Indulging in escapism
Indulging in escapismIndulging in Escapism
In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ presents us with a Family whose lives seem to be trapped in avoiding reality instead of facing it. The play, which is much like our own lives, is constantly pointing out ways of escaping. The characters in the play each try to find there way to escape but find that they continue to tangle themselves into there problems even more. Escaping is a main theme in the play. Each member of the Wingfield family cannot live in the present. Amanda, Tom, and Laura Wingfield each escape to avoid the reality of everyday life.
Laura is presented to us as the very fragile daughter of Amanda. She finds herself escaping life often. She fakes sickness in her typing class and also when the Gentleman Caller Jim, comes for dinner, she does this to escape situations she does not want to be in. She is unable to deal with these problems. Laura spends her days going to the zoo, wasting time instead of going to typing class. She is frightened to interact with people and instead goes to the zoo were she does not fear being accepted or not. Laura also makes a world within her home as a place of acceptance, she develops a Glass Menagerie as a place were she can feel free from rejection be accepted. She has a favorite glass piece in her menagerie, the unicorn. Laura points out to Jim that the unicorn "doesn't complain" about being different either (Williams 275). Laura sticks to the fear that she is different because of her crippled leg, she magnifies her problem by not allowing her real beauty from within to come out. This is how Laura hides from a world she fears.
Tom faces the sad fact of working every day at the factory and having to return home every day to a family who cannot understand his problems and insecurities. He goes to the movies instead of facing his problems. He uses the movies and his dreams of going away and joining the "Union of Merchant Seamen" (Williams 264) as a way of avoiding the bitter...
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