundings much as a child would be. Early on in the play the reader discovers that Laura had affections towards Jim when they were in high school. This, of course, will prove to be part of Jim’s easy manipulation of Laura. Shortly after this discovery, Laura’s gentleman caller, Jim, is invited over for dinner with the family. After having completed their evening meal, Laura and Jim go to another room and being

    Read More

  • The Hours Analysis

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a mother, she didn’t do her job very well. It was unpleasant to see her smoking a cigarette while being pregnant. In fact, her metal illness was building up that she heard voices speaking to her and imagined herself living in other dimensional, where she didn’t have to worry about anything, she was free (Laura 150). There was no Dan, Richie and Kitty only herself. Laura was reconstructing imagines of Virginia wolf and Clarissa Dalloway. Her personality was changing and developing a different persona, even she wanted to be free as virginal wolf who drowned herself to dead (Laura 150). Sometimes people create personalities from characters that they strong admired, so they can revive them and follow them as a living role. This is a Psychological problem that people often has to face. This illness can change the way of how people thinks and behave. Moreover, Laura thinks that dying is the answers to all her problems. Hence, the author explains that “She sees…and enter a neutral zone, a clean white room, where dying does not seem quite so strange” (Laura 151). As shown above, she sees dying as a beautiful dream, in which herself is transferred into realm where dreams come true. Additionally, her struggles increased and she wants to escape from it. Her plan is to commit suicide on the room of the hotel. But suddenly she regains her conciseness and those terrible thoughts disappear (Laura 151). Then again, Laura sees

    Read More

  • Tennessee Williams and His Message in "The Glass Menagerie"

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.

    Read More

  • The Dreamers of The Glass Menagerie

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    how society forced them to change and Laura to lose her status in order to fit

    Read More

  • Glass Menagerie: Symbolism of Laura’s Fragility and Escapism

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.

    Read More

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: The Characters

    2168 Words  | 5 Pages

    Generally when some one writes a play they try to elude some deeper meaning or insight in it. Meaning about one's self or about life as a whole. Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" is no exception the insight Williams portrays is about himself. Being that this play establishes itself as a memory play Williams is giving the audience a look at his own life, but being that the play is memory some things are exaggerated and these exaggerations describe the extremity of how Williams felt during these moments (Kirszner and Mandell 1807). The play centers itself on three characters. These three characters are: Amanda Wingfield, the mother and a women of a great confusing nature; Laura Wingfield, one who is slightly crippled and lets that make her extremely self conscious; and Tom Wingfield, one who feels trapped and is looking for a way out (Kirszner and Mandell 1805-06). Williams' characters are all lost in a dreamy state of illusion or escape wishing for something that they don't have. As the play goes from start to finish, as the events take place and the play progresses each of the characters undergoes a process, a change, or better yet a transition. At the beginning of each characters role they are all in a state of mind which causes them to slightly confuse what is real with what is not, by failing to realize or refusing to see what is illusioned truth and what is whole truth. By the end of the play each character moves out of this state of dreamy not quite factual reality, and is better able to see and face facts as to the way things are, however not all the characters have completely emerged from illusion, but all have moved from the world of dreams to truth by a whole or lesser degree.

    Read More

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: Parallels to Williams' Life and Symbolism

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a touching play about the lost dreams of a southern family and their struggle to escape reality. The play is a memory play and therefore very poetic in mood, setting, and dialogue. Tom Wingfield serves as the narrator as well as a character in the play. Tom lives with his Southern belle mother, Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura. The action of the play revolves around Amanda's search to find Laura a "gentleman caller. The Glass Menagerie's plot closely mirrors actual events in the author's life. Because Williams related so well to the characters and situations, he was able to beautifully portray the play's theme through his creative use of symbolism.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in "The Glass Menagerie"

    2047 Words  | 5 Pages

    .... Williams uses symbols and figurative language to allow the reader and the audience to understand the deeper meaning and purpose of his writing. Each symbol proved very significant in explaining the underlying emotions throughout the drama. Every character had something that represented how they felt or what they were going through. Amanda symbolized with the past and her objects of the past, such as her yellow dress. Tom symbolized with the movies and the fire escape which represented an escape from his present life. Laura symbolized with the glass menagerie which was delicate and fragile. Each of the three main characters had deep feelings that only could be seen through the symbols that Williams used along the way. By using so many symbols, the reader is able to truly understand the feelings of each of the characters and relate to their hopes and dreams.

    Read More

  • The Glass Menagerie Symbolism Analysis

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tennessee Williams employs the use of symbolism in The Glass Menagerie. Among the many symbols within the play is the fire escape. In the context of The Glass Menagerie, the fire escape represents an escape from the dysfunction of the Wingfield family. It is used as a door to the outside world, an escape, and it is integral to the plot of the story. Tom views the fire escape as a way out, it reminds him of the decision that he needs to make - should he stay and be miserable or leave and be happy, but abandon his sister? Laura is bound by the fire escape, it is an outlet into a world of the unknown, it is both a physical and emotional barrier for Laura. Tennessee Williams use of symbolism in The Glass Menagerie is exemplified through the fire

    Read More

  • The Unicorn Figurine in The Glass Menageie by Tennessee Williams

    479 Words  | 1 Pages

    In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the glass figurine of the unicorn plays an inherently important role as a representation of Laura's self esteem. The collection of glass figurines is used by Laura to escape from the dangers of the outside world. The unicorn is the central piece to her collection and is important because it directly symbolizes Laura. The unicorn represents Laura's obsession with her handicap and also represents the uniqueness in her character. As the play develops, the fracture of the unicorn's horn represents a change in Laura's perspective of self and also gives a reason to why she parts with the figurine in the end.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Symbolism is an integral part of every play. The author uses symbolism in order to add more depth to the play. In Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, he describes three separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they face in a modern world. The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Everyone in the play seeks refuge from their lives, attempting to escape into an imaginary world. Williams uses the fire escape as a way for the Wingfields, the protagonists of the play, to escape their real life and live an illusionary life. The fire escape portrays each of the character's need to use the fire escape as a literal exit from their own reality.

    Read More

More about The Glass Menagerie Research Paper

Open Document