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The Glass Menagerie: Symbols - Online Term Paper

The Glass Menagerie: Symbols

"I have a poet's weakness for symbols." So states Tom Wingfield, narrator
and major character in Tennessee William's timeless play “The Glass
Menagerie”. Through the eyes of Tom, the viewer gets a glance into the life
of his family in the pre-war depression era; his mother, a southern belle
desperately clinging to the past, his sister, a young woman too fragile to
function in society, and himself, a struggling young poet working at a
warehouse to pay the bills. Williams, through his remarkable use of symbols,
is able to effectively express the theme of “The Glass Menagerie” : That of
hopeful aspirations followed by inevitable disappointment, having dreams
which are destroyed by the harsh ...

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after her daughter Laura's failure to
cope in business college, becomes obsessed with finding her a gentleman
caller so that she can marry and be well supported. When this caller
finally comes, and it seems like it was meant to be, as they dance and kiss,
he announces he is engaged, and dashes their hopes. The ever-fragile Laura,
temporarily drawn out of her dream-world shell of her glass collection and
the victrola, draws further back into herself. Now a terrible desperation
fills the apartment, and Tom decides he must escape the suffocating
environment to follow his own calling. The fire escape to him represents a
path to the outside world. For Laura, the fire escape is exactly the
opposite--a path to the safe world inside, a world in which she can hide.
Especially symbolic is Laura's fall when descending the steps to do a chore
for her mother, after leaving the security of the apartment. This fall
symbolizes Laura's inability to function in society and the outside world.
For ...

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The Glass Menagerie: Symbols. (2008, October 1). Retrieved January 22, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Glass-Menagerie-Symbols/90765

"The Glass Menagerie: Symbols." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 1 Oct. 2008. Web. 22 Jan. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Glass-Menagerie-Symbols/90765>

"The Glass Menagerie: Symbols." Essayworld.com. October 1, 2008. Accessed January 22, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Glass-Menagerie-Symbols/90765.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 10/1/2008 09:41:23 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1144
Pages: 5

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