Symbolism In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams', The Glass Menagerie, is a play that evokes great sympathy and in some cases, empathy for a protagonist who struggles to overcome two opposing forces; his responsibilities and his desires. There are many symbols and non-liner references that contribute to the development of characterization, dramatic tensions and the narrative. This essay will examine in detail, the aspects of the play that contribute to the development of the above mentioned elements.

In Tom's opening addresses, he explains to the audience that the play's fifth character is his absent father –present only in the form of a picture that hangs on the wall. This picture that looms above the dining room table makes the reader visualize the Wingfield apartment as a shrine to deadbeat fatherhood. The father's presence in the Wingfield family is sustained only by a tangible medium [the portrait] while in actuality, he is no longer apart of the family. As is seen in the scene where Tom leaves home, the male figures are the ones to leave while the women stay behind where remembering becomes all that is left.

Tennessee Williams makes reference to Guernica and the tension and growing turmoil in Spain. This allusion, juxtaposed to the uneasy peace in America at the time, establishes the tense atmosphere that the play is constructed around. The Americans of the thirties lived in relative peace after recovering from World War One and already experiencing the worst of the Great Depression. However, the audience of the time would see the thirties as the calm before the storm of World War Two. This allusion –the bombing of Guernica by the Nazis, serves as a reminder that war would soon be coming to everyone; various countries all over the world. Likewise, the...

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...ls them when he leaves. Just as we cannot live without light, Laura especially, cannot live without Tom. Hence, she blows the candle out to signify that through Tom's new beginning will come her end.

Tennessee Williams uses many techniques which capture the identity of his characters and the meaning of the plays theme in tangible ways. Many of the objects and non-linear references are closely connected and have deeply rooted meaning to the characters that possess them. They are in fact, exactly like the characters who posses them. The characters and different situations throughout the scenes, embrace the theme and help exploit the hidden meaning behind their existence. Williams is careful to place each and every specific reference diligently so that it may mirror its respective character or give colour to a picture [concept] that may be seemingly hard to understand.