Tennessee Williams , the American playwright came into fame from obscurity with the premiere of The Glass Menagerie in 1944 at the Civic Theatre , Chicago , on 26 December.
In 1943, he was hired at MGM which includes early early draft of Menagerie, titled The Gentleman Caller. The Glass Menagerie is inspired from the real life of Williams. This play brought a escalation in Tennessee’s life. It has got three characters, Tom, Laura and Amanda , whose lives are submerged in illusion. They escape reality by living in the self-articulated illuIntroduction to Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams , the American playwright came into fame from obscurity with the premiere of The Glass Menagerie in 1944 at the Civic Theatre , Chicago , on 26 December.
In 1943, he was hired at MGM which includes early early draft of Menagerie, titled The Gentleman Caller. The Glass Menagerie is inspired from the real life of Williams. This play brought a escalation in Tennessee’s life. It has got three characters, Tom, Laura and Amanda , whose lives are submerged in illusion. They escape reality by living in the self-articulated illusionary world. Tennessee incorporated symbols that exhibits great meanings in the play.
The Symbolic Significance of the Title
The title of the play is symbolic because of its metaphorical meaning. The Glass Menagerie signifies the illusive life which is found in the Winfield family. The delicacy of glass states implicitly the harsh reality of life that can occur anytime. However, one takes immense care of glass, it is meant to break. Laura’s speech is important when Jim accidentally breaks the unicorn’s horn, ” Glass breaks easily. No matter how careful you are.” Laura is representative of fragile nature of glass. The Glass Menagerie is rescue for Laura. It takes her huge amount of time. She is mostly preoccupied with cleaning and polishing the figurines. She is crippled, shy and suffers from inferiority complex. Amanda and Tom also live a similar type of life like that of Laura. Wingfield provided the first, and major, rift when he abandoned them. Amanda, Tom, and Laura, as three adults sharing the same home but with different ambitions, tiptoe around the truth with each other instead of strengthening their relationships with honesty. Amanda continues her Southern charm, which Laura tolerates but Tom cannot. Amanda also understands that Tom wants to leave, but she picks at his every action instead of helping him find his future as part of a normal family rhythm. Nor does Tom try to understand his mother or show tolerance for her demanding nature. For her part Laura prefers her illusionary world, choosing to tend to her glass animals instead, hiding from the reality of the world they share.
Glass Unicorn
The Glass Unicorn is the unique piece in the glass collection. The unicorn somewhat represents Laura. She acknowledges herself with the unicorn. The unicorn is a mythical and imaginary animal. Laura lives in this very imagination. She doesn’t has the courage to face reality. She avoided going to the business College and visited several places for that time.This activity of Laura shows that she tries to go farther from reality. When Jim is responsible for accidentally breaking the unicorn, it seems that Laura will leave the rarified existence and enter into reality. As the horn is removed, the unicorn feels more at home. It loses its uniqueness and aligns with the common glass horses. Laura’s disillusionment returns. However, the illusion is broken but not completely destroyed. She will live like the unicorn in myths and story.
Blue Roses
Laura is called Blue Roses by the gentleman caller Jim O’ Conor. Laura was affected with pleurosis. When Laura uttered the word pleurosis, Jim heard it as Blue Roses. This accidental naming is symbolic because Laura’ s uniqueness and prettiness is somewhat suggested by the flower. Blue colour is associated both with calmness and peace but at the same time it also stands for depression and sadness. Laura remains quiet but it doesn’t indicates that she is at peace. Moreover, she tries to escape depression and sadness and her shyness in the glass collections.Tennessee Williams based the character of Laura on his sister Rose, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of her adult life institutionalized. The name Blue Roses may recall Rose Williams as well, and her uniqueness.
Fire Escape
The fire escape is the portal of the Wingfields’ apartment. As a symbol, it signifies the entrance to and exit from the Wingfields’ illusionary world to the real one that starts at the bottom of the fire escape stairway. Tom, as narrator, speaks reflectively from it, while still keeping his connection to his home. For Laura it represents a path to the safety of her illusionary world when she turns her back on the stresses and expectations of the real world. After Tom and Amanda’s fight in Scene 3, Laura slips when she tries to walk down the stairs, showing her inability to enter the real world. When she stands up and says, “I’m all right,” she is still on the steps and cannot go farther.
Tom sees the fire escape as a way out of the destructive home life, his coffin home. Before he leaves for good, he uses it to escape from Amanda’s nagging. Amanda pays it little heed except to comment that it is a poor excuse for a porch, yet sits down on it demurely as if she were settling into a swing on a Mississippi veranda. The comment and action show her in both worlds, aware of and displeased with the present, but behaving instinctively as she did in the past.
Typewriter
For Laura, the typewriter symbolizes the confines of the business world that she escapes by walking in the park or immersing herself in her glass menagerie. For Amanda, the typewriter comes to signify both Laura’s failure to finish her business course as well as Tom’s failure to commit himself more fully to his warehouse job. For Tom, however, the typewriter serves as a means of escape from the confines of his world, as he uses it to compose his manuscripts.
The Gentleman Caller
Jim O’Connor is used as a symbol as stated by the author. He is the emissary of realistic world. He is the epitome of harsh life, who believes in himself and strives to accomplish his dreams. He gives a jerk to the Wingfield family who live in the world of illusion. He accurately finds out Laura’s problem and communicates and advises to come out of fragile world. Amanda sees the gentleman caller as their financial security. If Laura gets married, then Tom will be free from his responsibility. The gentleman caller like Mr Wingfield gives the family a shock and shatters their world of illusion.
Conclusion
Through symbols such as the Glass Menagerie, the Glass Unicorn, Blue Roses, the Fire Escape, the Typewriter, and the Gentleman Caller, Tennessee Williams enriches the thematic depth of the play. These symbols reveal the struggles of the Wingfield family as they navigate between illusion and reality, making The Glass Menagerie one of the finest symbolic dramas in modern American literature.sionary world. Tennessee incorporated symbols that exhibits great meanings in the play.