Themes

**Accepting Reality: **

In the play the Wingfield family, have trouble accepting reality and therefore find themselves withdrawing from it. Not being able to accept reality prevents the Wingfields from actually having a normal life, Laura and her glass menagerie, Tom and the adventure he finds reading books and watching movies, and Amanda with her obsession of finding Laura a gentlemen caller.

Laura is the main character that has trouble accepting reality, preferring to stay in her little world that is her glass menagerie. "Laura: Little articles of it, they're ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie," (7,121).

"Jim: I hope it wasn't the little glass horse with the horn! Laura: Yes. Jim: Aw, aw, aw. Is it broken? Laura: Now it is just like all the other horses. Jim: It's lost its- Laura: Horn! It doesn't matter. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise," (7, 125) However, at the end of the play Laura is able to accept that, even though she's different, she's still a person who can do what everyone else can, and that she shouldn't have to sacrifice her happiness for being who she is.

Tom is able to interact in the outside world, but he, in the end, strays towards the fantasy of books and movies for his escape. "Tom: Yesterday you confiscated my books! You had the nerve to-," (3, 50). "Tom: I go to the movies because-I like adventure. Adventure is something I don't have much of at work, so I go to the movies," (4, 63).​

Finally Amanda is unable to accept the fact that Laura cannot find herself a man to love, "gentlemen callers," and that Tom is not striving to become a successful businessman. "Tom: After the fiasco at Rubicam's Business College, the idea of getting a gentlemen caller for Laura began to play a more and more important part in Mother's calculations. It became an obsession," (3, 47).


 * Escape: **

The eldest Wingfield child, Tom, is the main character in the play trying to escape from both his family and his work place. He feels as if they are suffocating him and preventing his freedom. His loyalty to his sister and his mother makes him suppress his emotions and therefore prolongs his escape.

"Tom: 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 a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger-anything that can blow your candles out," (7, 137).

Amanda tries to find escape from reality through Laura, hoping that Laura might attend business college and have a career, but on finding out that she didn't even attend classes she is putting her hopes in finding her a gentleman caller.

Laura on the other hand simply tries to find escape in taking care of her glass menagerie.


 * Duty:**

In the play Amanda believes that Laura and Tom both have duties within the family that they have to fulfill. The duties towards Laura and Tom are also gender specific.

"Amanda: They knew how to entertain their gentleman callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure-although I wasn't slightly in either respect. She also needed to have a nimble wit and a tongue to meet all occasion," (1, 33). These are the expectations that Amanda has for Laura and her duty to the family which is to not only look pretty but also be smart and knowledgeable.

"Amanda: I mean that as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent-why, then you'll be free to go wherever you please, on land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows you! But until that time you've got to look out for your sister. I don't say me because I'm old and don't matter! I say for your sister because she's young and dependent," (4, 65-66). Amanda feels that its Tom's duty to help Laura find a husband, stating that its an obligation for Laura rather than to herself. .
 * ​Memory: **

The entire play is based on a memory, Tom's memory.​ So as he states at the start of the play in Scene One,​​​ "The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In memory everything seems to happen to music . . . I am the narrator of the play, and also a character in it, ( I, 30).

​Tom's memory of his father influences him to run away from home, his father having been "in love with long distance," prompts him to come to the realization that leaving is the best thing for him if he want so pursue his dream of becoming a poet.