The Glass Menagerie

A detailed Summary of The Glass Menagerie


Tennessee Williams wrote "The Glass Menagerie" in 1945 when he was about thirty-four years old. The play was his first real success, and he was widely recognized as a great writer. One of the great aspects of this writing in particular is Tennessee's use of symbolism all throughout the play. The symbols that he uses help give the reader a much better understanding of the characters in the play, and they give us more insight into how these characters feel.

The first, and the most obvious of the symbols used in the play is Laura's glass menagerie. These delicate and fragile pieces of glass are Laura's life in more way than one. One could say that because she spends so much time with her glass collection, it is her life. But it turns out that her collection really is her life. It is a whole different world that she can escape to when reality is approaching. It is an illusionary world that she created by herself.

One of the pieces in her collection is a unicorn. What object could better describe Laura than a glass unicorn? Unicorns are different. Glass


Another significant symbol that is used in the play is Tom's going to the movies night after night. Tom was stuck in this very dysfunctional family, and all he wanted to do was get out and do his own thing, which is completely understandable. After all, he was already in his early twenties and everybody can relate to that burning desire to get out of the same old house or city and conquer the world. That is why Tom always went to the movies; he longed for adventure. This example is probably best exemplified during the beginning of the fourth scene when Tom comes home from the movies one night, and he talks about the stage show that he had seen. He tells Laura about Malvolio the Magician who performed all of these great magic tricks, and he goes on to say that his favorite trick was the coffin trick. They nailed somebody into a coffin and he got out of it without removing any nails whatsoever. Then Tom says "there is a trick that would come in handy for me - get me out of this !

2 by 4 situation!" Obviously, he was talking about the awful situation th

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 712
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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