The Glass Menagerie - Essay Example

The Glass Menagerie The motivational and thematic basis of the play The Glass Menagerie is the escape from the demands and restrictions of time. Inthe play, the author has portrayed Laura, Tom and Amanda attempting to effect such escapes but to no avail. These characters are all members of the Wingfield family, living unfortunate, unhappy and depressing lives for various reasons. Escapism refers to the creation of mental diversion using entertainment or fantasies as a means of retreating escaping from aspects of life that are perceived to be unpleasant. In this play, the author has used themes and symbols to bring out the escape mechanism employed by all characters in order to evade the reality of their lives. For example the use a symbolic placeholder as a sign to what they really desire in life. The fire escape is strategically located in a place that allows them to run away from the unpleasant environment. For Laura and Amanda, it is also a potential entry point for gentleman callers, a door to escape loneliness and singlehood. The place therefore becomes a bridge between the real outside and their lives at home. Though the play brings out weighty themes/subjects like failures of the family structure and failures of fathers, escapism remains a major theme in the play. The aim of this essay is discuss escapism as a major theme in The Glass Menagerie by showing the extent to which all of the characters in the play evade reality. Each of the three major characters Laura, Tom and Amanda, have visions of their desired lives hence they end up living in a dream worlds instead of coming in terms with the prevailing situations in their lives. Amanda, their mother has never freed herself emotionally from her past live. She lives in the present times but she has never been able to live it other than using her past hence she often retreats to the memories of her past days in the plantations. She was abandoned by her husband yet she still longs for the comforts and illusions she had in the past and often, she recalls every event, word or gesture that ever took place in her girlhood (Bluefarb 513). In one of her monologues, she states “all of my gentleman callers were sons of planters and so of course I assumed that I would be married to one and raise my family on a large piece of land with plenty of servants” (Williams 34). Amanda does not want to face the reality that her daughter Laura is handicapped and feels insecure about the outside world. She yearns for her the good things she enjoyed in her own life and as a result, she strives to look for suitors for her. This decision also arose as result of Laura dropping out of her training. Amanda therefore resorted to marriage as the best way of escaping a life of having jobless mother and daughter living together. The obsession to look for suitors for Laura causes Amanda to force her son Tom to join her in looking for suitors for Laura. She forces him to bring home a man called Jim who later turned out to be engaged. This adds more bruises to the already injured relationship between her and Tom and finally, it breaks the family. She yelled, “To entertain some other girl's fiancé! Go to the movies, go! Don't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who's crippled and has no job! Don't let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure. Just go, go, go - to the movies!” (Williams 107). Laura is handicapped yet inside her, she longs that she could fit into the crowds. Due to her handicap condition, she is not able to deal with the difficulties of life. She allows her condition to make her shy even to an extend of dropping out of the typing school. She did this purposely to escape the fact that she could not function well in the well outside world due to inferiority complex. “You know what I judge to be the trouble with you?  Inferiority complex!  Know what that is?  That’s what they call it when someone low-rates himself!” Jim tells Laura. (Williams 104). Laura is also aware that her condition may never allow for a perfect mix with the crowds and this makes her to find outlets for escaping reality that does not match her ideal world. For example, she makes solitary adventures in order to view tropical flowers, or visit the penguins in the zoo (James 231). Laura is of age yet no suitor has come her way. Despite this, she spends much of her time focussing on her collections. She deeply enjoys her fantasy world more than someone coming in contact with the public on daily basis. This was a as remedy to her dull live and to her, the delicate surfaces of the animals reflect harmony and perfect beauty. But that does not mean she does not want a suitor. Since high school, she has always thought of one man called Jim. When Jim was brought home by Tom for dinner, Laura runs away from the thought of having Jim as a gentleman caller and consequently sitting with him on the table by becoming faint and going down with fever. “Laura! Why, Laura, you are sick, darling!” (Williams 101). Ironically, she later dance with him and even kissed him. Unfortunately, it turned out that Jim was already engaged and this was not some good news to Laura. Tom has creative abilities and a poetic nature. However, he is bound by such a heavy and unavoidable responsibility to a dull, unpleasant job. He has to support his mother and sister by sticking to his job factory job. This makes him not to live a life of excitement and adventure he really longs for. As a result, the relationship with his mother grows into a soar one. In order to escape the unpleasant live at home and the reality of a dull job, Tom frequently visits the movie theater. In the theatre, he enjoys to watch actors live the kind of life he always dreams of yet he has never achieved due to family obligations. Tom also adopts a live of constant drinking, dancing and reading in order to escape the realities of his life. Analysis and interpretation Amanda’s nature is destructive to herself and her two children. It makes her to want to take a total control over their lives and makes her future unattainable “ …because of your constant directions on how to eat it” (Williams 6). The children either choose to remain home and have their lives destroyed or run away and attain their dreams. Her escapism represents those people who are not able to control their own stresses. Instead, they heap them upon other people (Durham 215). Tom’s constant visits to the movies and drinking behavior are mechanisms of escaping an unfulfilling life (George and James 123). Finally, he runs away from home so as to practically achieve his dream life. Even as Tom runs away from home, his reasoning makes him to feel the weight and impact of his actions. In the final scene, he says, “Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!” (Williams 107). This is an indication that the already hurting situation of a broken family is a cumulative impact of escapism. Tom enjoys himself when out of the house. He encourages himself that “There is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two-by-four situation…” (12). This means despite enjoying himself while out, this is not the life he wants. Tom wishes to share this magical escape to freedom with his sister as symbolised by the scarf from the magic show he gave her. Laura escapes from the real world full of challenges by denying her full potentialities from coming out and by magnifying her problem. Laura is also a bit reasonable compared to her mother. When Laura realizes that Jim is engaged, she does not take much offense. Instead she gives him a piece of her collections (Williams 102). Jim has been used in the play as a symbol of the best possible way of escaping unwanted situations. He believes that studying radio engineering and public speaking would change him from a shoe factory worker to an icon in the television industry. His logical vision for the future becomes a model of successful transition to life the desired life through practical but reasonable means. Conclusion Escapism is a major theme in The Glass Menagerie. The play is full of characters who yearn for something better in their lives. However, internal and external forces hinder them from achieving them hence they operate under some escape mechanism. These escape mechanisms only distract them for a while from their problems. Though life is full of possible escape routes, sometimes there is no escaping. Even for those who manage to escape like Tom, there is no real freedom due to the emotional attachment to those they love. Works cited Bluefarb Sam. The Glass Menagerie: Three Visions of Time. College English. (7) pp 513-518. 1963. Frank. Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York. Chelsea. 1988. James Joyce. “The Glass Menagerie.” The Literature and the Writing Process. (5th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall. 1999. George McMichael and James Leonard. Anthology of American Literature (9th Ed). New Jersey. Prentice Hall. 2007. Williams Tennessee. THE GLASS MENAGERIE. New York. New Directions. 1999. Read More