"The Glass Menagerie"

Paper Summary:

This paper shows how each character in this novel uses the mechanism of escape in order to deal with the hardships in their personal life. The lives of Tom, Laura and Amanda each take a different path when they realize that they have the option of escaping from their present condition. Each form of escape of the different characters is discussed - physical escape (running away), occupational escape (playing with glass dolls) and mental escape (ignoring the problems of one's relationship).

From the Paper:

"In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the theme of escape helps drive the play forward. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, escapes the reality of her hard and narrow life by remembering better times, possibly without great accuracy. Laura, Amanda's daughter, escapes by playing with her collection of glass animals (the "menagerie"). Tom, Amanda's son, is the only one in the family who has a chance of truly escaping the life they have lead, but if he chooses this path, he will be leaving Amanda and Laura behind just as his father did many years before. Tom and Laura's father is an important character in the play, even though he never appears. Tom describes him as " a telephone man who fell in love with long distances." ("The Glass Menagerie," scene 1) The father's picture in his World War I uniform is placed prominently in the family's living room. In that uniform the sense of his being away is apparent. The father's absence sets the theme of escape for the play."

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