Alienation in Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie...

Alienation in Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie Life is a lonely tale of alienation, as Tennessee Williams conveys though his play, â€Å"The Glass Menagerie.† Williams surrounds Laura in isolation from a world in which they wish to belong to by using various symbols. The symbolic nature of the motifs hidden within the lines of this play provides meaning to the theme found consistent throughout the play: Individuals are all alone in the world. Williams brilliantly illuminates the idea of isolation through the symbolic use of glass. The symbolism of the glass is directly connected with the character of Laura. Similar to glass Laura is extremely fragile, her soul and image faces the possibility of being easily damaged and†¦show more content†¦The candlelight seems to â€Å"light her inwardly† (Williams 1846) and symbolically shadows her disability, as Williams vividly describes in a side note of the play. The scene thereafter illuminates how a unicorn is tragically different from all other animals in Laura’s collection. At the Paradise Dance Hall al glass sphere slowly turned from the ceiling in a different delicate rainbow of colors suggesting a joyful moment. This symbolized another beautiful moment as Laura and Jim dance together, uniting two separate flames to create many colors of the rainbow. Laura’s physical problems provide more alienation to her character and greater meaning to the central theme that individuals are all alone in the world. Laura’s handicap is the greatest characteristic of her loneliness. â€Å"I had a brace on my leg—it clumped so loud!† Laura blames her slowness upon her brace and is self conscious about how loud it is. Yet Jim claims, â€Å"I never heard any clumping† (Williams 1846). Laura was the only person who realized and continues to recognize her handicap. It causes her to stand out from the others, surrounding her. She finds it to be completely alienating, which separates her from the rest of the world. Jim interprets Laura’s handicap as something beautiful. He finds her character unique and attractive. She is different and far from normal. In contrast Laura sees the differences as bad and unattractive. She fails to recognize that it is her innerShow MoreRelatedTennessee Williams’S, The G lass Menagerie, Is One Of The1283 Words   |  6 PagesTennessee Williams’s, The Glass Menagerie, is one of the most popular plays of all times and the play that started his success as a playwright. This play explores a dysfunctional family who has been abandoned by the husband/father and struggles to progress in an economically stressed time. The play showcases three extremely complex characters who each have personal struggles in their own lives which furthermore create tensions between each other as a family unit. 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