FREE ESSAY ON THE GLASS MENAGERIE: A STUDY IN SYMBOLISM

THE GLASS MENAGERIE: A STUDY IN SYMBOLISM

The Glass Menagerie: A Study in Symbolism
In the drama, The Glass Menagerie (1945), Tennessee Williams reflects upon personal
experiences he and his family encountered during the Depression of the 1930's. As a lower
class family, the characters are placed in the slums of St. Louis in 1935. The
protagonist, Tom Wingfield, is the narrator and Williams' surrogate. Living with his
mother and sister, Tom supports them by working in a shoe manufacturing warehouse. He
should feel lucky to have this job; however, he despises his work and dreams of leaving
to become a Merchant Marine. Unhappy with what life has dealt him, Tom strives for
adventure and longs to turn his back on his responsibilities. His mother, Amanda
Wingfield, abandoned by her husband almost sixteen years ago, tries to keep her family
together through tough times. Although her love and hopes for her children are sincere,
her overbearing and outspoken nature often hurts them. Laura, Tom's sister, suffers from
neuroses. She has trouble separating fantasy from reality. Without the ability to
function in the outside world, Laura becomes a liability to both Tom and Amanda. The
gentleman caller, Jim O'Connor, is a friend of Tom's from the warehouse. He is an
ambitious young man, who strives for the American Dream through hard work and optimism.
Jim offers the Wingfields hope for the future:
Tom: He is the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of
reality that we were somehow set apart from. But since I have a poet's weakness for
symbols, I am using this character also as a symbol; he is the long- delayed but always
expected something that we live for (23).
Williams gives the reader many emblems throughout the play; there are three of them are
especially interesting. The unicorn symbolizes Laura's uniqueness, the picture of Mr.
Wingfield represents his strong influence on his deserted family, and Malvolio's coffin
trick signifies Tom's suffocating lifestyle.
The unicorn is a symbolic representation of ways that Laura is unique or unusual. The
first facet of the unicorn, its horn, refers to ways that Laura is an unusual person,
such as in her may escape mechanisms. Laura's escape devices include her glass menagerie,
listening to records on the Victrola, and visiting the park and zoo. Laura identifies
with her glass menagerie because she has trouble identifying with the real world, the
pieces are small and delicate, just as she is. The Victrola is a reminder of Mr.
Wingfield; Laura often plays records to avoid the present and thinks pleasantly about the
times she had with her father. When Laura stopped going to Rubicam's Business College,
she would spend many of her days at the zoo or park. She was a nature lover and thought
of these places as very peaceful and beautiful, a sharp contrast to her real life. The
fragility of the unicorn, its second part, recalls Laura's delicate psychological
condition. Laura's emotional problems caused many difficulties in her life. While in high
school, Laura was very self-conscious about the brace she had to wear, as evidenced in
the following passage: 
Laura: I had that brace on my leg -- it clumped so loud!
Jim: I never heard any clumping.
Laura: To me it sounded like -- thunder!
Jim: Well, well, well, I never even noticed.
Laura: And everybody was seated before I came in. I had to walk in front of all those
people. My seat was in the back row. I had to go clumping all the way up the aisle with
everyone watching!
Jim: You shouldn't have been self-conscious.
Laura: I know, but I was (93).
Laura suffered all the way through high school. Unfortunately, she scored poorly on her
final examinations and dropped out of school. After such a failure, her fragile
self-esteem dropped from low to almost non-existent, and she could not face going back.
Six years later, with pressure from her mother, Laura took another stab at education. She
enrolled at Rubicam's Business College. However, Laura only made it to the first test. As
the test began, she vomited on the floor and had to be carried to the bathroom. Laura
never returned to school, and once again her fragile emotions got the best of her. The
transparency of the unicorn, its final facet, represents the fact that Laura's problems
are easily apparent to anyone who cares to notice them. This is best seen through Jim's
evaluation of her:
Jim: You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex!...Yep --
that's what I judge to be your principal trouble. A lack of confidence in yourself as a
person. You don't have the proper amount of faith in yourself. I'm basing that fact on a
number of your remarks and also on certain observations I've made (98-9).
