Escapism in “The Glass Menagerie” Throughout the play “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, there are several instances of escapism with each member of the Wingfield household. Escapism plays a huge part in the way the family works and deals with issues (Stein). The father of Tom and Laura, who is not physically in the play, left the family long before the play actually happens. Amanda, the mother, can’t seem to get out of the past and has a delusion that nice gentlemen callers are coming over every night to meet her daughter even though it has never been the case. Laura, the daughter, escapes responsibilities in life because of her insecurities and withdraws from life itself using glass figurines and old worn out records. Tom, the
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She is also a victim of escapism in the play. When Laura dropped out of business school she used walking around as a way to make her mother think she was still at school. In another sense she also was using walking as an escape from her responsibilities. Instead of going to school and getting the proper education to get a career, she drops out and walks around to different places in an attempt to avoid the reality of getting a proper career to support herself for the future. When asked where she was going all this time Laura replied “I went in the art museum and the bird-houses at the zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I went without lunch and went to the movies. Lately I’ve been spending most of my time in the Jewel-box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.” (Williams 1661). The plays also states that Laura spends most of her time playing with glass figurines and listening to worn out records. This is a great example of Laura escaping from reality and living in her own little fantasy world. Jim O’Conner, the person the Wingfields invited to dinner, said to Laura “You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! Know what that is? That’s what they call it when someone low-rates himself!” (Williams 1691). It could be that Laura goes into her little world with glass figurines and old records to escape her feelings of …show more content…
The play is basically a memory that Tom is reliving and viewing to the audience (Cadullo). Tom goes out to what he claims to be the movies at nights. We don’t know how truthful he is when saying this. Assuming it is the truth, it would still be a great example of escaping the reality around him. Tom says he goes to the movies for a sense of adventure. He doesn’t get enough adventure from his everyday life or work so he goes to the movies to escape his reality of a dull life. His time at the movies serve as a short relief of his boring life. Ultimately, Tom takes after his father, and leaves his mother and his sister behind to fend for themselves. Tom escaped from his life of working a dull job and having to put up with his mother’s nagging of him. Because Tom not only escaped from his everyday life by going to the movies, but also escaped from his life in whole by up and leaving his family like his father, Tom would be the greatest example of escaping reality in the entire
She is also a victim of escapism in the play. When Laura dropped out of business school she used walking around as a way to make her mother think she was still at school. In another sense she also was using walking as an escape from her responsibilities. Instead of going to school and getting the proper education to get a career, she drops out and walks around to different places in an attempt to avoid the reality of getting a proper career to support herself for the future. When asked where she was going all this time Laura replied “I went in the art museum and the bird-houses at the zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I went without lunch and went to the movies. Lately I’ve been spending most of my time in the Jewel-box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.” (Williams 1661). The plays also states that Laura spends most of her time playing with glass figurines and listening to worn out records. This is a great example of Laura escaping from reality and living in her own little fantasy world. Jim O’Conner, the person the Wingfields invited to dinner, said to Laura “You know what I judge to be the trouble with you? Inferiority complex! Know what that is? That’s what they call it when someone low-rates himself!” (Williams 1691). It could be that Laura goes into her little world with glass figurines and old records to escape her feelings of …show more content…
The play is basically a memory that Tom is reliving and viewing to the audience (Cadullo). Tom goes out to what he claims to be the movies at nights. We don’t know how truthful he is when saying this. Assuming it is the truth, it would still be a great example of escaping the reality around him. Tom says he goes to the movies for a sense of adventure. He doesn’t get enough adventure from his everyday life or work so he goes to the movies to escape his reality of a dull life. His time at the movies serve as a short relief of his boring life. Ultimately, Tom takes after his father, and leaves his mother and his sister behind to fend for themselves. Tom escaped from his life of working a dull job and having to put up with his mother’s nagging of him. Because Tom not only escaped from his everyday life by going to the movies, but also escaped from his life in whole by up and leaving his family like his father, Tom would be the greatest example of escaping reality in the entire