The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams
One symbol that is prevalent throughout The Glass Menagerie is in fact the object, the glass meangerie. Williams made very clear from the beginning of the story that the glass menagerie would be a key symbol. The glass menagerie is a symbol of Laura's fragility. One of Laura's only interests is her glass collection. Each piece in the collection is particularly fragile and must be dealt with in a gingerly fashion. Just like Laura's glass, Laura is quite fragile because of her physical ailment in her leg. However, once Jim comes into Laura's life, he advises her to become more confident in herself. Right when she starts to become more confident in herself, Jim accidently bumps into a table, breaking the glass menagerie. I feel as though the breaking of the glass menagerie was symbolic of Laura breaking her "shell." In fact, when the menagerie breaks, Laura says, "maybe it's a blessing in disguise" (Williams 1282). Even though becoming a little bit more open was a struggle for Laura, it allowed her to become closer with Jim. When Jim broke the glass menagerie, he also broke Laura's closed-off personality.
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