Human Desperation And Fragility In Symbols And Literary Devices

Glass Menagerie Essay:
Human Desperation and Fragility in Symbols and Literary Devices

Dahee Chung

AP English Literature & Composition Mr. Brice

A 26 year-old woman plays with glass figurines upon a living room table. Too plagued by her own physical as well as mental disabilities, Laura contemplates only one future for herself: seclusion from the outside world where bad-encounter prevail the desire for good experiences. A lack of positive growth for Laura, along with the rest of her family, is the pitfall for Tennessee Williams where he pressurizes kindred desperation in the Glass Menagerie to produce hopelessness as the ultimate outcome. In the play Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses description of stormy weather

In Glass menagerie, “Jim comes into the dining room, carrying the candelabrum, its candle lighted, in one hand and a glass of wine in the other” (Williams 70). Since overall lighting was not available because of Tom not paying the light bill immediately in the scene, the candle light was the only source to illuminate and connect Laura and Jim. Because Tenneessee Williams sought the dreamlike mood in this play, the usage of candle light fully represented the fragile and sentimental mood. The candle represents Laura’s fragile hope that she could have intimate relationship with Jim. However, as Jim says that he actually is engaged with another woman, her hope changes into tragedy. The author Williams uses the contrast between candles and lightning to conclude the play. “At the close of Tom’s speech, Laura blows out the candles, ending the play.”(Williams 96). Blowing the candles, Laura put out her hope to escape her status and overcome her disabilities. This fragile candle symbolizes her desperation to change but it goes into failure. Incidentally, Williams himself felt, as if he was a representative of the past, like Laura and her candle, so vulnerable in a world of torrential falling