The Glass Menagerie

Analysis: The Glass Menagerie
One of the themes of the play “The Glass Menagerie” may be the inability to accept reality and the impossibility of a true escape. In this play one of the main andpowerful factor is memory. It plays an important role in the denial of accepting reality and forming an imaginative one. The play is based on memory it can represent real memories from a character but itlacks realism do to the exaggeration or drama the character might remember an event. John Gardner says “the theme is not a message but the general subject”. The theme is a general subject that isdeveloped threw out the entire play. It can be like a motif.
The character Amanda cannot cope with her reality. She is always remembering the old days when she was a southern bell. “One Sundayafternoon in Blue Mountain your mother received seventeen! -gentlemen callers…” (Williams, 1616). Sometimes even making Laura feel bad because she is not like her mother. “It isn’t flood, it’s not a tornado,Mother. I’m just not popular like you were in Blue Mountain...” (Williams 1617). Amanda is raising her kids like she was raised. Amanda is trying to find a husband for Laura because for her it is oneof the most important things. It will bring stability economically for her daughter. Tom is the man of the house he has to support them economically and Amanda pressures him a lot into doing so.Tom is not happy with his life and he wants more action in it. He uses the movies as is escape from reality. “…This is his magic scarf. You can have it, Laura. You wave it over a canary cage and youget a bowl of gold fish. You wave it over a gold fish bowl and they fly canaries… But the wonderfullest trick of all was the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffinwithout removing one nail.” (Williams 1625) Tom can reflect his life on the coffin trick because he wants so badly to leave but Laura and Amanda are holding him down like the nails. He wishes to escape...