Ascending from Broken Glass: the Glass Menagerie
Ascending from Broken Glass
The Wingfields have an amount of problems, so they have things that they use to escape from life with. Tom uses the fire escape as his escape from Amanda. Laura has her glass collection, her “Glass Menagerie”, which she has her own imaginative world in – a world away from everything else, fragile but colorful. This glass collection also represents a number of things about Laura’s personality. Like the glass figures, Laura is old-fashioned, whimsical, and gentle.
Outside of the Wingfields’ apartment, there is a fire escape. It represents what its’ name suggests. Tom uses it as his own escape, occasionally going out on it to smoke or possibly even leaving to go out for his normal escape, “going to the movies”, which really means going to the bar and drinking away his problems. "I think you’ve been doing things that you’re ashamed of. That’s why you act like this. I don’t believe that you go every night to the movies. Nobody goes to the movies night after night. Nobody in their right minds goes to the movies as often as you pretend to. People don’t go to the movies at nearly midnight, and movies don’t let out at two A.M. Come in stumbling. Muttering to yourself like a maniac! You get three hours’ sleep and then go to work. Oh, I can picture the way you’re doing down there. Moping, doping, because you’re in no condition." (Williams, 23) This quote is said by Amanda, scolding Tom for doing what he does to escape from life.
"She lives in a world of her own-a world of-little glass ornaments, Mother…" - Tom (Williams, 48) Amanda is constantly worried about what is to become of her daughter. Laura doesn’t do much; she is incredibly insecure about herself, and really just plain awkward. But Laura, though she is quiet and keeps to herself, is a strange delight to someone who decides to look at her in the right light. Much like her glass collection, she is fragile, but beautiful.
When Laura talks about the glass unicorn, she reveals that
The Wingfields have an amount of problems, so they have things that they use to escape from life with. Tom uses the fire escape as his escape from Amanda. Laura has her glass collection, her “Glass Menagerie”, which she has her own imaginative world in – a world away from everything else, fragile but colorful. This glass collection also represents a number of things about Laura’s personality. Like the glass figures, Laura is old-fashioned, whimsical, and gentle.
Outside of the Wingfields’ apartment, there is a fire escape. It represents what its’ name suggests. Tom uses it as his own escape, occasionally going out on it to smoke or possibly even leaving to go out for his normal escape, “going to the movies”, which really means going to the bar and drinking away his problems. "I think you’ve been doing things that you’re ashamed of. That’s why you act like this. I don’t believe that you go every night to the movies. Nobody goes to the movies night after night. Nobody in their right minds goes to the movies as often as you pretend to. People don’t go to the movies at nearly midnight, and movies don’t let out at two A.M. Come in stumbling. Muttering to yourself like a maniac! You get three hours’ sleep and then go to work. Oh, I can picture the way you’re doing down there. Moping, doping, because you’re in no condition." (Williams, 23) This quote is said by Amanda, scolding Tom for doing what he does to escape from life.
"She lives in a world of her own-a world of-little glass ornaments, Mother…" - Tom (Williams, 48) Amanda is constantly worried about what is to become of her daughter. Laura doesn’t do much; she is incredibly insecure about herself, and really just plain awkward. But Laura, though she is quiet and keeps to herself, is a strange delight to someone who decides to look at her in the right light. Much like her glass collection, she is fragile, but beautiful.
When Laura talks about the glass unicorn, she reveals that