Glass Menagerie Symbolism
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When we enter the realm of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie it is as if we are entering into an illusory world. The Wingfield’s are a crippled family. There is the mother, Amanda, who tries to keep up the pretense of the past, a time when her bloom was not yet off the rose, so-to-speak. There is the shy, withdrawn daughter, Laura, who hides her disabilities and dysfunctions from a harsh reality through illusions. Then there is the son Tom, a factory worker who yearns for adventure and the fulfillment of his dreams as a writer. Throughout the play symbolism and symbols are employed to illustrate the predicament of each and the family as a whole. Even the tenement apartment they live in stands as a symbol of their repression. As Williams tell us, the apartment is “symptomatic of the impulse of this largest and fundamentally enslaved section of American society to avoid fluidity and differentiation and to exist and function as one interfused mass of automatism” (400). This analysis will look at the three main characters in the play and illustrate how symbols and symbolism are utilized by Williams to illustrate the predicament of each. A conclusion will address why symbolism is used by writers as a creative device to enhance drama.It is difficult to study The Glass Menagerie and avoid encountering symbols. The fire escape represents Tom’s small respite from the stultifying atmosphere of the apartment, the fa
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ty that many times involves little loveliness or delicacy, “[Laura’s] collection of glass represents her own private world...set apart from reality” (Symbolism 1). When Laura relinquishes her unicorn to O’Connor, she is abandoning reality. As Kohn argues, “When she gives the unicorn to Jim, she is giving him her broken heart” (4).
Amanda and Laura are determined to keep their illusions alive. This is achieved by symbolism throughout the play. We have discussed the symbolism involved in the menagerie with respect to Laura, but Laura’s illusions are also fueled unwittingly by Amanda. When Laura tells her mother she is crippled, her mother replies “nonsense” (Williams 408). Amanda cannot live in the present. The jonquils are another symbol of this. As Mitchell notes, “The symbols range from the jonquils to the unicorn. The jonquils that are referred to from time to time throughout the drama represent Amanda’s obsession with her youthful past...’jonquils become an absolute obsession’” (1).
Amanda deceives herself all the time. In her mind she is still the young belle of the south whose line of gentleman callers was unequaled in the county. One manner of her escapism from the harsh reality in which she now exists is
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Approximate Word count = 1833
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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