The Glass Menagerie, a thought-provoking play written in the 40s by American playwright Tennessee Williams, is a semi-autobiographical, “memory” play that concerns the Wingfields and the tension and drama that afflicts their family unit. There is infinite significance worked into the play by way of themes, characters, dialogue, and setting. Specifically, there is a wealth of significance in the title alone, and it shows itself in the form of the repeated symbol of the glass menagerie throughout the story and its relationship to the characters and themes. When technically defined, a menagerie is “a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition.” This definition induces the glass menagerie to have an interesting relationship to the Wingfield family as it takes the form of a metaphor for their trapped states. Animals who were part of a menagerie were often considered exotic and foreign; they were generally paraded for the entertainment of people in countries that they were not native or accustomed to. The animals in a menagerie are all trapped and unable to escape the cycle of tragedy and suffering that they must endure due to their unnatural habitat and helpless captivity. In the play, the Wingfields are the members of the menagerie, and they are trapped both literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, they live in “one of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units” in St. Louis, Missouri, the oppressive and dull nature of which reflects the monotony of their life and the impossibility of any of them attaining the American Dream or their individual dreams. In the figurative sense, they are all trapped by specific emotional or physical struggles. Amanda Wingfield, for one, is trapped by her past, unable to let go of her Southern glory days when seventeen gentlemen would call on her at once and also by her desire to live vicariously through Laura. On the other hand, Tom is trapped by his aspirations of glory and inability to achieve them. And of course, Laura is trapped most obviously by her physical malady and her unusual, childlike nature.

The glass menagerie’s relationship with Laura is the one that provides the most material for analysis; being the owner of the glass menagerie, she is the one whose qualities are directly reflected in it. Not only does the fact that it is a menagerie reflect her trapped, helpless state, but the fact that it is glass also reveals other tenets of her character. Most obviously, glass is a delicate material that breaks easily. Similarly, Laura is sensitive and fragile, prone to catching colds and plagued by poor health, but also shy and fearful of the opinions of others. When asked why she did not tell her mother about quitting business school, she desperately explains that she “couldn’t face” Amanda’s “awful suffering look” that she has when she is disappointed. The quaint, toylike quality of the glass menagerie also brings to mind Laura’s perpetual childlike state. She is naive and unable to survive in the adult world. Most fascinating is perhaps the tendency of glass to refract a myriad of different colors when the light shines upon it. This implies that though Laura may be simple, childish, and fragile, she is also a beautiful and unique person, if only one observed her in a certain light.

Laura’s uniqueness is further underpinned through a specific member of the glass menagerie, the glass unicorn. The glass unicorn is her favorite figure and highlights her atypical and curious nature. When Jim visits the Wingfields for dinner one night, he observes that the unicorn is “extinct in the modern world”, further emphasizing Laura’s individuality and inability to adapt and survive in her surroundings. He additionally notes that the unicorn “must feel lonesome” as it is so different from the other horses. A major reason why Laura is unable to change and cannot thrive in her situation is because of her loneliness; furthermore, not being an independent person at all, she is unable to pull herself out of her isolation when no one does it for her. There is hope that Jim will be the one to accomplish this as he dances with her and brings out all her delightful and charming qualities in the short time they are in one another’s company, but it fades in a heartbreaking turn of events as he reveals that he is engaged and leaves her with her shattered hopes and her shattered unicorn, whose lost horn represents Jim’s attempt to make her “normal” and like the other horses, but breaking of her in the process.

The symbol of the glass menagerie supplies the audience with a tangible and multi-faceted way of understanding the Wingfields and their numerous troubles. Specifically, it allows the viewers to sympathize with Laura as they come to a thorough understanding of who she is and of the conundrum that is her plight. The glass unicorn serves as a dynamic symbol that shifts from representing Laura’s uniqueness to representing the brokenness she feels after Jim leaves. Emotionally involving the audience, the fate of the glass unicorn, and subsequently the fate of Laura, pulls on our heartstrings and creates a channel through which we feel her pain. When the glass unicorn breaks, our hearts break along with it.

Sources

Williams, Tennessee, and Robert Bray. The Glass Menagerie. New York, New Directions
Book, 1999.