In the play The Glass Menagerie, Tom Wingfield, the main character and the narrator of the play, tells Laura, his sister, of an account from a magic show where the magician was able to escape from a locked crate. Evidently, Tom views his life with his family and job as a type of crate —cramped, asphyxiated, and grim —where he feels he is unreasonably kept. The promise of escape, as represented by Tom and Laura’s missing father, the Merchant Marine Service, as well as the fire escape outside their complex, haunts Tom throughout the play. At the end of the play, Fortunately, Tom decides to free himself from the confinement of his mother’s power at the end of the
