Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie - Essay Example

?Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams creates an atmosphere of depression, gloom, and at the same time, magic and love in The Glass Menagerie. The plot of the play in based on the three characters of a family: Amanda, Tom, and Laura. Jim is the supposed suitor who makes an entrance at the end of the play, yet leaves significant marks on the lives and events of all three family members. The play is a ‘memory play’ as indicated by Williams in his production notes and the plot unravels through flashbacks that Tom experiences; narrating the emotional ups and downs that the character goes through (Williams, ‘production notes’ 750). Williams narrates the story through employing multiple layers of meaning to the words, settings, characters and situations. For example, the glass menagerie, the urge of the protagonist to forget her sister, and the blowing out of the candles at the end of the play all employ a deeper layer of meaning. Williams employed the use of symbolism to introduce themes, characters, morals and values, and then to link them all together. Being a memory play, the glass menagerie allows not only for the director but also the reader of the play “to be presented with unusual freedom of convention” (Williams, ‘production notes, the Glass Menagerie’750). The nature and material of the play allow the employment of “unconventional techniques” like “expressionism” (Williams, ‘production notes, the Glass Menagerie’ 750). However, as Williams puts it, he does not allow for the plot to waver away from the truth, rather it is used only as a tool to bring the experience closer to “reality” (Williams, ‘production notes, the Glass Menagerie’ 750). Since the play is based in memory, the use of such techniques makes it more realistic rather than unreal. Williams considered symbolism an important technique in play writing. According to him, “Art is made out of symbols the way your body is made out of vital tissues” (cited in Barnard 1). Symbolism acts as a binding force in the play and links all the characters, themes and environments together. Symbolism is such a vital part of the glass menagerie that critics, and even Williams himself, have often referred to it as an allegory (Barnard 7). The Glass Menagerie is considered a personal account from Williams’s life. The play is autobiographical in nature, with the characters of the play symbolising the true family of Williams and his experiences. Even the objects in the play, like the glass menagerie, belong to the real life of Williams (Barnard 6). For example, in the opening scene of the play Tom indicates that he is, “The opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’). He points out that this is not an unrealistic story; rather, beneath the layers are found real characters, experiences, and relations. It is believed that when Williams’s sister Rose was treated with a prefrontal lobotomy for schizophrenia, which debilitated her for life, the experience resulted in the writing of this play (Bard 6). Rose and her memories are unarguably central to, and an inspiration of, many of Williams’s plays and characters (Southeastern). Amanda is symbolic of her mother, and the character Tom symbolizes Williams in actuality, as Tom is Williams’s legal name (Barnard 2). Williams and Tom both lived in a St. Louis apartment, and Tom, at the end of the play, becomes a wanderer like Williams (Barnard 3). However, some critics believe that Williams is represented in the play not by Tom, but by the character of Laura (Bard 6). Due to his effeminacy during childhood, his father called Williams ‘Miss Nancy’ because he was like a little girl (Bard 6). According to Gross, Williams was very shy as a boy and did not like to socialize, causing him to be teased by his peers (cited in Bard 6). It can be assumed that Williams does identify himself with the character of Laura. Laura’s character is pivotal to the whole play, and her shyness and social awkwardness is pivotal to her character. Laura can also be considered as a representation of life as it was before the great depression, but with the advent of the economic downfall, the austerity of the society was also compromised. Laura and her glass menagerie are both symbolic and inter-related concepts in the play. It makes Laura all the more important, because the title of the play is associated with her (Barnard 15). The character of Amanda is also highlighted and gains significance through Laura. The beginning of the play is marked with the childishness of Amanda, and she addresses Laura as “sister”; but by the end of the play, when Laura is heartbroken and lonely, Amanda’s “silliness is gone and she has dignity and tragic beauty” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’). The musical theme of The Glass Menagerie is also referred by Williams in his production notes as, “Primarily Laura’s music and therefore comes out most clearly when the play focuses upon her and the lovely fragility of glass which is her image” (Williams, ‘production notes, the Glass Menagerie’ 751). The glass menagerie is actually a collection of Laura’s glass animals; the glass animals being symbolic of the different aspects of her character (Hamburg). Her unique beauty and delicateness is reflected in the glass pieces, which might be transparent and uninspiring, yet when light falls on them, they can form a rainbow of colors. As Laura says to Jim in the last act when giving him her most cherished piece of the menagerie, the unicorn, “Hold him over the light, he loves the light! You see how the light shines through him?” