Symbolism

Laura's Glass Menagerie: This is the play's central symbol.  Laura's glass collection represents many things about Laura.  She is very delicate and unique.  The glass is transparent, but when the light shines on it in the right way, it refracts a rainbow of colors.  Similarly, to strangers Laura is quiet, shy, and bland, but is unique and intriguing when seen closely.  The menagerie also represents the imaginative world to which Laura devotes herself—a world that is colorful and enticing but based on fragile illusions.

The Glass Unicorn: The glass unicorn was her favorite piece in her collection; it also represented her.  In a menagerie filled with horses, she is the unicorn.  The one that is different from the rest of the collection.  Jim describes the unicorn as  "extinct" and enjoys the unicorn also because of the rareness of it.   When Laura and Jim dance and he accidentally breaks the horn off of the unicorn, the unicorn becomes another horse.  This shows how Jim is bringing Laura towards new normalcy.  Later in the play, Laura gives Jim the unicorn as a souvenir because the broken figurine represents all that he has taken from her and destroyed in her.

"Blue Roses": Jim's high school nickname for Laura was blue roses which symbolizes the uniqueness and unusualness of Laura as a person.  The name is also associated with Laura's attraction to Jim and the joy that his kind treatment brings her.

The Fire Escape: Leading out of the Wingfields' apartment is a fire escape. This fire escape represents an escape from the fires of dysfunction that Tom feels while living in this house.  Laura slips on the fire escape in Scene Four, highlighting her inability to escape from her situation. Tom, on the other hand, frequently steps out onto the landing to smoke, anticipating his eventual getaway.