Essay | Analysis of Tom Wingfield's Last Speech in the Glass Menagerie

Tom's closing speech in The Glass Menagerie is very emotional and ironic. However, this monologue is somewhat ambiguous and doesn't implicitly state whether Tom found the adventure he sought. It seems as though he never returned to St. Louis, and spent the remainder of his life wandering from place to place. This is inferred when he says," I didn't go to the moon, I went much further-for time is the longest distance between two places..."

Throughout the play, the fire escape has been a symbol of Tom's entrance and exit into both his reality and his dream world. He tells us that his departure marked the last time he "descended the steps of this fire-escape", thus permanently embarking on his journey of solitude into what was once only a part of his dream world. From the statement, "(I) followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps.." the reader can...
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