In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams creates a world in which the characters are disillusioned by the present. Amanda, Laura and Tom achieve this disillusionment by resorting to separate worlds where they can find sanctuary. Each character develops their world, far away from reality.
Amanda frees herself from the harsh realities of life by constantly reminding herself of the past. To begin with, she continuously repeats the story of the "one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain" when she received seventeen gentlemen callers (657). Furthermore, she keeps a "larger-than-life-size" photograph of her husband over the mantel that left the family when the children were young. When Jim came over for dinner, Amanda wears the "girlish frock of yellowed voile with a blue silk sash" that she wore on the day she met her husband (677). Amanda obsesses about the past, and at the same time damages her children psychologically. .
Constant allusions to the past have psychologically affected Tom and Laura, trapping them into Amanda's lost world. Tom and Laura fail to survive in the present because they are always trying to live through the past. However, the past no longer exists, causing them distress in their journey through life. Tom is unsuccessful with his job at the warehouse and Laura cannot seem to fit in with the outside world. These personal downfalls in life drive Tom into a life of poetry and movies, and Laura into a world of glass figurines.
Tom is unsatisfied with his work at the warehouse and feels his life lacks adventure. Therefore, he finds it through writing poetry and watching movies. When business is slow at the shoe warehouse, Tom goes to the washroom to work on his poetry. Tom finds adventure in poetry because he is able to create and control his own world. Along with poetry, he retreats to the movies every evening to fulfill his adventurous nature. Amanda questions Tom, "why do you go to the movies so much, Tom?" Tom replies, "I go to the movies because I like adventure.
