The Glass Menagerie
The pressure of reality can impinge too much at times. Everyone has some means of escape. Consider those escape avenues used by the characters in The Glass Menagerie. Why are they important and what reality is each character running from?
The characters in The Glass Menagerie are all attempting to escape the reality that is their depressing and non-existent lives. The lower-middle class Wingfield family is living in the American city of Saint Louis, where each of them is faced by the unwanted actuality of their existence. As a result, Amanda and her children Tom and Laura, each in their own way endeavour to break free from the anguish and confinement that they are faced with. Although each character is running from a different aspect of their live, they are all trying to escape from the same thing; the harsh reality of their existence.
The character of Tom Wingfield is faced with the pressures and responsibilities of supporting Amanda and Laura after his father, Mr Wingfield left. Tom is left having to work making cardboard boxes in a shoebox factory and having to deal with a nagging, overbearing mother and a terribly shy, crippled sister with an inferiority complex. Amanda, although simply wanting the best for her children, is driven so forcefully by this that she cannot let Laura and Tom live the life that they want, but is trying to give them the life she wishes them to have and sees best. As a result, Tom must become the man of the family in the absence of his father; working to support the family and pressured by Amanda to become the man Amanda wants him to be. It becomes apparent that the stress of such circumstances is waning on Tom, and he finds he must find ways to escape the strains of reality. The fire escape, which Tom often uses to seek refuge, becomes a bridge between being trapped in a life of desperation and a world of freedom. When Tom faced by the pressures of an intrusive Amanda, Tom will usually exit to the fire escape as a way of escaping. For example, when Amanda is suggesting Tom starts an accounting course at the University, Tom is “unmoved by the thought” and “[steps out on the landing, letting the screen door slam].” (Scene 5 Pg. 264) For Tom, the fire escape is the entrance into the world of freedom, and his escape from Laura and Amanda. The Movies also become a place to which Tom goes to break away from the reality of his life. In Scene 5, Tom is explaining to Amanda how Laura is different and is seen as such by others. This reminded fact is one of the realities Tom is faced with in his depressing life – that although he loves his sister, she is different; terribly shy and in a world of her own, and he is being depended on to support her. Tom responds to this by “I’m going to the movies.” With which Amanda exclaims “Not to the movies, every night to the movies!” (Scene 5 Pg. 272) The movies take Tom to another world, one of adventure and action in which he can forget the pressures of reality. As the strain of home life becomes worse, the frequency of his escapes to the movies does also. It becomes harder for Tom to avoid real life, and Tom makes the ultimate escape from the pressures of Amanda and Laura; he leaves them. He realises “people go the movies instead of moving! I’m tired of the movies and I’m about to move!” (Scene 6 Pg. 282) He follows in the footsteps of his father and finally leaves in an effort to escape the burdens of reality. But, he finds it’s not the escape he craved for so long, as the guilt of abandoning Laura is overwhelming. And so, Tom realises that leaving is not an escape at all, but only leads to a course of even more desperation.
