Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie is a memory play that is narrated by Tom Wingfield. The whole play is solely based off what Tom remembers about his family. Tom introduces the audience to his mom Amanda and his sister Laura. He briefly explains that his father abandoned them many years ago. Laura introduces us to Jim who she had a crush on in high school. Tom works at a warehouse during the day and goes to the movies at night time. Amanda wants what is best for Tom and Laura, but she is very controlling. Laura is a terribly shy girl, who only knows what life is like inside her home. Each character’s desires are represented by different symbols in the play.
The dress and the photograph of her husband symbolize Amanda’s desire to live in the past. While Amanda is explaining to Laura the importance of gentlemen callers and how a lady is supposed to present herself; she shows Laura the dress she wore “[T]he day [she] met [their] father” (Williams 6. 770). She wants nothing but the best for Laura, but because she constantly daydreams about her youth, this shows her desire to live in the past. The second symbol of her desire to live in the past is the photograph of her husband that sits on the mantel.
When Tom is giving us background on his family, he informs us of “[The] fifth character in the play who doesn’t appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel” (Williams 1. 753). Amanda is so obsessed with her past that she cannot get over the fact that her husband has been gone for sixteen years. She is still holding on to her husband and living in the past. She is always referring to her past and she simply cannot be satisfied with her present life.
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The Glass Menagerie and the Victrola symbolize Laura’s desire to live in her own interior world. Laura is a home body type of person, so when she is showing Jim her glass collection, she makes sure he understands how much they mean to her. She explains to him that she does not have time for anything else in her life because “[Her] glass collection takes up a good deal of time” (Williams 7. 778). This shows that Laura is living in her own interior world and she cannot seem to move on with her life. She does not know how to do anything else because all she does is collect her glass.
The second symbol of her desire to live in the past is her Victrola. Amanda tells Tom that Laura cannot keep listening to her Victrola because it is making her life even more miserable than it already is. Amanda interrupts Laura while her Victrola is playing and Laura says, “Excuse me – I haven’t finished playing the Victrola” (Williams 6. 771). Laura does see that there is an enormous world full of opportunities and excitement outside of her house. She thinks that the only thing that will get her through her everyday life is her glass collection.
The fire escape and the movies symbolize Tom’s desire to escape his familial responsibilities. While Amanda is arguing with Tom “he throws [his] paper [down] and crosses to the fire – escape” (Williams 5. 764). Amanda is never satisfied with anything Tom does, so to get away from it all he goes to the fire escape. This is how Tom escapes reality for a moment and imagines what it would be like to not have to worry about Laura or Amanda.
The second symbol of Tom’s desire to escape his familial responsibilities is the movies. Tom spends countless hours at the movies, so he does not have to come home to a house full of people who just put him down. He never fails to let Amanda know that “[He] [has] been to the movies” (Williams 4. 760). The movies are also a way to take his mind off of what he should be doing for his mom and sister and just to escape from reality.
Every character has their own desires and they are each represented with a different symbol. In the end, none of the characters really got what they wanted. Amanda lost the two people she loves the most, and Laura was not able to live the life she wanted. Even though Tom was able to escape his familial responsibilities; the thought of Laura haunts him. Each character tried to run away from the reality of their lives which made their lives even more miserable.
