Williams makes it clear that Laura is trapped by her overbearing Mother who enforces her own dreams and ambitions on her daughter who is also battling her own disability and shyness along with the stereotypical views on women in society during that time. Laura escapes the tension of life with Amanda and her fears of the outside world by retreating to the Victrola to comfort herself with memories of her childhood and her father. Another escape for Laura is her Glass Menagerie; her collection represents the private world that she turns to where she feels safe, comforted and hidden from the world. When finally overcoming her shyness with Jim she still reverts back to play her Victrola and escaping into her fantasy world of old records and glass ornaments.
On the other hand, Amanda uses various escape mechanisms in order to endure the disappointment in her life. One being her memories being the time when she lived at Blue Mountain and had seventeen gentlemen callers in one Sunday afternoon. She likewise indulges in playful games so to escape. She tells Laura, “You be the lady this time and I’ll be the darky.” Amanda’s language always suggests another time and place. Her constant demands for Laura to practice her short hand, shows her domineering nature. Williams shows through Amanda how the line between fantasy and reality can become hazy in desperate situations. She believes that Laura has ‘a little defect – hardly noticeable’ and refuses to believe that her daughter is ‘crippled’. She believes that she is still a southern belle as when Jim arrives she is dressed in a ‘girlish frock’ she wore the day she met their father and regresses to her flirtatious manners when entertaining her gentleman callers. However, unlike Laura and Tom, she doesn’t realize that she is escaping reality and consequently, is constantly making efforts to engage with people and the world outside her family. Amanda uses the past as a means to escape the reality that she does not want to face.
Similarly, Jim uses his past as a means of escape; immersing himself in memories of high school when he was the ‘high school hero’. He only can escape his mundane life at the warehouse when at the Wingfield apartment. This is shown in the scene with Laura, as he woos her, innocently kissing her. However his escape was short as being the most conventional character, Williams shows how Jim is forced back to reality. Unlike the Wingfields, Jim lives only temporarily in the past, and when leaving the apartment he enters reality again leaving the dream world behind.
Williams shows the theme of escape through Tom in a multitude of ways. Tom views his life with his family and at the warehouse as a type of coffin; cramped and suffocating; he clearly feels stifled. When returning from the movies he wishes that he could get himself out of this 2 by 4 situation’ with the help of Malvolio the Magicians trick of escaping from a ‘coffin without removing one nail’. He also escapes life through his poetry and when going to the movies. They take him to a world with adventure, excitement and where Amanda doesn’t exist. The movies lead to Tom drinking as escape seems harder and harder to achieve. The promise of escape, represented by his Father’s photograph is a constant reminder that Tom’s dream of escape is a goal that can be reached. Tom jokingly talks about his fathers ‘love of long distances’ but Williams shows that from the opening scene that the relationship between Tom and his father is tainted with resentment and jealousy. His father managed to succeed in doing what Tom has been longing to do and the smile on his face ‘as if to say,’ I will be smiling forever’’ makes the idea of escape seem simply and commendable and realistic.
The technique of using Tom as a narrator in the present tense, shows how Tom has physically escaped. His escape is visible to us as an audience. However, when taking a step back into time, and presents the play as a memory, show his need for escape that never was fully achieved because psychologically he is still trapped. But when the day of departure arrives for Tom, the guilt of abandoning Laura is over whelming. Williams explains the true nature of escape; that physical relief might be achieved but this does not guarantee emotional freedom at the same time. Although Tom attempted to escape, his father was the only true person to escape successfully. Tom realizes that the escape that his father promised him was not the true escape he wanted, and without even being present, his Father had let him down once again. Unlike his father Tom has a conscious and knows that he has done the wrong thing, yet feels he can never go back. Williams shows that escaping a bad situation can sometimes make it worse, causing pain to Tom, Laura and Amanda.
Williams uses the theme of escape to demonstrate how unhappiness within people make them desire new things; breaking free from their current circumstances in order to move on to something better. Williams suggests that the idea of dream and even the ‘American dream’ is an illusion to help escape from the real problems. Williams shows that holding onto memories can be negative as it is hard to move on and live in the present if you always want to go back. He shows that escape is not possible and in the end no character made a clean break. Tennessee Williams could have been sending a message through the play suggesting that you cannot escape and hide reality. The only escape in life is to solve your problems and not to avoid them.
