Background: in preparation for the AP Literature exam, the entire class was given the prompt to write about the “flight from guilt” response of a character in any piece of literature of merit. We later read aloud our essays in a circle. Many of my classmates chose Farmer Thompson (Noon Wine) or Macbeth (Macbeth). I, however, chose to discuss the male protagonist of one of my favourite plays ever.
Flight from Guilt: Tom of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
(c) March 2008 to Vivian Lee
AP English IV Literature 2nd period Bickling
Tennessee William’s play The Glass Menagerie contains a beautifully and intricately woven web of guilt and illusions created both via internal and external conflicts amongst the characters. Although he is not directly present for many of the major scenes in the novel, and is not explicitly referred to in the title, Tom Wingfield certainly exhibits the “flight from guilt” that oftentimes shows up in protagonists and antagonists alike in all literature.
The source of Tom’s guilt is not directly stated; however, one can infer from his rapport with his mother Amanda and his sister Laura the background of the feelings that plague his conscience. Both aid in the creation and nurture of Tom’s guilt, albeit in different ways. Amanda is often direct in her berating; she outwardly lectures Tom on his shortcomings, his inability to be more honorable than his father and, in a way, shoves all the blame upon him. Laura, on the other hand, creates guilt and sympathy in Tom via her quiet and almost pitiful ways. Unfortunately, no matter how he tries, Tom can never seem to successfully “fix” the troubles in their lives. He returns Amanda’s accusations with hostility that masks his guilt, and cannot seem to remedy Laura’s social problems.
To counteract this inability to help his mother and sister, Tom finds himself escaping to superficial movies to help mask the bleak reality that stares him in the face. Like Laura’s retreat to her glass menagerie, Tom uses the cinema as his own little corner where he feels most comfortable and free from the pressures of Amanda, financial issues, and life in general. In scene 3, while Amanda and Tom have another one of their quarrels, Tom tries more than once to avoid Amanda’s confrontation by declaring, “I’ve got no thing… in my life that I can call my own!” and “No, I won’t hear more, I’m going out!” It seems whenever confrontation with Amanda gets rough, Tom tries defend his own freedom, declaring he feels trapped in his current lifestyle, and when that doesn’t quiet Amanda, he ends up fleeing from the scene to go to the movies.
Unlike several other works with this characteristic in the protagonists (such as Macbeth and Noon Wine), Tom does not display outward remorse or indication that he truly feels guilty about the situation. However, it is this silent and almost subconscious guilt that serves to enhance the importance of the title and helps to drive the plotline of the story. Like small tremors or a rushed current, the unspoken guilt caused by various events in the family life – Amanda trying to call customers to sell magazines, Laura dropping out of school, etc – augment Tom’s frustrations at being unable to either help provide their suffering financial funds or to help Laura come out of her shell. One cascade leads to another, and eventually Tom is faced with one chance to help: finding a gentleman caller for his sister. Unfortunately, he fails at this remedial act, and this is most likely one of the greatest torrents of guilt he feels throughout the play. Knowing that he cannot even aide in the provision of a future for Laura, Tom finally leaves the house – the source of all his frustrations, anger, and implied guilt.
That said, Tom’s final “flight from guilt” not only mirrors that of his father, showing the continuity of this “flight” throughout literature, but also serves to define and reshape the connotation of “glass menagerie” implied in the novel by adding a more intricate layer of feeling and meaning to the phrase. While the reader may begin the play convinced that the title refers simply to Laura’s collection, the finale of the play extends the reference not only to Laura’s personality and emotions, but also to Amanda, to Tom, and much of the surrounding world during that specific time period. All the characters in the book are wrapped up in their own little fantasy – Amanda is obsessed with gentleman callers, the introverted Laura surrounds herself with glass figurines for company, and Tom runs away to movies to escape his home life. Likewise, the rest of America, once caught up in the fantasy of the Roaring 20’s, tries to occupy itself during the era of the Great Depression by creating “escape routes” (such as Tom’s movies) to withdraw from the bleak reality that faces it.
Unfortunately for all the aforementioned parties, their “glass menageries” of illusionary escapes are ultimately shattered, and Tom is the character in the novel that plays the essential role of destroying the fantasy by making his final exeunt from the household. In doing so, Tom’s exhibition of the “flight from guilt” characteristic ultimately ends up hurting more than one person; that is to say, he ends up shattering more than one of the “glass menageries” implied in the title of the work. Laura even foreshadows this downfall during her dance with Jim, when her unicorn falls off the table and loses its horn. She states, “Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are. The traffic jars the shelves and things fall off them.” In addition to the obvious reference to Laura’s glass animals, the “glass menagerie” also serves as an indication of Amanda’s attitude and of Tom’s struggles to provide for the three of them. When he leaves to “travel to the moon”, Amanda’s hopes are shattered, as are Laura’s feelings which, although Jim may have had a greater impact on at the very moment, are ultimately hurt most by her brother’s abandonment. This climax of rejection on Tom’s part probably confirmed Laura’s negative emotions towards herself and/or pitiful state and as a result may have ruined her hopes for years to come. The final curtain of the Glass Menagerie, then, is not only Tom’s final flight, but the destruction of the central “glass menagerie” of the novel – Laura’s self-confidence, hopes, and dreams. This, more than anything, is the greatest contributor of Tom’s guilt, and the one thing that he finally reveals to be the source of his restlessness at the end of the novel. Despite having physically left his family, Tom continues to be plagued by thoughts of his poor sister, and no matter what he tries to do to occupy himself – cigarettes, bars, movies – the “world is lit with lightning”; a metaphor for Laura’s omnipresence in Tom’s conscience as he finally realizes the deepest source of his guilt and the one thing that time and distance could not remedy with illusions and “glass menageries”.