In the play, Tom feels imprisonment not by exterior factors, but by many emotional ones. His restraint is mainly put upon him from his loyalty towards Laura and Amanda. Escaping this confinement means the suppression and denial of these emotions in himself as well as doing massive harm to his mother and sister. "You know it don’t take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who the hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?" (Williams 4.9, 4.13). In this quote, Tom recognizes that to escape from his own coffin of his job, apartment, and family obligations, he would have to upset his surroundings. Tom is put in a situation where he needs to decide whether he wants to stay and be loyal or leave
