The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is what seems to be a reflection of the life of Williams himself. Throughout the play we see Williams portrayed as Tom bring forth three key characters. As he sets the stage for these characters in a time of desperation and the willfulness to escape their reality which is filled with human desperation. The three characters that comprise the play are Tom, Amanda, and Laura which make up the cellular family known in the play as the Wingfield family. Williams’s depiction of the characters living standards would be best summarized as deprived and impoverished. Throughout the play you see each character withdraw into a world of fantasy and memories. Throughout the play we see the “fire escape” used frequently as almost a hint of what is to become of the Wingfield family.

Tom sets his sights on adventure and uses the movies as his escape and withdrawal from reality to avoid the painful memories of his father leaving and that his aspirations to become a poet as well as a member of the merchant marines seem to be in impeded due to the fact that Tom is subjected to constant scrutiny by his mother Amanda. Amanda places much pressure on Tom to be the homes bread winner and obligated to take care of his sister Laura who has a birth defect. Amanda reminds Tom as to how much the family needs him and of his selfish ways. Throughout the play we see Tom lingering about the fire escape usually smoking a cigarette as well as contemplating his escape which can be seen through his dialogue. We this in scene five of the play as Amanda and Tom both sit on the fire escape. Amanda points out to Tom that a “slipper of the moon is out” and that he should make a wish. Amanda questions Tom about what he wished for he refuses to say. To the readers it’s most likely he wished he was somewhere else.

Amanda the mother slips into memories of a time when she was youthful, a time when she was surrounded by “17 gentlemen caller’s” sons to the richest of plantation owners in the south. She was what someone would call the belle of the ball. To her displeasure she did not settle for the son of a rich plantation owner but settled for Mr. Wingfield who was charming but far from rich but left a bitter taste in Amanda’s mouth because for Mr. Wingfield he was an absent husband and father throughout the play. As Williams quotes “this is our father who left us a long time ago. He was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances”. Amanda’s reflection on her youth reflects a failed marriage. She conveys her displeasure by retreating to a time where she could or would have and should have married a rich gentlemen caller. As we see throughout the play she inspires in her daughter Laura to find a gentlemen caller.

As for Laura she is reclusive, reserved and shy. She resorts to her collection of “glass menagerie” for comfort. She personifies these glass ornaments and cares to them tenderly. This is due to the fact she has a psychical defect and that was has left one of her legs debilitated. Throughout the play it seems to be a curse and a blessing. Laura on the other hand resorts to her collection of glass figurines as a resort to avoid social and real world contact. When she encounters Jim O’Connor who is Tom’s co-worker at the shoe warehouse she says something that puts at odds as to Laura’s state of mind which is in regards to her glass ornaments. One she favors in particular is a glass ornament of a Unicorn and tells Jim, “Hold him over the light, he loves the light! You see how the light shines through him?” This is a tall tell sign that Laura avoids human a social interaction and uses her glass menagerie as an escape from reality. We also see that Laura is trapped and bound to the Wingfield homestead. She is told to go to the grocers but as she ascends down the “fire escape” she falls and gives out a holler for help. Williams gives the reader a simple definitive as what is to be of Laura. She is trapped and the likelihood of her making out of what Williams quotes “The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire escape, a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation” is deemed impossible for Laura Wingfield.