One major symbol presented in the story is the fire escape, a symbol that has a different meaning and function for each character. For Tom, it is a way of escape from fire, not the normal type of fire that would need a fire truck, but "the slow and implacable fires of human desperation." This is especially true of Tom's apartment. His mother, devastated after her daughter Laura's failure to cope in Business College, becomes obsessed with finding her a gentleman caller so that she can marry and be well supported. When this caller finally comes, and it seems like it was meant to be, as they dance and kiss, he announces he is engaged, and destroys their hopes. The ever-fragile Laura, temporarily drawn out of her dream-world shell of her glass collection and the victrola, draws further back into herself. Now a terrible desperation fills the apartment, and Tom decides he must escape the suffocating environment to follow his own calling. The fire escape to him represents a path to the outside world. For Laura, the fire escape is exactly the opposite--a path to the safe world i

Finally, the symbol of rainbows is used throughout the story, but is less prominent and obvious than those aforementioned. Rainbows are traditionally a symbol of hope, and each time the symbol is presented it is in a hopeful situation. For instance, when Tom comes back from the magic show with a rainbow-colored 'magical' scarf, that can turn goldfish into canaries, who fly away. Just like the canaries, Tom also hopes to fly away, from his apartment. Next, the chandeliers which create rainbow reflections at the Dance Hall can be seen as foreshadowing for the dance between Jim and Laura, which gives Laura hope that her problems are solved. And at the end, when Tom looks at "pieces of colored glass, like bits of a shattered rainbow," he remembers his sister and hopes that he "can blow her candles out". There is also a lot of irony tied up in this symbol, in that although rainbows seem to be positive signs, they all end in disappointment.

nside, a world in which she can hide. Especially symbolic is Laura's fall when descending the steps to do a chore for her mother, after leaving the security of the apartment. This fall symbolizes Laura's inability to function in society and the outside world. For Amanda, the fire escape is symbolic of her hopes and dreams--hopes and dreams that a gentleman caller will arrive to marry her daughter and leave her well supported. This is the way Jim comes into the apartment, at the time when Amanda's hopes have been peaked. It is

Some topics in this essay:
Business College, Tennessee Williams, Tom Amanda, Jim Jim, Laura Laura, Similarly Jim, Jim Poor, Laura Jim, Laura--she Jim, Dance Hall, outside world, glass menagerie, fire escape, glass collection, outside world laura, laura glass, symbol story, laura's fragility, world laura, little bit, gentleman caller,