... this paper I would like to compare the lives of two fairly young adults, Tom and Laura Wingfield. Being brother and sister, living in the dream world of their mother, they both hide from what reality has to offer. Their Mother, Amanda Wingfield, loved her children dearly. Maybe too dearly, she loved her children in such a way she ... long. Amanda, deep down knows the day is coming that Tom will leave. She says "But not till there's someone to take your place." She wants Laura, not herself to be taken care of. At that moment in the play Tom is the breadwinner in the family and up to this ...

• Word Count: 547
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The action of The Glass Menagerie takes place in the Wingfied's apartment in St. Louis, 1937. This play is framed around the memory of its narrator, Tom Wingfield. Tom's predicament is one of the play's major themes. This theme can be best described as the conflict between responsibility for one's family and the need to live one's own ... is character of true melancholy. Though he longs for freedom, his obligatory feelings toward his family keep him in St. Louis. Despite his feelings of obligation, Amanda's constant nagging and Laura's idiosyncrasies make the apartment oppressive and impris...

• Word Count: 458
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... In the wake of what Tom refers to as the "fiasco at Rubicam's Business College," Amanda has become obsessed with procuring a gentleman caller for Laura. It is a topic perpetually under discussion and the object of Amanda's planning. In order to make a little extra money "to feather the nest ... in the kitchen until at last Tom rises from the table and apologizes. Amanda gushes and Tom speaks gently. She is concerned about Laura. Laura thinks that Tom is not happy living with them, that he goes out every night to escape the apartment; she broods about this. ... the rainbow reflections of...

• Word Count: 5517
• Approx Pages: 22
• Grade Level: High School

... and these relationships is a significant theme throughout the play. These "escapes" may be related to the fire escape, the dance hall, the absent Mr. Wingfield and Tom's inevitable departure. The play opens with Tom addressing the audience from the fire escape. This entrance into the apartment provides a different purpose for each ... . Her escape seems to be hiding inside the apartment, not out. The fire escape separates reality and the unknown. Across the street from the Wingfield apartment is the Paradise Dance Hall. Just the name of the place is a total anomaly in the story. Life wit...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Tennessee Williams uses symbolism throughout his classic play The Glass Menagerie. Through the eyes of Tom Wingfield, a character in the play, the reader gets a glance into the life of his family. Tom's mother, Amanda, is a southern belle desperately clinging to her past. Tom has a sister named Laura and she is a twenty-something woman that is too fragile to function in society. Tom ... . Symbols are a major part of this play. Symbols used in this classic play are the fire escape, Laura's "glass menagerie," and rainbows. One major symbol presented in the story is that of the fire escape,...

• Word Count: 991
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... memories, is a large picture hanging in the living room. Each character in The Glass Menagerie has a need to escape from he or she's life. Tom Wingfield, a main character and the narrator, openly shows the reader his need to escape. The realities of his life consist of working in a warehouse, and wanting ... them all."(Williams, 1102) Most likely a severely distorted memory that she repeats often. Amanda places her own hopes and dreams onto her children. Wanting Laura to become independent from her. Needing Tom to be the father. These are her dreams, not the reality of her life. She know...

• Word Count: 1336
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... symbols that can be found in the Glass Menagerie are escape, which provides hope and diversion from the outside world and the glass menagerie, which is a metaphor for Laura's fragility and uniqueness. The first symbol, presented in the first scene, is the fire escape. "The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire escape ... of the Wingfields and the world of reality. For Tom, the fire escape is the way out of the world of Amanda and Laura, and his view into the world of reality. Amanda sees the fire escape as an opportunity for gentleman callers to enter ... hide from reality b...

• Word Count: 702
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... delicate little girl. Laura lives in a world of her little glass figurines and doesn't have a connection to the real world. In the world today, there are many individuals that tend to replace their unhappiness in their lives with a seemed to be far-fetched dream. Williams demonstrated how the Wingfield family struggles to ... get a grip on things through using symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony. To begin, the consistency of using symbolism assisting the development of the plot. The fire escape is what Tom sees as an escape route out of the chaos of the house and his mother, but is force...

• Word Count: 561
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... and financially. The absence of a father figure has forced Tom into the position of being sole breadwinner. She also believes that Tom will turn on her and Laura because he is tired of the life his mother is living and wants to escape from it. She points this out, "More and more you remind me ... of But not till there's somebody to take your place" (439). She does not mind him leaving, but she wants him to make sure that she and Laura will be financially taken care of. Tom, also referred to as Shakespeare, is the main character in the play. He spends much of his time at home ... old enou...

• Word Count: 875
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School