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For Laura, the typewriter symbolizes the confines of the business world that she escapes by walking in the park or immersing herself in her glass menagerie. For Amanda, the typewriter comes to signify both Laura’s failure to finish her business course as well as Tom’s failure to commit himself more fully to his warehouse job. For Tom, however, the typewriter serves as a means of escape from the confines of his world, as he uses it to compose his manuscripts.
Typewriter Quotes in The Glass Menagerie
The The Glass Menagerie quotes below all refer to the symbol of Typewriter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Scene 2
Quotes
What are we going to do, what is going to become of us, what is the future?
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Glass Menagerie LitChart as a printable PDF.
Typewriter Symbol Timeline in The Glass Menagerie
The timeline below shows where the symbol Typewriter appears in The Glass Menagerie. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Scene 1
...the audience first sees the apartment's fire escape, then the living room which features a typewriter, a display case with glass animals, and a blown-up photograph that the stage directions explain...
(full context)
Scene 2
...puts away the glass figures and pretends to be studying a keyboard diagram at the typewriter.
(full context)
