The "Glass Menagerie" is one of the greatest plays of American literature. It recounts the story of a small struggling family in St. Louis, MO, during the great depression of the late 1930's. Tennessee Williams' uses various symbols throughout the play to portray different meanings and themes. The glass menagerie and the glass unicorn in particular serve as the dominant symbol in the play. Like the glass menagerie Laura's life is based on a fragile illusion and she, like her strange collection of animals are shut off from the real world and frozen in the land of fantasy. The characters just do not seem to move forward into reality they are all trapped like the figures in the menagerie. Laura is stuck in her strange and protective world of her various glass animals. They provide a protective shield that she wears to escape her...