Play the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams,

¶ … play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the theme of escape helps drive the play forward. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, escapes the reality of her hard and narrow life by remembering better times, possibly without great accuracy. Laura, Amanda's daughter, escapes by playing with her collection of glass animals (the "menagerie"). Tom, Amanda's son, is the only one in the family who has a chance of truly escaping the life they have lead, but if he chooses this path, he will be leaving Amanda and Laura behind just as his father did many years before. Tom and Laura's father is an important character in the play, even though he never appears. Tom describes him as "... A telephone man who fell in love with long distances." ("The Glass Menagerie," scene 1) The father's picture in his World War I uniform is placed prominently in the family's living room. In that uniform the sense of his being away is apparent. The father's absence sets the theme of escape for the play.

Tom will follow in his father's footsteps, leaving his mother and sister to fend for themselves. He works in a shoe factory, and knows his mother and sister depend on his income, but he knows he cannot spend his life taking on all responsibility for them. He is a dreamer and wants to write poetry. Tom tries to communicate to his mother and sister just how frustrated he is. With his sister he is much more gentle than he is with his mother. He says to Amanda,

Listen! You think I'm crazy about the warehouse? You think I'm in love with Continental Shoemakers? You think I want to spend fifty-five years down there in that -- celotex interior! With--fluorescent -- tubes! Look! I'd rather somebody picked up a crowbar and battered out my brains -- than go back mornings! I go! Every time you come in yelling that Goddamn 'Rise and Shine!' 'Rise and Shine!' say to myself, 'How lucky dead people are!'... " ("The Glass Menagerie," Scene 3)

To his sister he is kinder, but the theme of escape is still there in his conversation to her. Tom goes out every night to the movies or a show to escape the trap of his home life. In Scene 4 he describes to Laura a magic trick done by an escape artist:

But the wonderfullest trick of all was the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without removing one nail... There is a trick that would come in handy for me -- get me out of this two-by-four situation.... You know it don't take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?" ("The Glass Menagerie," Scene 4)

Tom knows he must leave, has to leave, and cannot survive if he stays. He doesn't want to destroy his family (the coffin) in the process, but he knows that he will not escape from Amanda and Laura without doing damage. The imagery is clear: what Tom values most in himself will die if he does not escape the coffin of that closed-off apartment.

By the final scene in the play, Tom has physically left his mother and sister, but he cannot escape the memory of his sister. In the play, Laura has a physical disability. This disability symbolizes her inability to escape from her mother and the life they are destined to live together. Tom knows he cannot save his sister from this, and it breaks his heart, but he knows he cannot stay either. Like his father before him, Tom must leave, and he does. However, he feels real anguish for his sister. Just as the father sends his family a postcard that says "Hello- good bye," Tom is haunted by remembering his sister so intently that he feels as if she is there, but realizes he must tell her goodbye. The candles in this speech refer to the candles Laura's one gentleman caller lit when the lights went out. For a short period of time, Laura charmed a young man, but reality intruded: he was already engaged. When Laura realized the scene was a charade, she blew the candles out. Blowing out the candles also symbolizes Tom's leaving. With Tom leaving, the light has gone out of Laura's life, along with any hope of escape or a life of her own. (Cardullo, 1997) Tom says,

The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have stopped but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise.... Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes. Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger -- anything that can blow your candles out! For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura -- and so goodbye...." ("The Glass Menagerie," Scene 7)