Symbolism in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie Essay Example for Free

symbolic representation in Tennessee W carsickiams The sugarcoat Menagerie EssayTennessee Williams is one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His first successful play, The codswallop Menagerie, embodies his grace and learning as an author and an interpretor of the charitable experience. This intense drama ventures into familial relationships, societal situations, and the nature of memory. The Glass Menagerie opened in the mid 1940s in Chicago, and instantly became a mainstay in modern short fiction and continues to influence playwrights and authors of all genres.It is through symbolism that Williams reinforces theme, character development, and fate in The Glass Menagerie. One of the first symbols encountered by the reader is the fuel chip. The fire unobjectionable represents both a literal and symbolic way to leave the house. It also represents a major them in the story the need to escape. Williams describes the Wingfield house and makes none of the fire escape. He explains huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation (scene i).Certainly this is true of the Wingfield family. Tom wishes to escape from his boring job and current lifestyle because Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse (scene ii). He does succeed, occasionally, in finding comfort in movies, drinking, and magic shows. The fire escape represents his ultimate path to his freedom. His regular trips onto the fire escape to smoke foreshadows the permanent abandonment of his family.In the final speech of the story, Tom states I descended the steps of this fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my fathers footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space (scene vii). Laura wishes to escape too. However, she seeks refuge not in the genuine world alone within the house and a reality all her own. The fire escape prot ects her from the outside world. She wishes to sequester herself from the world where her deformity is laughed at and her shy spirit is c strikeed.Even when she ventures out on to the fire escape she slips representing another failed attempt at entering the real world (scene iv). The high school nick name, blue roses (scene ii), that Jim had for Laura is also symbolic. It is a symbol of the affection that Laura seeks and the cruelty that world offers her. Blue roses are both queer and mysterious which reflects Lauras personality. The nick name while seemingly affectionate was actually a play on the term pleurosis which Laura suffered from in her childhood.Additional, the use of the name flush pays homage to Williams sister who was afflicted by a mental disorder and was against her will subjected to a lobotomy which she never recovered from. The Glass Menagerie is not only the title but also the central symbol within the story. Lauras collection of glass animal figures mirrors sev eral of her personality traits. Her mother references the glass zoo when talking about Laura and comments She lives in a world of her owna world oflittle glass ornaments (scene v). Laura is delicate and needs to be handled carefully because Glass breaks so easily.No matter how careful you are (scene vii). Just as glass is transparent and superficially uninteresting so is Laura. However, in the right light those tiny glass creatures refract light in a number of various and vibrant colors. This is similar to Laura who may appear shy and boring to strangers but becomes alluring and attractive when her false societal mask is peeled away and her inner spirit is exposed. Jim is almost instantly enamored with Laura and tries to comfort her by stating You hypothesize of yourself as having the only problems, as being the only one who is disappointed.But just look around you and you will see lots of people as disappointed as you are (scene vii). The menagerie also represents the imagined wo rld Laura lives in full of color but based on unstable illusions. The most measurable and functional symbol within the short story is the glass unicorn. The unicorn is Lauras favorite figurine. Jim states A unicorn, huh? arent they extinct in the modern world? (scene vii). Laura, like the unicorn, is ill equipped to exist in this world full cruel acts and evil people.The fate of the unicorn, extinction, foreshadows what will Lauras future will hold. It also becomes a symbol of the insertion and normalization of Laura into the real world. As Jim and Laura dance the unicorn is broken. Jims kiss destroys Lauras uniqueness. She fades effortlessly from her heightened experience with Jim into a normal existence as he explains he must rush off for an appointment with his girlfriend. She gives the broken unicorn to Jim as a keepsake because the unicorn is just like all the other horses(scene vii) now.This is symbolic of everything that Jim destroyed and took from Laura in that single ev ening. Symbolism is a literary device that Williams employs in almost all of his writing. Using common place items the fire escape, glass figurines, roses allows the theme, character development, and the denouement of the story to be easily accessible and understood by the audience. The glass menagerie is physical image and memory that all readers can take away from the story. Symbolic of a life lived in fantasy because it could not survive in the worlds cruel reality.