Glass Menagerie Blog 1

               Tennessee Williams utilizes a plethora of complex symbols in his play The Glass Menagerie; however, Williams employs this symbolism in a slightly different manner than many other authors use the technique. Rather than leave the symbolic aspects of the play for the reader to ascertain, Williams notifies the reader directly of these symbols and their precise meanings within the context of the story. With this in mind, the analysis of Williams’ placement of these symbols within the plot becomes all the more critical to understanding their full contribution to the story.

                The fire escape by which the Wingfields enter and exit their home is certainly not the normal means by which a family gains access to their home. While a fire escape typically carries the connotation of being a lifesaving device, Williams discusses within the stage directions the fact that, in these circumstances, the fire escape actually symbolizes the means by which the characters enter the metaphorical fire of desperation flaming within their mediocre apartment. The stage directions describe the fire escape as being “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” (Williams, 1235). The importance of the placement of this symbol in the story can be seen when Laura scrambles up the fire escape to retrieve butter for Amanda, slips, and quickly scampers back down the escape into the confines of the house. The fact that Laura retreated down the fire escape and back in to the metaphorical fires of desperation reflects her desire to escape the monotony of the home yet overwhelming fear of any foreign concept. Amanda was very accurate in describing Laura: “You couldn’t be satisfied with just sitting home, and yet whenever I try to arrange something for you, you seem to resist it” (Williams, 1263). Laura’s fear of adventure is therefore reflected in her feeble attempt to escape her desperation and her pathetic retreat after the smallest sign of adversity.

                The symbolism of Laura’s glass animals are also tremendously significant to the play because the fragility of the little glass ornaments reflects Laura’s immense physical fragility and emotional weakness. The unicorn in particular represents Laura, for Laura singles out the unicorn as being her favorite because its physical properties differentiate it from all the rest. The placement of this symbolism during Laura’s conversations with Jim is incredibly important in that, in the very instance that Laura finally shrugs aside her inhibitions and dances as an able-bodied woman would, the glass unicorn falls to the floor, and the horn is broken off. As Laura overcomes her inferiority complex and allows herself to be “normal,” the animal’s fragility is compromised, and it, too, becomes like all the others. In this manner, Williams again employs symbolism at the precise moment at which it will elicit the most emotion and significance.