The Glass Menagerie

“The glass Menagerie Symbolism”

        The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams has a many different types of symbolism that describes the characters of Laura, Amanda, Tom and Jim. Some Items such as; Glass, light, color and music constitute the substance of the dominant symbols and motifs, serving to reveal deeper aspects of characters and underlying themes of the play. Tennessee Williams wrote the play so that each character had a special symbol which resembled their personality. But he didn't only give the characters of the play a resembling symbol; he also mentions the apartment blocks to be Bee hive conglomerations of cellular living-units .The way he describes their location also has a lot of symbolism in its roots because he describes them to be flowering  as warty growths in overcrowded urban centers.

        Tennessee Williams used many symbolic aspects to describe Laura and
the world she lives in. In the play, Laura represents the very fragile, shy
and emotionally crippled girl. In her mind she lives in a world of glass
animals and doesn't have a connection to the real world. The menagerie of
glass also represents the fragile relationships among all the
characters. The glass unicorn is most obviously a symbol of Laura--
delicate, sadly different, an anomaly in the modern world. The glass motif
recurs throughout the whole play in many other forms. When Laura dropped
out of college she constantly visited the zoo, a glass house of tropical
flowers that are as vulnerable as she is. During Laura's and Jim's brief
romantic encounter, Laura is gaining more confidence about herself. It seems
as if she is starting to escape her world of illusions. When they started
dancing together, Jim accidentally knocked the little glass horse over.
Laura, who usually worships her glass collection more than anything
else, replied to his excuse;” He’s lost his horn. It doesn't matter. Maybe
it's a blessing in disguise." and”I'll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less--freakish! Now he will
feel more at home with the other horses, the ones who don't have
horns....".These two quotes give an impression that Laura is finally
escaping her illusive world. She thinks that she might have a chance to
survive the real world. What she doesn't know is that she is about to be
wounded by the news of Jim's engagement. After Jim tells her the news, she
gives him the unicorn as a souvenir and retreats into her land of the
glass menagerie never to come out again.
           In the play, Tom is the adventure seeking man trying to escape
the prison Amanda is keeping him trapped into escape the real world, Tom
constantly goes to the movies. The movies make him think about all the
adventures he missing. It his little land of dreams. He is jealous of his
father who left his family and achieved what Tom always wanted,
"Freedom”. Tom has never been comfortable with the way his mother treated
him. She always disagreed with the way Tom behaved. When Amanda put him down after Jim left, saying that he didn't even know that his friend was engaged and that Jim broke Laura's heart, and Tom finally had enough. He took the money that was meant to pay for the electric bill, left the family and finally pursued his dream of adventure.Still, when he crosses by a window with little perfume bottles made of glass or other small things made of this
material, he thinks of Laura.
          Amanda, who is the domineering parent of Tom and Laura, lives in a fantasy world in which she was a young beautiful girl, living in an area
called Blue Mountain. She always told Laura and Tom about the many
gentleman callers she received every day. Sometimes there were as many as
seventeen a day, all prominent men on the Mississippi Delta. To make some
extra money she sells The Homemaker's Companion that features the
serialized sublimations of ladies of letters who think in terms of
delicate cuplike breasts, slim, tapering waists, and rich and creamy
thighs. Those are all parts of her fantasy world which make her think back
to the time when she was a young and beautiful girl. She also is the
domineering parent in the family. She treats Tom very harsh sometimes. She
does that because she is scared that she is going to lose her children
just like she did her husband.
        Jim is the most realistic character in the play. He is didn't live
in any fantasy world like Tom and his family did. When he talked to Laura
after they had dinner, he tried to make her more comfortable because he
felt that Laura was very shy. He showed Laura how superior he is in order to
impress her. For example, he said,” Look how big my shadow is when I stretch.” He wanted to show Laura how manly he is. Jim’s nickname for Laura, Blue Roses, suggests a phenomenon that is contrary to nature. Blue also means sad.

          The symbolism in the play The Glass Menagerie made the story much
more interesting. It gave the play a special point which made it more
interesting to read. Tennessee Williams used a wide range of symbolic
aspects to describe Laura, Amanda, Jim, and Tom who are four out of the five characters in the play. Symbolism is sometimes very important in
plays, stories, etc. because it tells us about the secrets which are hidden
inside.