When Tom Wingfield begins to speak in Scene 1 of The Glass Menagerie, one of the first things he tells the audience is, “The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic.” The influence and power of memory is perhaps the central theme in the play and influences all the characters, who are all, in some way, trapped by memory. Tom is haunted by the memory of deserting his sister. Amanda can’t move past the memory of living a better life in Blue Mountain where it seemed possible that she could have married one of her seventeen gentleman callers. Laura allows herself to become lost in phonograph records left by their father, the records themselves holding memories of the past. Even Jim is entangled by the memories of his days as a high school hero instead of just another guy working at a factory.
The idea of memory also directly influences how the play is presented. In Scene 1, using production notes and Tom’s introductory speeches, Williams says that the play is not meant to look like reality. There will be music, the lighting won’t be realistic, etc. The theme of memory influences the physical aspects of the play as well as the characters in it.
All of the play’s characters make attempts at escape. The father is the ultimate symbol of escape because of his desertion. Laura continually escapes into a world of fantasy through the glass menagerie and the old phonograph records. Amanda tries to escape her current life by retelling stories of when she was young and life had limitless possibilities. Tom escapes his life and his mind-numbing job by going to the movies and sometimes getting drunk. Even the apartment where they live is something from which they would like to escape, though their economic circumstances make this impossible. Notice that when they leave the apartment, they leave down the fire escape.