The Importance of Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie Tom Wingfield is the narrator and one of the main characters of Tennessee William's timeless work, The Glass Menagerie. Through Tom's eyes, the viewer gets a glimpse into his family's life in the pre-war Depression era; his mother, a Southern belle desperately clinging to the past; his sister, a woman too fragile to function in society; and himself, a struggling young poet who works in a warehouse to pay the bills. Williams managed to create a landmark work using a combination of different elements, including symbolism. Three notable examples of symbolism are the fire escape, a sense of hope, and an escape both to and from the outside world; the same glass menagerie, symbol of Laura's fragility and uniqueness; and rainbows, symbols of unfulfilled hopes and aspirations. Through the use of these symbols, a greater understanding of the humanistic theme that unfulfilled hopes and desires are an unwanted but important aspect of the real world is achieved, and The Glass Menagerie is transformed into a significant classical drama. Symbols are an important part of this play which Tom, who is a poet, admits he has a weakness for. One of the first to be presented in the story is the fire escape which......middle of paper......Masterplots, ed. Frank M. Magill. Second revised edition. vol. 5. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1996.Bigsby, CWE “Entering the Glass Menagerie.” The Cambridge Companion by Tennessee Williams, ed. Matthew C. Roudane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Scheye, Thomas E. “The Glass Menagerie: 'It's No Tragedy, Freckles.'.” Tennessee Williams: A Tribute, ed. Jac Tharpe. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1977. Williams, Tennessee. Conversations with Tennessee Williams, ed. Albert Devlin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1986. Williams, Tennessee. The glass menagerie. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1945.