This shows that he doesn’t like to believe the reality. He would rather just leave everything behind and get away far as possible from the Wingfield apartment.
Williams also creates tension when Amanda focuses her attention on her so she knows that Tom is unhappy, but instead of helping him she decides to "turn a blind eye" and act as though he is going through a phase. But deep down she is terrified that he is turning into his father.
"I see you taking after his ways!"
She also makes him promise that he will never turn out to be an alcoholic. This puts Tom under enormous expectation. Both Amanda and Laura know that he could easily leave them in the same way his own father did. Amanda seems oblivious to Tom's unhappiness and Laura's painful shyness. Tom has a tender relationship with Laura who seems to be the only one who persuades Tom to respect their mother.
One thing that is dear about Tom is his feelings for Laura. He cares for her deeply, which makes his personal ordeal harder to bear. He wants to leave home very much, yet he feels a tremendous amount of guilt about abandoning his sister. The symbolism of the glass ornaments collection sums this situation up perfectly. Like the glass, Laura is very fragile and can easily be broken. In Scene three, he bumps into her collection causing some of it to break. This upsets Laura, which makes Tom feel awful. He did not do it on purpose but he knows that if he leaves, it will have the same effect on her. He feels sorry for Laura, partly because of her slight disability but mainly due to the constant fussing she gets from their mother.
Williams uses the device of a soliloquy to successfully engage our understanding of Tom's situation in the movement of the play. The result of his exit is heartbreaking in that he feels guilty for his sister's retreat from reality. This is particularly evident in the regretful tone of the final soliloquy. The device of the soliloquy makes us feel sympathetic towards Tom because it explains the situation at home with Amanda. How they both are intolerable to each other.
Tennessee Williams presents and portrays Amanda as an ambitious and tactless character. In scene 4 Tom's aggravation with his home situation against the affection the Wingfields feel for each other. Laura is able to advise Tom to apologize, and at the start of his conversation with Amanda, Tom's affection for his mother is clear. Their conversation continues, however, the old rifts seem unavoidable. Although he cares for them, he is often heartless and even unpleasant towards them. His speech at the end of the play demonstrates his feelings towards Laura. But he cruelly leaves her and Amanda. A moment that shows great of the split between mother and son is when Amanda tries to get Tom to eat and to promise that he will not become a drunkard. The audience knows that Tom is probably horribly hung over and that he came home drunk only a few hours ago although Amanda doesn’t. She knows nothing of his state, and so her attempts to care for him are met with petulance. Tension escalates slowly but steadily, suggesting that no peace between Tom and Amanda. Compassionate feelings felt for Amanda, however, are limited because of some of her personality traits. Amanda is a scheming, equivocal and deceiving character who at times is completely oblivious to others' feelings and disregards them.
Tom invites, to the second largest extent, feelings of compassion and sympathy from the audience because of his unfulfilled dreams, lack of any opportunities or prospects and his complete despair and depression with his life. Tom is trapped in the role of provider which evokes feelings of sympathy from the audience because it is as if he is trapped in a 'wooden box', which is his life, and he cannot escape it even though he is desperate to do so. Tom also evokes sympathy from the audience as he is trapped in his memory guilt and anguish 'the play is memory' and he cannot escape it so he tells the play, as a narrator, as if it is a confessional piece and is trying to justify why he left, but he still feels guilt. The sympathy felt for Tom is deep because he reveals to the audience the extent of his misery both as a narrator and as a character and after arguments with Amanda, Tom reveals the reasons why he hates his life which is working in the 'celotex interior!' shoe warehouse but explains that he has to go even though he would rather someone 'picked up a crowbar to batter out my brains'. Tom is a dreamful, desperate character who wants to escape more than anything, which he does by going to the 'movies to escape', but this is not enough for Tom and although he seems dreamy and deluded on the surface he begins to 'boil inside' with anger and frustration until he can bear no more and leaves.
The coffin as a symbol for Tom's problem shows the intensity of his sadness. He feels mentally dead, despising his work and muffled by the atmosphere at home. His talk with Amanda, suggests that his work emasculates him, making it impractical for him to follow the instincts of a man. The magician is able to escape the coffin, without damaging the coffin. Tom can escape, but only at great cost. Symbolically, he would have to "remove nails," causing great damage. He would have to desert Laura and Amanda and leave them to a doubtful destiny. Tom is in apprehension of the magician because he doesn’t have a choice; he can escape without causing any harm, an accomplishment that may be impractical for Tom.
The fire escape is a major symbol in this play. It represents a different symbol for each character. Tom uses the fire escape as an escape to the outside world. He cannot live in the depressed delusions of his mother and sister's reality, so he goes out the fire escape to work, and to the movies. He even succeeds in bringing in a possible replacement for him, someone else to take care of his helpless family members.
In the final stages of the play Amanda makes an offer to Tom which could allow his dreams to be fulfilled. Amanda proposes that if Tom can find his crippled sister, Laura a potential gentleman caller, ‘it would be nice for your sister if you brought home some nice young man from the warehouse.’ He would be able to leave the Wingfield apartment for good. Tom’s plans to leave Amanda and Laura were all ready made in his mind. This was a bonus to Tom which would help him leaving his family quicker. Tom provided a gentleman caller but it didn’t turn out to everyone’s expectations. Amanda blames the unfortunate situation on Tom as usual.
Overall, I do think that Tom’s character became stronger at the end of the play as he did finally pluck up the courage to leave. Tom’s relationship with Amanda would have never changed if he had decided to stay longer in the Wingfield household. In my opinion I think that it would have just got worse between them both. I think the hardest decision Tom ever had to make was choosing to leave Laura behind. This will forever haunt him as Laura was so dear to him.
