The Glass Menagerie

TOM 'S EPILOGUE IN THE GLASS MENAGERIE

In Tennessee Williams ' The Glass Menagerie , Tom 's final monologue at the play 's closing reveals some degree of professional success but his emotional life is a haunted wreck . After losing his job with the shoe company , Tom tries to break free of his stifling , unhappy family life and attempts to find in motion what was lost in space (97 ) - happiness and freedom from the specter of his sister Laura 's mental disintegration

One can guess that he has achieved professional success , because Tom

is the protagonist of his own play his days as a frustrated poet and worker in an unfulfilling job are behind him . However , his personal life is loaded with regret because he constantly remembers Laura , whom he abandoned to the care of their histrionic mother . Tom has spent years on the move , and even the cities he has visited swept about [him] like dead leaves (97 , meaning that despite their vivid appearances , they are as uprooted and inwardly dead as he is

In addition , guilt haunts and pursues him . Small things remind him of Laura - especially music and glass (the two passions of her life . His mention of a perfume shop , where he looks at the tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors , like bits of a shattered rainbow (97 . In a sense , when he looks through the shop window , he looks back at Laura a delicate soul with a splintered psyche that he could not (and , indeed refused to ) heal . Tom stays on the move , hoping that he can forget her Pursued by guilt and unable to forget , Tom 's own emotional life is stunted , for he does not forgive himself for deserting Laura (though he may have been unable to help anyway . Tom says little about his professional life , though one can guess that he has attained some success and reached his literary goal . His emotional goal , however remains beyond his grasp , as he remains haunted by the memory of a fragile sister whose needs he did not meet

Williams , Tennessee . The Glass Menagerie . New York : New Directions 1999 ...