"I have a
poet's weakness for symbols." So
states Tom Wingfield, narrator and major character in Tennessee William's
timeless play "The Glass Menagerie". Through the eyes of Tom, the
viewer gets a glance into the life of his family in the pre-war depression era;
his mother, a southern belle desperately clinging to the past, his sister, a
young woman too fragile to function in society, and himself, a struggling young
poet working at a warehouse to pay the bills. Williams, through his remarkable
use of symbols, is able to effectively express the theme of "The Glass
Menagerie" : That of hopeful aspirations followed by inevitable
disappointment, having dreams which are destroyed by the harsh realities of the
world.
Symbols are a
major part of this play, as Tom, the narrator, is a poet, and admits he has a
weakness for symbols. One major symbol presented in the story is that of the
fire escape, a symbol that has a different meaning and function for each
character. For Tom, it is a means of escape from fire, not the type of fire
that was considered in its building, but "the slow and implacable fires of
human desperation." This is especially true of Tom's apartment. His
mother, devastated after her daughter Laura's failure to cope in business college,
becomes obsessed with finding her a gentleman caller so that she can marry and
be well supported. When this caller finally comes, and it seems like it was
meant to be, as they dance and kiss, he announces he is engaged, and dashes
their hopes. The ever-fragile Laura, temporarily drawn out of her dream-world
shell of her glass collection and the victrola, draws further back into
herself. Now a terrible desperation fills the apartment, and Tom decides he
must escape the suffocating environment to follow his own calling. The fire
escape to him represents a path to the outside world. For Laura, the fire escape is exactly the
opposite--a path to the safe world inside, 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 her hopes and dreams--hopes and dreams that a
gentleman caller will arrive to marry her daughter and leave her well
supported. This is the way Jim comes into the apartment, at the time when
Amanda's hopes have been peaked. It is symbolic that Laura does not want to
open the door when Jim arrives. It shows her reluctance to let an emissary from
the world of reality, symbolized by Jim, 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 itself. This represents
Laura's hypersensitive nature and fragility. The first time the menagerie is
mentioned in any detail in a symbolic manner is when Tom and Amanda have a
heated argument near the beginning of the play. Tom ends it by calling Amanda
an "ugly babbling old witch", and struggles to put his jacket on,
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 even the small balance of her
apartment is shifted. Williams also makes the use of this symbol apparent on
stage. When Amanda sits down to discuss Laura's future with Tom, the legend "Laura"
appears on screen, and the music that begins playing is "The Glass
Menagerie". The most prominent use of this symbol comes at the turning
point of the story, 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 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--she is different. When Jim and Laura dance, and 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 so vitally 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 leaves. The unicorn is no longer unique
like her, rather it is common now, like Jim, 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.
Finally, the
symbol of rainbows is used throughout the story, 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, when Tom comes back from the magic show with
a rainbow-coloured 'magical' scarf, that can turn goldfish into canaries, who
fly away. Just like the canaries, Tom also hopes to fly away, from the
imprisonment of his apartment. Next, the chandeliers which create rainbow
reflections at the Dance Hall can be interpreted as foreshadowing for the dance
between Jim and Laura, which gives Laura hope that her problems are solved. And
at the end, 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 also a great irony tied up in this symbol,
in that although rainbows seem to be positive signs, they all end in
disappointment.
Tennessee
Williams has managed to create a powerful play using a combination of different
elements, one prominent one being symbolism; 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, as symbols of
unrealized hopes and aspirations. Through these symbols a greater understanding
of the theme is realized, and "The Glass Menagerie" is made into a
powerful epic.
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