Question

1. What is the role of the glass menagerie in the play? What are two things it represents? What does the glass unicorn symbolize?
2. What significant internal conflicts in each character create the tension in the family? Describe the inner conflict each character faces. How do the characters cope with their internal conflicts? How do these conflicts connect to the theme of reality versus illusion?

Answer 1

1) The glass menagerie in the play mostly represents Laura, because she lives in an imaginary world and her glass animals keeps her active.

2) Tom is confined to the horrors of his life in the family and Laura has a private world that she claims not to share in reality and Amanda, a pampered woman with unrealistic dreams. These conflicts eventually affect the lives of each characters in concluding that the cannot accept the reality that has been given to them. They purposely dodge their problem into a solution that seems to have created another problem.