Your question asks "what" is the theme of escape, and that
is a bit vague. I assume what you mean is how does the theme of escape manifest itself
or work in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. The idea of escaping is probably
the only thing every character in the play has in
common.
Father has already escaped; he is the telephone man
who fell in love with long distance.
Tom looks at his
father's picture and is envious. From his opening statement, the audience knows Tom is
just biding his time until he can leave. And not only does he simply want out of his
house and his monotonous, unproductive warehouse job, he wants to escape every aspect of
his life as he travels abroad with the Merchant
Marines.
Amanda wants to escape from her fears about the
future. She is afraid she and her daughter will end up living as spinsters who have
nothing.
Laura wants to escape from the realities of her
life, which is why she hides from almost every real-world experience she encounters. She
escapes through her glass menagerie and her music.
Even
Jim, the gentleman caller who seems to have everything going for him, wants to escape
his warehouse life and become more.
Escaping is something
every character who appears in the play--and even one who never makes a physical
appearance--wants to one degree or another.
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