Dreams and Escape in The Glass Menagerie Essay - 2243 Words

Dreams and Escape in The Glass Menagerie None of the characters in The Glass Menagerie is capable of living in the present. Everyday life is so oppressive that each character, through their dreams, retreats into a fantasy world. This essay will examine the reality faced by Amanda, Tom, Laura and Jim and probe how, through their dreams, each character attempts to transcend reality. Amanda, having lost her husband and having to take care of her two children, namely Tom and Laura, who, in her eyes, are equally lost in their lives, leads a hard life. Having a son whom she considers unrealistic, daydreaming about becoming a recognized poet rather than staying committed to his present job, Amanda is not only overwhelmingly†¦show more content†¦On this occasion, she is dressed in the same girlish frock she wore on the day she met the childrens father, attempting to conceal her shabby present and recapture part of the elegance she associates with her giddy days of entertaining many gentleman callers. Bewildered by her immediate surroundings and unable to cope with the social and economic reality of the Depression days, Amanda is often obsessed with her past as the genteel southern belle dominated by refined social gatherings and elegant living conditions, reminiscing about her own experiences with men in Blue Mountain: One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain - your mother received - seventeen! - gentleman callers!... (Williams 16). Attempting to materialize her southern belle past, she even makes constant insistence on Lauras having gentleman callers. Tom, though not physically crippled as his sister Laura, finds himself paralyzed in the warehouse in which he works. Faced with the bleak aspects, and perhaps the bleak prospects, of the day-to-day factory job, he regards the warehouse as a prison that shackles all the basic impulses with which, he believes, men are endowed-Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter (Williams 39). In the warehouse Tom cannot find any satisfaction at all - Id rather somebody picked up a crowbar and battered out myShow MoreRelated Dreams of Escape in The Glass Menagerie Essay example2299 Words   |  10 PagesDreams of Escape in The Glass Menagerie    Anyone can handle a crisis, but day-to-day living is the most trying aspect of life (Jackson 19). This is especially true in the drama The Glass Menagerie. None of the characters in this tale is willing to or capable of living in the present. Everyday life becomes so mindless and oppressive that each characters dreams and fantasies become more important than reality itself. Through their dreams, Amanda, Tom, Laura, and Jim attempt to transcend realityRead More Dreams of Escape in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams2189 Words   |  9 Pages     Ã‚   In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams presents us with four characters whose lives seem to consist in avoiding reality more than facing it. Amanda lives her life through her children and clings to her lost youthfulness. Tom retreats into movie theaters and into his dream of joining the merchant seamen and some day becoming a published poet. Laura resorts to her Victrola and collection of glass ornaments to help sustain her world of fantasy. Finally, Jim is only able to find some reliefRead More Essay on the Symbolism of the Menagerie in The Glass Menagerie1002 Words   |  5 PagesThe Symbolism of the Menagerie in The Glass Menagerie      Ã‚   Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie, describes three separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they face in a modern world.   The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Williams use of symbols adds depth to the play. The glass menagerie itself is a symbol Williams uses to represent the broken lives of Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield andRead MoreEssay Crushed Dreams in The Glass Menagerie1194 Words   |  5 PagesCrushed Dreams in The Glass Menagerie      Ã‚  Ã‚   Tennessee Williams is known for his use of symbols, tension, and irony. Williams uses all of these components to express the central theme of The Glass Menagerie - hope followed by despair. Each of the characters has dreams that are destroyed by the harsh realities of the world.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As the narrator blatantly admits, since I have a poets weakness for symbols, symbols are central to The Glass Menagerie (Williams 30). Symbols areRead MoreConflict Between Reality and Illusion as a Major Theme of ‘the Glass Menagerie’1718 Words   |  7 PagesConflict between reality and illusion as a major theme of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ Introduction The Glass Menagerie is a dramatic play about human nature and the conflict between illusion and reality. An illusion is pretense and not reality. In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams has made use of both reality and illusion together using conflict between them. Illusion is a misinterpretation of the facts. It is an opinion based on what we think is true rather than on what is actually true. In thisRead MoreAnalysis Of The Play The Glass Menagerie 1281 Words   |  6 PagesThe Glas Menagerie 4/29/15 Within the play The Glass Menagerie, Amanda, Laura, and Tom Wingfield all of have their own dreams that are continuously destroyed by the harshness of reality. Amanda, stuck in the ease of her youth, tries to relive her life through her daughter Laura. Being crippled both physically and mentally, Laura struggles to escape the bubble she has created around herself that her mother Amanda so strongly tries to force her out of. Tom whom, although reads poetry and dreams of escapeRead MoreEscape from Reality in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams680 Words   |  3 PagesEscape from Reality in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams The Characters Escape From Reality in The Glass Menagerie The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams centers around a dream of escape. Although everyone wants to escape from a different reality, they all feel that need to get away. The father is the most successful in his escape because he never has to deal with anything at home. He actually leaves and doesnt look back. As for the other four: Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim, they seemRead More Essay on Stagnant Lives in Streetcar Named Desire and Glass Menagerie1196 Words   |  5 PagesStagnant Lives in Streetcar Named Desire and Glass Menagerie   Ã‚  Ã‚   The Stagnant Lives of Blanche DuBois and Amanda Wingfield  Ã‚  Ã‚   All of Williams significant characters are pathetic victims--of time, of their own passions, of immutable circumstance (Gantz 110). This assessment of Tennessee Williams plays proves true when one looks closely at the characters of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Their lives run closely parallel to one anotherRead More Comparing the Life of Tennessee Williams and Glass Menagerie707 Words   |  3 PagesParallels in the Life of Tennessee Williams and The Glass Menagerie   Ã‚  Ã‚   Tennessee Williams is one the major writers of the mid-twentieth century. His work includes the plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. One theme of The Glass Menagerie is that hopeful aspirations are followed by inevitable disappointments. This theme is common throughout all of Williams work and throughout his own life as well. It is shown through the use of symbols and characters.    I haveRead More The Importance of Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie Essay1609 Words   |  7 PagesThe Importance of Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie  Ã‚      Tom Wingfield is the narrator and a major character in Tennessee William’s timeless play, The Glass Menagerie. Through the eyes of Tom, the viewer gets a glance into the life of his family in the pre-war depression era; his mother, a Southern belle desperately clinging to the past; his sister, a woman too fragile to function in society; and himself, a struggling, young poet working at a warehouse to pay the bills. Williams has managed