Drama Essay for College

One of the most creative styles of expression in any product of literature is through the use of symbolisms. Oftentimes, these symbolisms not only render a scholarly impact to the reader and test his capability to dig beyond the blunt façade of the story, but they also paint a nuance of versatility that prompts readers to critically analyse the text to have a full grasp of the theme.
Similarly in Tennessee Williams play "The Glass Menagerie", there has been an effectively bountiful flow of symbolisms in the story. Many of these symbolisms are universal, but there are some which are slightly more exclusively related to the play itself. Moreover the analysis of the following symbolisms will center on how they strengthen the theme of hiding human weakness. There has been an obvious showcase of frailty within the characters both emotionally and socially. Thus the character`s weakness can be represented or be further supported by a form of "escape". The analysis of this kind of weakness will mostly revolve on the prominent members of Wingfields. These following symbolisms therefore will be individually discussed in this paper: the unicorn, the glass menagerie and the "blue rose" for Laura`s character weakness; the fire escape for Tom`s, and the jonquils for Amanda`s.
The unicorn in this play is undoubtedly the most significant and obvious symbolism in the play, mainly because it symbolises the entirety of Laura herself. Even with the scene where the unicorn was first presented, the readers can already find connections between it and Laura`s personality particularly on how she feels towards Jim. This claim can be further supported by the line "…be careful—if you breathe, it breaks!" which suggests how easily Laura is weakened and made vulnerable by the very presence of Jim near her. Moreover, it then becomes obvious and can easily hypothesize that Laura was directly hinting the unicorn as her icon by saying "Go on, I trust you with him." Jim, on the other hand, perceives none of these representations, yet was able to emphasize its symbolism through a different perspective thereby giving the readers a clear understanding on how the playwright wants them to understand Jim and Laura`s relationship—"Aren`t they [unicorns] extinct in the modern world?" This line, having implied that Laura was the unicorn, is highly suggestive that Jim never gave that much importance in noticing the presence of Laura in his life. Hence, being "extinct." However, this "extinction" plays another idea in terms of Laura`s relationship with her family. It speaks of how different she was from her brother and mother and how much they were aware of that; hence the lines: "He stays on a shelf with some horses that don't have horns and all of them seem to get along nicely together… I haven`t heard any arguments among them!" Furthermore, this unicorn becomes a dynamic symbolism for Laura, since its meaning descends from being "extinct" (special) into ...