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’). Jim acts in a similar manner for Laura, because when she is with him, the brightest colors of her personality become vivid. The glass unicorn is just like Laura, delicate, unique, lonely, and not fit for the world in which she lives (Hamburg). The breaking of the glass unicorn by Jim, and the other glass pieces by Tom at the end of the play, symbolizes how Tom left Laura, and her uniqueness was also shattered and broken (Brandan 16). Jim addresses Laura with her high school nickname, “Blue Roses,” during the play. The name is symbolic of Laura’s unusual beauty. Being called blue roses by Jim, again symbolizes how he was able to see Laura’s beauty when no one else could. In the play, Laura explains that when she told him she had an attack of “pleurosis he thought that I had said blue roses! So that’s what he always called me after that” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’). The fire escape in the apartment is symbolic of a way to escape reality for Tom and Laura. It symbolizes a literal escape into the other side of reality. The fire escape represents an exact implication of its name (Hamburg). Like the menagerie has been linked to the character of Laura, the fire escape bears strong association with Tom (Hamburg). It represents his very nature of escaping out of real life (the apartment) into a world of fantasy, which for him was mostly movies. But, at the end of the play, Tom uses the “fire-escape for the last time” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’) and escapes his reality into a world of fantasy and dream, never to return. The moon is also used as an instrument of symbolism. It depicts the dark and bright side of life, or simply life and death. When the bright side of the moon is visible, it symbolizes longing, perfection and happiness. The dark side represents death, brokenness and shattering (Barnard 160). The moon rises as a “little silver slipper” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’) in the beginning of the play to signify hope for Laura in the form of Jim. As the evening moon rises, Jim comes home to dinner with Tom. The shinning moon is there during the whole time Jim stays with Laura, a slight glimmer of hope. The moon is still a significant symbol when Tom is about to leave the house and Amanda tells him, “Go, then! Then go to the moon – you selfish dreamer” (Williams , ‘the Glass Menagerie’). The seasons and their change works in the background of the play, yet holds significant symbolic value in the play. The play opens in the season of winter, signifying the sadness and gloom in Laura’s life from being unable to complete business school and also because her life is devoid of any suitor or love (Barnard 169). The season changes are vividly centered on Laura and the phases in her life. Jim enters Laura’s life during the spring season, which implies that his coming was a reason for Laura’s happiness and coming back to life (Barnard 169). According to Barnard (169), as Amanda is planning to find a husband for Laura it is late “winter and in the early spring” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’), and with the arrival of Jim the season turns to spring, or as Tom adequately calls it, “mating season” (Williams, ‘the Glass Menagerie’). Finally, in the end of the play Williams uses intense imagery and symbolism to depict the shattered emotional condition from the economy due to the great depression. The falling fire, according to Barnard (174), highlighted Tom’s concept about the economy, which he believed that the American middle class was blinded and were, “having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy” (Williams , ‘the Glass Menagerie’). The fire and storm imagery depict Williams’s perception of what the modern world and economy were having on people and love, and that it was being completely destroyed. The reference to the revolution in Spain, and Gone With The Wind in the scene are both instances that indicate the impact of war on love (Barnard 177). Williams beautifully employed symbolism throughout the play. From the plot to the characters, settings, objects and music, everything in the play adds up to making it a pleasurable read. The layers within layers of meaning though out the entire play allow the reader to ponder one’s own approach toward reality and fantasy, responsibility and aloofness, and towards relationships. Williams not only used the characters as symbols, but also the environment, seasons, heavenly bodies and even the objects in the settings of the play hold symbolic significance. Such in-depth use of symbolism has allowed the writer to convey multiple stories and layers with one illustration. These include the story of his life, the importance of his sister in his life, and the great depression; all have been merged under one title and symbol, the glass menagerie. Works Cited Barnard Brent D. “The Symbolism Of Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie.” Louisiana State University. August 2007. LSU. 17 April 2013 < http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07122007-190055/unrestricted/Barnard_dis.pdf> Bard. “Insights the Glass Menagerie.” Bard. 10 February 2012. Web. 17 April 2013. Hamburg. “The Glass Menagerie.” Hamburg. 2 May 2008. Web. 17 April 2013. Pearce, P. Elaine. “What is the Underlying Truth?” Bard. 14 March 2013. Web. 17 April 2013. Southeastern. “The Glass Menagerie.” South Eastern. 20 March 2001. Web. 17 April 2013. Williams, Tennessee. “Production Notes: The Glass Menagerie.” Matt Lally. 16 November 2010. Web. 17 April 2013. < http://mattlally.com/fiction/the_glass_menagerie.pdf> Williams, Tennessee. “The Glass Menagerie.” BCC. 18 September 2006. Web. 17 April 2013. Read More