Every one has their own little world where they indulge themselves in whether it is real or just fantastic. In the story of The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, a play about a middle class family struggle with each other. Williams creates a world in which the characters escape from the present situation. "How lucky dead people are- (434). A story exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate to escape from the reality of their broken lives and their inability to live in the present. In this story, each character gets trapped in their lives, and they try to escape part of what is imprisoned them.
Amanda is a southern belle who lives with her crippled daughter, Laura, and her working son, Tom, in an apartment in St. Louis. It's a misery that her husband has left her and the family long time ago. As the big differentia between the past and the present, she unwittingly refuses to change but remain in the past. "I remember one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain-your mother received-seventeen! -gentlemen callers!" (428). She is a person who hind from reality by trying to relive her history. When Jim comes for supper, Amanda appearances as a "girl" and even shakes her girlish ringlets. Jim's coming reminds her of an experience once she had with gentlemen callers. She tries to escape from the present, or the reality of what she's facing. She living in the unreality of her young memories and sees her self as still being as young as Laura. Also, Amanda tries to relive her past through Laura, and denies anything she does not want to accept. When Tom says about Laura is cripple and "she is very different from other girls" (444). Amanda denies these facts and thinks that " the difference is all to her advantage."(444) .
Unlike Amanda, Laura is a tremendous shy girl who has trouble to establish contact with the reality, but live in her illusion. She searches escape from her physical and emotion disability by collecting glasses ornaments and the play with a victrola.
