Question

4. Discuss the symbol of the glass menagerie. What does it represent? Does it represent the same things throughout the play, or does its meaning change?

Answer 1

Ans) Freedom and Confinement

In The Glass Menagerie, Tom feels confinement from being stuck in an uninspiring job, cramped into a small apartment with his family, and unable to see the world or have adventures.

- The reason for his departure was unclear and can only lead to conjecture on the part of the reader or watcher. Instead a far greater impact seemed to be felt from his very absence than his presence.

- As a character, his physical escape cannot truly be commented on except perhaps to say that his escape was the only true escape in the play. He was the only character that the audience was never shown the intrusion of reality into his fantasy and that seems significant. The reality of his absence could not be ignored and his physical escape was true. Laura's methods of escapism were perhaps a little more typical. While she did dwell in thoughts of the past and future as her mother did, she more frequently used objects to take her away from reality. To avoid a confrontation with her mother about business college, Laura physically and mentally escaped into the park.

- Laura withdrew into her world of glass figurines and music, and until her mother and Jim forced her to see beyond her physical being, Laura hid behind her physical impairment.