Tom Wingfield’s character in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is eager to break away from from his mundane and dismal life. He has dreams of becoming a poet and seeks adventure. The fire escape, the movies, and the coffin “trick” are all references to the escape that Tom longs for. The fire escape is literally ...
In the memory play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the main character Tom Wingfield struggles with choosing between his own personal dreams versus accepting the reality of his families situation. Tom and his family live in an alley apartment and survive mainly on Tom’s salary from a shoe factory. Tom often seems uninterested in ...
Matthew Arnold suggests that, “The pursuit of perfection, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.” In many ways, this is exactly what the characters of The Glass Menagerie are looking for in the play- perfection. They look for it in their future, as they search for a way to find security and hope. They find ...
Tennessee Williams uses a variety of techniques to reveal to us the character of Laura in The Glass Menagerie. We are introduced to Laura as she is seated at a “delicate ivory chair” (137), polishing her collection of glass objects. Before any dialogue is spoken, we are presented with two images of fragility, the chair ...
Symbolism is used in many literary works to foreshadow or emphasize an event that is about to happen or already has happened in the story. This technique is used by Tennessee Williams in The Glass Menagerie. In this play, symbolism is used to show the shattering of illusion in the lives of Laura, Tom, and ...
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (1944) is unique in the fact that the play all takes place in the exact same setting. Williams describes the setting in tons of detail. The first 500 words of the play are dedicated to conveying exactly what is meant by this unique setting build up. He obviously has ...