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 something ordinary. The scene where it falls of the table when it gets knocked off from the table and breaks its horn was a definition of Laura`s identity—momentarily special because she gets to kiss and be kissed by the man she loves yet is shattered by the reality of his engagement to another woman. In the end, Laura gives Jim the horn-less unicorn as a "souvenir" representing the reality of her crippled self.
On another note, however, one can look at the fragility of Laura collectively in her glass menagerie. Williams created an indication of such delicacy in glasswork and sensitivity of breakage brought about by lack of socializing and absurd timidity due to low self-esteem (Laura`s disability.)
The flowers on the other hand, somehow manifest time for Amanda, having compared her life to a specific flower. She identifies her youth with a jonquil where "the legend of her youth is nearly revived". Symbolically, we can relate this flower to its genus family—the narcissus. The narcissus is popularly known to represent the Greek story where vanity or narcissism was born. This narcissistic nature of Amanda can be called off as her weakness for not having the ability to give importance to anything or anyone beyond her personality. There is an air of excessive self-love around her character. And such claim can be further idealized when the idea of narcissism (as directly equated as the jonquil) is merged with the line that she said: "…I had the craze for jonquils. Jonquils became an absolute obsession." Looking at it in that perspective, also, it can be assumed that Amanda, having been an incredibly adored woman in her youth, desired the same fate for her daughter Laura, and thereby pinning her together with Jim, even though she was well aware of her daughter`s disability.
In contrast to the jonquils that symbolized Amanda`s beautiful and radiant youth, however, was the symbol of "blue roses" for Laura. By its nonexistence in reality or being of extreme peculiarity, it is easy to compre...