Laura Wingfield In The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams

Introduction Being a memory play, The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams deals with the deepest existential problems of his time and through the complex and multilayered approach, the author gives us a comprehensive and universal view of the world using many different symbols. Without any doubt, it is one of the masterpieces of American literary heritage, and it is at the same time poetic and symbolic work, as well as the drama of remembrance, that presents the despair and bitterness of claustrophobic life of the modern world. Ambiguity, strong metaphors, symbolism, rich and developed characters, specific plasticity of action that becomes a metaphor for elusiveness of life and many other things made this drama one of the most

The engaged reader is immediately aware of the fact that glass, being fragile and sensitive, must stand for something similar, in this case, explaining the character of Laura Wingfield. Laura, mentally unstable and sensitive person, insecure because of the physical disability is mainly dedicated to her own collection of the glass menagerie. This collection of glass objects perfectly symbolizes Laura's state of mind. Her mother is obsessed with finding a man to marry Laura, and her brother Tom tries to be a writer, but constantly feels the burden of the family, and generally spends time working to support them. Each figure of the collection represents something unique and special, but there is one figure that is specifically mentioned when Laura speaks to Jim for whom she believes to be her gentleman

I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something.” Of course, there is also a specific reason why Williams decided to use fire escapes, not just ordinary stairs in this situation. When using them, it is obviously that one is flying from dangerous things, and in this case, Tom wanted to run away from the misery of his own life and home, similarly to what his father did many years ago. They can also symbolize the fire of his character, since throughout the whole drama he was quite active and persistent to make something out of his life. Other symbols that are quite related to the character of Tom are the movies that he goes to night after night. Resembling the symbolism of the fire escapes, the movies also serve to Tom to escape the reality and to live another life, even for an hour or