In the memory play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, a man named Tom recounts his memory of his sister, Laura and his mother, Amanda. According to Tom, Amanda lives in the past, striving to find suitors for Laura, and Laura is all too consumed with her glass collection, while Tom works to support the three of them. Tom desires freedom from the life he lives caring for Amanda and Laura, and he expresses it constantly throughout the play. To Tom, the ultimate goal is leaving his home and finding adventure away from everything that he knows and dislikes; Tom wants to escape his life. However, no matter how hard he tries or what methods he uses, Tom is never able to truly escape and attain freedom. .
Tom's father seems to be a major reason for Tom's yearning to leave his sister and mother. Tom's father left the family many years before the play takes place and has minimal contact with them. In Tom's introductory narration, even though there are only four characters in the play, Tom acknowledges, "There is a fifth character in the play who doesn't appearThis is our father who left a long time ago[he] fell in love with long distances; he gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the light fantastic out of town" (201). Tom's recognition of his father as an important figure despite the man's abandonment portrays Tom's remaining attachment to his dad. Later in the play, Amanda and Tom get into an argument concerning Tom's constant absence from the house. She argues, "Oh I can see the handwriting on the wall as plain as I see the nose in front of my face! It's terrifying! More and more you remind me of your father! He was out all hours without explanation! - Then left! Goodbye! And me with the bag to hold" (220). Amanda recognizes Tom's eagerness to escape and the many similarities he has with his father, and she fears his departure. Tom is very much paralleled to his father through his desire to escape reality and leave Amanda and Laura.
