The Glass Menagerie: A Study In Symbolism
In the drama, The Glass Menagerie (1945), Tennessee Williams reflects upon personal experiences he and his family encountered during the Depression of the 1930’s. As a lower class family, the characters are placed in the slums of St. Louis in 1935. The protagonist, Tom Wingfield, is the narrator and Williams’ surrogate. Living with his mother and sister, Tom supports them by working in a shoe manufacturing warehouse. He should feel lucky to have this job; however, he despises his work and dreams of leaving to become a Merchant Marine. Unhappy with what life has dealt him, Tom strives for adventure and longs to turn his back on his responsibilities. His mother, Amanda Wingfield, ...
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an ambitious young man, who strives for the American Dream through hard work and optimism. Jim offers the Wingfields hope for the future:
Tom: He is the most realistic character in the play,
being an emissary from a world of reality that we were
somehow set apart from. But since I have a poet’s
weakness for symbols, I am using this character also
as a symbol; he is the long-delayed but always expected
something that we live for (23).
Williams gives the reader many emblems throughout the play; there are three of them are especially interesting. The unicorn symbolizes Laura’s uniqueness, the picture of Mr. Wingfield represents his strong influence on his deserted family, and Malvolio’s coffin trick signifies Tom’s suffocating lifestyle.
The unicorn is a symbolic representation of ways that Laura is unique or unusual. The first facet of the unicorn, its horn, refers to ways that Laura is an unusual person, such as in her may escape mechanisms. Laura’s escape devices ...
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Jim: You shouldn’t have been self-conscious.
Laura: I know, but I was (93).
Laura suffered all the way through high school. Unfortunately, she scored poorly on her final examinations and dropped out of school. After such a failure, her fragile self-esteem dropped from low to almost non-existent, and she could not face going back. Six years later, with pressure from her mother, Laura took another stab at education. She enrolled at Rubicam’s Business College. However, Laura only made it to the first test. As the test began, she vomited on the floor and had to be carried to the bathroom. Laura never returned to school, and once again her fragile emotions got the best of ...
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"The Glass Menagerie: A Study In Symbolism." Essayworld.com. June 7, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Glass-Menagerie-A-Study-Symbolism/28095.
"The Glass Menagerie: A Study In Symbolism." Essayworld.com. June 7, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Glass-Menagerie-A-Study-Symbolism/28095.
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