Essays On Symbolism In The Glass Menagerie

Her high-school nickname, “Blue Roses,” suggests not only delicacy but also otherworldliness: Blue roses, like unicorns, do not exist in the real world.Laura stays home all day to tend to her glass figures, but in reality her hobby provides her with an excuse to avoid real-world adult commitments, such as typing school and dating, that her mother tries to force on her.

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Laura gives it special attention, emphasizing its distinction among its neighbors.

When Jim, a representative of the outside world, visits for dinner, he remarks on the big, ungainly shadow he casts across the living room, begins a clumsy dance with Laura, knocks over the unicorn, and breaks its horn.

At the same time, Amanda and Laura's unbelievable dependency on Tom as their security, protection, and income can often consume him.

Their need for his presence at home makes him feel stuck, isolated from the rest of the world, always to work and provide for his family, never able to live on his own.

Williams reminds us that the unicorn is glass, transparent, and completely unclouded.

The unicorn’s horn sets it apart from the other animals in the glass menagerie, because such a creature does not really exist in the world.This is evident when Tom stands on the fire escape to smoke, showing that he does not enjoy being at home; to be a part of the illusory world of both Amanda and Laura, which they both find security in.For Laura, the fire escape is the way into her world, which is her escape from reality from the outside world she fears. Readers, young and old can all relate to the timeless symbolism and themes that intertwine into a seamless work of powerful messages in the play.Tom Wingfield, who acts as both a character and narrator throughout the play, best relates to me personally through the many personality traits he exemplifies and hopes and dreams that he holds dear.Jim is the opposite of the unicorn—glass objects, after all, don’t cast shadows—and his presence reduces the unicorn to a damaged, ordinary object.A unicorn without a horn is nothing more than a mundane horse.The first symbol, presented in the first scene, is the fire escape.This represents the "bridge" dividing the illusory world of the Wingfields and the world of reality. For Tom, the fire escape is the way out of the world he lives in with Amanda and Laura and an entrance into the world of reality.In Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie; he uses symbols to represent the reoccurring theme of the failure to accept reality and Tom's theme of escape.Like his narrator, Tom, Williams has a poet's "weakness for symbols" and the most prominent of these symbols is Laura's glass menagerie, which is very central to the play and links all the themes together.