Tom escapes to the movies night after night, immersing himself in action-adventure films, envisioning himself as the hero of narratives other than the one in which he's stuck. Yet the movies can only provide a temporary, and therefore false, escape: Tom goes to the cinema to live alternate lives, but he must always return to his own. “The movies” themselves are also a code within the play: sometimes Tom does go to the cinema, but sometimes he uses “going to the movies” as a euphemism for drinking, a different sort of escape. The movies also provide a commentary on the nature of theater itself: just as the audience is escaping reality by watching a play, Tom escapes the reality of his play by watching a theatrical spectacle.
The Movies Quotes in The Glass Menagerie
The The Glass Menagerie quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Movies. 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 3
Quotes
You’ll go up, up on a broomstick, over Blue Mountain with seventeen gentleman callers! You ugly—babbling old—witch...
Related Characters:
Tom Wingfield (speaker), Amanda Wingfield
Related Symbols:
Glass Menagerie, The Movies
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 4
Quotes
But the wonderfullest trick of all was the coffin trick. We nailed him into a coffin and he got out of the coffin without removing one nail. [He has come inside.] There is a trick that would come in handy for me—get me out of this two-by-four situation!...You know it don’t take much intelligence to get yourself into a nailed-up coffin, Laura. But who in hell ever got himself out of one without removing one nail?
Related Characters:
Tom Wingfield (speaker), Laura Wingfield
Related Symbols:
The Movies
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I go to the movies because—I like adventure. Adventure is something I don’t have much of at work, so I go to the movies.
Related Characters:
Tom Wingfield (speaker)
Related Symbols:
The Movies
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Movies Symbol Timeline in The Glass Menagerie
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Movies appears in The Glass Menagerie. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Scene 3
...excursions, and she accuses him of doing something shameful under the guise of going to the movies , claiming that he will jeopardize his job.
(full context)
When Amanda declares again that she doesn’t believe Tom is going to the movies , Tom sarcastically tells her she’s right and claims that he is, indeed, leading a...
(full context)
Scene 4
...tolls five times, Tom stumbles up the fire escape and into the apartment, visibly drunk. Movie ticket stubs and an empty bottle spill out of his pockets as he fumbles for...
(full context)
Scene 5
Tom leaves for the movies , and Amanda calls Laura to the front room. She points out the moon to...
(full context)
Scene 6
Tom tells Jim that he’s sick of the movies and wants, instead, to move. He reveals that instead of paying the light bill for...
(full context)
Scene 7
...but Tom insists that he didn’t know about Jim’s engagement. He leaves to go to the movies , and Amanda yells that for all he cares about the family, he might as...
(full context)
