How Does Tennessee Williams Use Escape In The Glass Menagerie

Every person lives their own kind of reality. Not every person, however experiences this reality and copes with it the same way, or remembers it the same way. The Glass Menagerie is a play that exemplifies the role memory and escapism can play in life. The playwright, Tennessee Williams, based this work from his personal life and connects himself with his mother and sister to the characters in the play. As the play progresses, the narrator retains more from the past and the story grows through his memory. Williams is famously known for writing literature based on past experiences, specifically in his life. Williams values his own life experiences and uses them to relate to his audience. In this play, Williams uses only four characters so those …show more content…
Whether it be through the characters or just the symbols in general. With it being a memory play, escape is a main focus that can not be lacked in the plot. Adding details about how a character reacts to a situation or to moving into a new part of their life, it allows the observer to know the certain feelings that the characters have. Each character in The Glass Menagerie reacts and uses this method differently. Tom, for example, is constantly wanting adventure. This is something he cannot achieve because it is hard for him to be freed from the physical confines of his house. Even though he works away from the house, he always has to come back from fantasy and live in the four walls he resents. Locked up inside his house, Tom constantly gets frustrated with the others who reside there with him. Williams shows Tom’s frustration during an argument between Amanda and …show more content…
Without having Tom as the narrator the story would become confusing. Since the play is supposed to be based off memory, having a main character narrate the play is a key aspect for it to be successful. The Glass Menagerie overall brings the characters and symbols together to become the theme of escape. Even though they do not all cope in the same ways, every character has their own way of how to reach to