Imagery In The Glass Menagerie

The desire for characters to depart from their reality are to leave behind the struggles they may possess in their real lives. In the novel, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Laura Wingfield had enrolled in Rubicam’s Business College. However, she had only attended a few days of school, then had dropped out without consent from her mother, Amanda Wingfield. This was due to the anxiety Laura had faced when given the first speed test. She had broken down, became sick to the stomach and had been carried to the washroom, leaving Laura utterly embarrassed and to never return back to college. But instead of telling her mother about the struggle she had faced with anxiety at business school, she decided to fill her school time with activities …show more content…
Williams adds detailed phrases like “big glass house” and “tropical flowers” to add an image and bring the novel more to life from the reader's perspective. In essence, Laura had the motive to escape business school because she had coped with anxiety, nervousness and uneasiness when she attended class. But instead of facing her struggles, she decided to escape her reality and explore, doing activities she enjoyed. In similar ways, you can see in the short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber how characters have the desire to escape reality due to the suffering they may face. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” Walter Mitty and his oppressive wife go on a trip into town. Walter Mitty is an absent minded driver and often forgets the simple tasks his wife forces him to do. This results in everlasting bickering and complaining from his …show more content…
“You were up to fifty-five,” she said. “You know I don’t like to go more than fifty-five.” Walter Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence. The roaring of the SN202 through the worst storm of of twenty years of Navy flying fading in the remote, intimate airways of his mind.” (Thurber, 1) Here, Walter Mitty had been interrupted out of his daydream where he was in a hydroplane, flying through a storm. Mrs. Mitty had caused him to come back into reality because she started to complain how he was speeding too fast for her. Thurber uses the literary device of simile and the phrase, “She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who yelled at him in a crowd. “You were up to fifty-five,” she said. “You know I don’t like to go more than fifty-five.” to represent how Walter Mitty is often bossed and pushed around by his wife. Readers can see how the wife is controlling and Walter Mitty often has no voice or opinion with her, causing him to feel mournful. To conclude, Walter Mitty has the motive to escape from reality and daydream due to the fact his wife often causes him to suffer from her continuous nagging and

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