The fire escape, a symbol in Tennessee Williams's
The Glass Menagerie, represents not only an emergency escape from
fire, but the escape from the disasters of the heart within the Wingfield apartment. In
Scene Four, Tom tries to enter by way of the fire escape, but fumbling with other items
in his pocket, he drops his key through the slats of the stairs. Fortunately for him,
Laura, the inmate of the apartment, hears him and opens the door. The next day, without
much sleep, Tom must rise and go to work. After he leaves, Amanda sends Laura to
purchase groceries on credit. When Laura hesitates, Amanda scolds her, asking if she is
going to do as she is told. Laura replies, and as the stage directions
read,
She pulls on a shapeless felt hat with
nervous, jerky movements, pleadingly glancing at Tom. Rushes awkwardly for coat. The
coat is one of Amanda's, inaccurately made over, the sleeves too short for
Laura.
Fearful of
going out into public, Laura hesitates again when Amanda instructs her to charge the
butter, saying, "Mother, they make such faces when I do that." Frantic from Amanda's
second scolding, Laura rushes out and slips on the fire-escape steps. This action
symbolizes her inability to venture outside the "nailed coffin" of the apartment as Tom
has alluded to it in his discussion earlier with Laura about how a magician has escaped
without removing one nail.
The fire escape stairs which Tom
continually steps onto to smoke, symbolize Tom's eventual escape, but Laura's inability
to do so. Her only escape is within, manipulating the glass menagerie in acts of
pretending.
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