The Character of the Female Gender, as Related in The Glass Menagerie Essay

The Character of the Female Gender, as Related in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams - Essay Example The Wingfield's fire escape takes on the symbolism of one of the main themes of the play, escape. Amanda is a brave but dominant woman, trapped in the past and her youth as a Southern Belle. Laura is trapped by her shyness, fragile sensitivity and disability, her 'reality' centering around her glass collection and old records. Tom is a poet, trapped by a boring job in a shoe factory, and the responsibility of providing for his mother and sister. The other themes explored include illusion, failure and disappointment. Nobody really wins, no dreams come true. Summary of Marxist Analysis: Marxist socialism seeks a classless society where everyone is equal, or has equality of opportunity. Tom Wingfield reflects Williams' circumstances, through which he became socially aware, being surrounded by the poor, the low-paid workers, the unemployed, bohemian writers, poets, artists and radical activists. In Glass Menagerie, when setting Scene One for us, describing the location, Williams displays his socialist, Marxist beliefs, or at the least, his sympathy towards that philosophy. He says: Note how he has told us of the class level involved, and the emotive use of the words 'fundamentally enslaved' in connection with the family and its living conditions. In this respect, he is showing us his disgust that people should have to live this way, and subscribing to the Marxist ideal. Again, there is a connection to socialist values when he has Tom pay his dues to the Union of Merchant Seamen, rather than the electric bill - thus highlighting a belief in the unions and socialism, as opposed to capitalism. In speaking about the impending war, Williams puts into the mouth of Tim Wingfield, some further indication of the belief that people are not getting what they are entitled to out of life. Tom: "Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a darkened room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses!....Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventure themselves-...." (Williams, 1936, Scene Six, p. 282) In using the word 'masses' the playwright makes us recall that this terminology is frequently associated with Marxism. As for coming out of the dark, it is symbolic, not just of Tom waking up to what he is being deprived of, but of all the people seemingly oppressed as he is. There is too, a cynical realization that in having 'adventure', those same masses will suffer. The play exposes, through Tom's narration, how that Capitalist dream has collapsed, it is an illusion. Williams is not unsympathetic, but in Tom's escape, is telling us that everybody deserves the opportunity