Jim, practically a stranger, was able to see right through Laura and recognize her
glaring psychological problems. Although the unicorn is the most famous symbol of the
play, the picture of Mr. Wingfield strikes the reader as thought-provoking, also.
The picture of Mr. Wingfield is an emblem of his pervasive influence on Amanda, Laura,
and Tom. First, the largeness of the portrait suggests Mr. Wingfield's strong hold on
Laura, even though he has been gone nearly sixteen years. The larger-than-life size
photograph looms over the family as a haunting reminder of him (23). This especially
torments Laura, who hopes someday he will return. This is evident in her playing of the
Victrola. The Victrola brings back pleasant memories of her father; she remembers when
times were good and wishes things could be like that again. Second, the grin on Mr.
Wingfield's face reminds Amanda of the effect his personality has had on her life. Mr.
Wingfield's grin and good looks are what first attracted Amanda to him. He was full of
charisma and won Amanda's heart through physical attraction, as Amanda declares: One
thing your father had plenty of -- was charm! (36). Amanda remembers the pleasant times
they shared and, as a romantic, still hopes that he will return. However, more realistic
in her situation, Amanda looks at the grin as a painful reminder of his mischievous and
devious manner that led to him leaving. The grin signifies Mr. Wingfield laughing at them
by abandoning them. This is apparent when Tom states: The last we heard of him was a
picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, containing a message of
two words: 'Hello -- Goodbye!' and no address (23). Finally, Mr. Wingfield's Doughboy
uniform mirrors Tom's adventurous aspirations to become a Merchant Marine. Tom longs to
break free of his boring life and satisfy his craving for adventure. He rationalizes his
plans to abandon his family through heredity: I'm like my father. The bastard son of a
bastard! (80). Just as the picture of Mr. Wingfield, Malvolio's coffin trick represents
some more of the great symbolism used throughout the play. 
Malvolio's coffin trick is a token of Tom's suffocating lifestyle. The first aspect,
Malvolio's similarities with Tom, refers to each of their life-threatening situations.
Malvolio faces literal death by suffocation if he does not successfully escape the
coffin. Conversely, Tom faces figurative death by emotional and spiritual suffocation if
he does not find a way out of his present situation. The coffin, the second aspect,
symbolizes the lifestyle from which Tom is striving to escape. Tom looks at his life as a
two-by-four situation (45). He fears living the next fifty-five years of his life working
in the basement of a warehouse, performing mundane tasks, and making a mere sixty-five
dollars a month. Although he loves his family, he cannot tolerate the thought of spending
the rest of his life in a cramped apartment, supporting his family, living with the
constant worry of Laura's well-being, and putting up with his mother's frequent nagging.
The nails of the coffin, its final facet, represent Laura and Amanda. In his trick,
Malvolio escapes from the coffin without disturbing any of the nails; however, Tom knows
that that will be impossible for him: You know it don't take much intelligence to get
yourself into a nailed up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one
without removing one nail? (45). Tom is suffocating in his own figurative coffin, but for
him to escape he must disturb Laura and Amanda. Clearly, Malvolio's escape from the
coffin was much easier than Tom's flight from his lifestyle will be.
In conclusion, Williams' play, through well-written symbolism, offers its readers many
emblems to study, including the unicorn, the picture of Mr. Wingfield, and Malvolio's
coffin trick. This drama teaches the reader about the struggles of the Depression and the
effects it had on the people who lived through it. Like Tom, Williams suffered with his
own suffocating lifestyle, until he finally escaped to become a playwright. When Williams
left home, his sister, Rose (Laura), was devastated. Her neuroses worsened to psychoses,
and at age 27 she was lobotomized, which left her a vegetable for the rest of her life.
However, unlike his father (Mr. Wingfield), Williams felt much guilt for leaving his
family and never completely forgave himself for what happened to Rose. Although what
happened to Rose is very tragic, I feel it is hard to blame Williams. Unfortunately,
after he left, surgeons performed a lobotomy on her, but if he would have stayed, it
would have been as if he was lobotomizing himself. I feel that The Glass Menagerie was a
wonderful play. With so many tokens throughout the play, each one with many facets, it
was truly fascinating to analyze and discuss them.