The Glass Menagerie Symbolism

In Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie, the mother, Amanda, is very outgoing, controlling, and manipulative. Tom, Amanda’s son, provides the support for Amanda and Laura, his sister. Laura is very shy, self-conscious, childlike, and handicapped. Tom feels as if he is entrapped by his family and desires to leave. Amanda controls Tom by making him find Laura a gentlemen caller, who eventually gains Laura’s affection and then leaves, telling her that he is engaged. Each character’s desires are represented by different symbols in the play.
Firstly, the dress and the photograph of her husband symbolize Amanda’s desire to live in the past. While Amanda and Laura are preparing for Jim’s visit, Amanda pulls out the dress she wore in her youth. Amanda tries to display and relive her past by displaying her dress that, “[She] sashayed around the ballroom. . .” (Williams 769. 82-83). Also the photograph of Amanda’s husband is another symbol of her desire to live in the past. After her husband had been gone for sixteen years, she still talks proudly of him as if he had always been home. When Jim arrives for the evening, Amanda points to “[t]hat gallantly smiling gentlemen” (Williams 773. 87-88) revealing her remaining feelings for her
Laura collects glass figures, which she often polishes and leaves on the shelf. Just like Laura’s glass menagerie that stays on the self, she is also “too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf” (Williams 751.). Laura’s Victrola is a part of her home and symbolizes her desire to stay at home. When Laura answers the door for Jim “She turns awkwardly and hurries into the front room. She pauses a second by the Victrola” (Williams 771. 70-72). Laura is driven to her glass menagerie and Victrola illustrating the glass menagerie and Victrola are symbols of Laura’s desire to stay at home because they are the parts of her home that she finds comfort