The Wingfield Family In The Glass Menagerie

In Tennessee William’s play, “The Glass Menagerie”, the main characters are the Wingfield family. The play mainly progresses due to the conflict between Tom and Amanda. The conflict is affected by their distinct characteristics and Amanda’s excessive worry over being abandoned by Tom. In the play, the Wingfield family members all have some unordinary behaviors. Amanda, the mother, has a strong desire for making sure the lives of her children are perfect. Also, she immoderately nags Tom and Laura. Furthermore, this ultimately becomes a big problem that leads to the destruction of the family’s relationships. In addition, Tom is a young, ambitious and adventurous man who isn’t satisfied with his life, and he abandons his family at the end of the

However, the author includes two specific scenes where glass is falling and breaking: “…he tears the coat off again splitting the shoulder of it, and hurls it across the room. It strikes against the shelf of Laura’s glass collection, there is a tinkle of shattering glass.” (Williams, 18). While I was reading these scenes, I could think of the Wingfield family because their relationships are also very fragile like glass. Therefore, the symbol of the fragile glass menagerie, represents the fact that the relationships between the Wingfield family members are precariously linked by extremely thin strings that will easily snap apart. In addition, the fire escape is another important major symbol in the play. It has very distinct meanings for each family member. For Tom, it is the place where he can escape from Amanda’s irritating nagging. It is also an exit to a new world where he can achieve his dream and go on exciting adventures. Thus, the fire escape is a similar place as a movie theater for Tom because he seriously agonizes between his dream and his family after he comes back from both the movie theater and the fire escape. Tom expresses his mind