To escape the harsh means of reality, humans gravitate to. Some people fear dreaming, while others live to dream. Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie presents three incomparable worlds: dream, reality and memory. The members of the Wingfield family in The Glass Menagerie hide from the reality and choose to live in a dream or a memory. Williams conveys that each character have their own dreams with are ruined by the real world. The whole Wingfield family chooses to live in a dream or a memory and disregards the thought of present. Through the use of symbolism and illusion Williams provides a world full of uncomfortable situation and bitter real world. William explores the nature of dreams, memory, and reality in The Glass Menagerie
…show more content…
Williams uses symbolism to give the characters in his play a way to escape from reality and live in their own dream. As mentioned by Annettee Saddik in The Politics of Reputation: The Critical Reception of Tennessee Williams’ Later Plays that “The language of Williams’ early plays is heavily dependent on symbolism and exhibits a greater degree of lyricism and overdetermination that is normally present in common speech” (Saddik 50). There are few symbolisms that are used in this play, the first one being the glass animals. The glass animal represents the weak and delicate existence of the Wingfield’s dreams. The breaking of the unicorn’s horn especially presents the weakness Laura upholds. As mentioned by James Reynolds in “The Failure of Technology in The Glass Menagerie” that “Laura’s Fragile collection of glass animals give Tennessee Williams’s play its name and a central symbol with both an esthetic and a personal focus” (Reynolds 522). The central idea of the play is the glass animals, which are very fragile and require a lot of attention, just like Laura. The second symbolism in the play is the fire escape. The fire escape has different meaning for all of the characters, and it is also a means of escaping reality. The fire escape serves as a bridge between reality and a dream that the Wingfield’s choose to live in. The family is constantly going back and forth from present to imagination. Firstly, Tom who uses the fire escape as a way to access his dreams. Tom uses the fire escape to go to the movies and have adventures, and live in a world he had always dreamed of. Secondly, Laura who lives in her own world, uses the fire escape to go to museums, which provide with a source of dreams, and neglects educations. When Amanda asks Laura to go to the outside world to buy butter, she slips. “I’m all right. I slipped, but I’m all right” (Williams 81). This presents that though Laura is trying to
Williams uses symbolism to give the characters in his play a way to escape from reality and live in their own dream. As mentioned by Annettee Saddik in The Politics of Reputation: The Critical Reception of Tennessee Williams’ Later Plays that “The language of Williams’ early plays is heavily dependent on symbolism and exhibits a greater degree of lyricism and overdetermination that is normally present in common speech” (Saddik 50). There are few symbolisms that are used in this play, the first one being the glass animals. The glass animal represents the weak and delicate existence of the Wingfield’s dreams. The breaking of the unicorn’s horn especially presents the weakness Laura upholds. As mentioned by James Reynolds in “The Failure of Technology in The Glass Menagerie” that “Laura’s Fragile collection of glass animals give Tennessee Williams’s play its name and a central symbol with both an esthetic and a personal focus” (Reynolds 522). The central idea of the play is the glass animals, which are very fragile and require a lot of attention, just like Laura. The second symbolism in the play is the fire escape. The fire escape has different meaning for all of the characters, and it is also a means of escaping reality. The fire escape serves as a bridge between reality and a dream that the Wingfield’s choose to live in. The family is constantly going back and forth from present to imagination. Firstly, Tom who uses the fire escape as a way to access his dreams. Tom uses the fire escape to go to the movies and have adventures, and live in a world he had always dreamed of. Secondly, Laura who lives in her own world, uses the fire escape to go to museums, which provide with a source of dreams, and neglects educations. When Amanda asks Laura to go to the outside world to buy butter, she slips. “I’m all right. I slipped, but I’m all right” (Williams 81). This presents that though Laura is trying to