The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams reflects upon personal experiences he and
his family encountered during the Depression of the 1930's. As a lower class family, the
characters are placed in the slums of St. Louis in 1935. The protagonist, Tom Wingfield, is the
narrator . Living with his mother and sister, Tom supports them by working in a shoe
manufacturing warehouse. He should feel lucky to have this job; however, he despises his work
and dreams of leaving to become a Merchant Marine. Unhappy with what life has dealt him,
Tom strives for adventure and longs to turn his back on his responsibilities. His mother, Amanda
Wingfield, abandoned by her husband almost sixteen years ago, tries to keep her family together
through tough times. Although her love and hopes for her children are sincere, her overbearing
and outspoken nature often hurts them. Laura, Tom's sister, suffers from neuroses. She has
trouble separating fantasy from reality. Without the ability to function in the outside world,
Laura becomes a liability to both Tom and Amanda. The gentleman caller, Jim O'Connor, is a
friend of Tom's from the warehouse. He is an ambitious young man, who strives for the
American Dream through hard work and optimism. Williams gives the reader many emblems
throughout the play; there are three of them that are especially interesting. The unicorn
symbolizes Laura's uniqueness, the picture of Mr. Wingfield represents his strong influence on
his deserted family, and Malvolio's coffin trick signifies Tom's suffocating lifestyle.
Tom Wingfield, the narrator and central character of the play, hates his life and aches to
escape it. He is trapped as breadwinner for his mother and sister in a job that he detests. He tells
his mother in scene three, "You think I want to spend fifty-five years down there in that - celotex
interior! With fluorescent - tubes...