Asked by: Mellisa Orvay
books and literature fiction

How does the Glass Menagerie symbolize Laura?

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The glass Menagerie is also a symbol of isolation. It is a symbol of the artificiality of her handicapped and heavily interiorized creativity. In the same line of interpreting this symbol, it appears to be a symbol of the reality of illusion, which is overtly pleasingly to Laura.


Keeping this in view, how does the Glass Menagerie represent Laura?

Laura's Glass Menagerie As the title of the play informs us, the glass menagerie, or collection of animals, is the play's central symbol. Laura's collection of glass animal figurines represents a number of facets of her personality. Like the figurines, Laura is delicate, fanciful, and somehow old-fashioned.

Similarly, who is Laura in The Glass Menagerie? Laura Wingfield - Amanda's daughter and Tom's older sister. Laura has a bad leg, on which she has to wear a brace, and walks with a limp. Twenty-three years old and painfully shy, she has largely withdrawn from the outside world and devotes herself to old records and her collection of glass figurines.

People also ask, what is the symbolic meaning of The Glass Menagerie?

Glass Menagerie. The title of the play, and the play's most prominent symbol, the glass menagerie represents Laura's fragility, otherworldliness, and tragic beauty. The collection embodies Laura's imaginative world, her haven from society.

What does Jim symbolize in The Glass Menagerie?

The Glass Menagerie In the character descriptions preceding the play, Jim is described as a "nice, ordinary, young man." He is the emissary from the world of normality. Yet this ordinary and simple person, seemingly out of place with the other characters, plays an important role in the climax of the play.

Related Question Answers

Aran Mondragon

Professional

What disease does Laura have in The Glass Menagerie?

Laura Wingfield: Amanda's daughter and Tom's older sister, Laura suffers the results of a childhood illness which left one of her legs malformed and in a brace. As a result, Laura is painfully shy and has withdrawn herself the outside world. She is much like her beloved glass figurines: delicate and frail.

Margit Mato

Professional

Why does Laura give the unicorn to Jim?

Laura's giving the unicorn to Jim, therefore, represents her ability to overcome her emotional disabilities and feel more “at home” with other normal girls.

Jurg Risco

Professional

What happens to Laura at the end of The Glass Menagerie?

Laura's act of blowing out the candles at the play's end signifies the snuffing of her hopes, but it may also mark Tom's long-awaited release from her grip. He exhorts Laura to blow out her candles and then bids her what sounds like a final goodbye.

Benigna Inchauspe

Explainer

What is the point of The Glass Menagerie?

THE GLASS MENAGERIE IS A MEMORY PLAY.
The play's story is narrated by a central character looking back on the events presented. The format gives the playwright more creative freedom in the narrative, as memories are affected by emotion and temporal distance.

Dieneba Thebes

Explainer

Why did Tom leave in The Glass Menagerie?

Tom takes off for the movies. Narrator Tom gives his closing speech and reveals that he left his family shortly after that night, seeking adventure and other non-boring activities. Tom makes it clear that he always felt guilty about leaving Laura, and couldn't get her out of his mind.

Robena Con

Explainer

What is the conflict of The Glass Menagerie?

Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie is a play fraught with conflict; however, Tom's internal conflict of being torn between his desire to fulfill his dreams and his sense of responsibility to his mother and sister is pivotal to the play as it generates external conflicts between Tom and his sister and Tom and his

Khamsa Gai

Pundit

Who is the tragic hero in The Glass Menagerie?

Tom Wingfield

Yoshie Gorrochetegui

Pundit

What is the main theme in The Glass Menagerie?

In The Glass Menagerie, the themes of illusions and impossible dreams offer an escape from reality, but they cannot be sustained. The past informs the present, and the possibility of escaping the past is only an illusion.

Floro Garcera

Pundit

What do the jonquils represent in The Glass Menagerie?

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Amanda always talks about jonquils when referring to her past, when she herself was a pretty little Southern Belle surrounded by dozens of gentlemen callers. Jonquils are a type of Narcissus, which is named of course from Greek Mythology and has to do with vanity, or narcissism.

Jaunita Kappelma

Pundit

Is The Glass Menagerie a tragedy?

The Glass Menagerie is a modern tragedy because its characters are ordinary, middle-class citizens whose central conflicts are mundane, realistic problems. The Wingfield family of The Glass Menagerie all suffer from their unfulfilled dreams and feel burdened by each other's presence in their lives.

Aniuska Spears

Pundit

Why is Laura called blue roses?

Jim calls Laura “Blue Roses,” a mispronunciation of “pleurosis,” a disease that caused Laura to miss some school during high school. The name “Blue Roses” turns Laura's defect into an asset: her unusual, otherworldly qualities are seen as special rather than debilitating.

Mushtaq Zhigily

Teacher

Is Amanda a good mother in The Glass Menagerie?

Amanda Wingfield. In fact, as annoying as all the nagging about keeping one's elbows off the table is, Amanda is actually a very loving mother. Other than shooting the breeze about when she used to have gentlemen callers in her youth, Amanda doesn't really think too much about herself.

Melynda Riedlsperger

Teacher

What does Amanda Do For Money In The Glass Menagerie?

Tom says that in order to make a little extra money and thereby increase the family's ability to entertain suitors, Amanda runs a telephone subscription campaign for a magazine called The Homemaker's Companion. The cover of a glamour magazine appears on the screen, and Amanda enters with a telephone.

Abu Vantchugov

Teacher

Where does Glass Menagerie take place?

The Glass Menagerie Summary. The action of The Glass Menagerie takes place in the Wingfield family's apartment in St. Louis, 1937. The events of the play are framed by memory - Tom Wingfield is the play's narrator, and usually smokes and stands on the fire escape as he delivers his monologues.

Calina Divavin

Teacher

What type of relationship do Tom and Laura Wingfield have in The Glass Menagerie?

A second, very important and strong relationship for Laura in The Glass Menagerie is that between her and her younger brother, Tom. Tom Wingfield is an “itinerant dreamer” and is “trapped not only in a monotonous warehouse job but also by responsibilities to his mother and his sister” (Falk).

Ayesa Miehlke

Reviewer

What does the fire escape symbolize in The Glass Menagerie?

One of the major symbols of "The Glass Menagerie," the fire escape is the means of exit for the characters, an escape from the fires of frustration and rage that burn in the hearts of Williams's personages, and an exit for the father and eventually Tom. For Laura and Amanda, the fire steps are, indeed, not an escape.

Ning Odinius

Reviewer

What is the climax of The Glass Menagerie?

The gentleman caller connects with Laura, kisses her, breaks the horn off her glass unicorn. How did we know this was the climax? Well, Williams does call it "the climax of her secret life," with the 'her' being Laura.

Gogu Quagli

Reviewer

What literary devices are used in the glass menagerie?

Literary Devices in The Glass Menagerie
  • Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory. Yes, we've got some flower stuff going on here.
  • Setting. Tennessee Williams makes a big deal out of telling us all about the apartment.
  • Narrator Point of View.
  • Genre.
  • Tone.
  • Writing Style.
  • What's Up With the Title?
  • What's Up With the Epigraph?

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EveryThingWhat Staff Editor

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6th April, 2020

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