Read this excerpt from Scene 5 of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. TOM: I'm going out to smoke.

AMANDA: You smoke too much. A pack a day at fifteen cents a pack. How much would that amount to in a month? Thirty times fifteen is how much, Tom? Figure it out and you will be astounded at what you could save….

TOM: I'd rather smoke. [He steps out on the landing letting the screen door slam.]

AMANDA [sharply]: I know! That's the tragedy of it. [Alone, she turns to look at her husband's picture.]

TOM [to the audience]: Across the alley from us was the Paradise Dance Hall. On evenings in spring the windows and doors were open and the music came outdoors. Sometimes the lights were turned out except for a large glass sphere that hung from the ceiling. It would turn slowly about and filter the dusk with delicate rainbow colours. Then the orchestra played a waltz or a tango, something that hada slow and sensuous rhythm. Couples would come outside, to the relative privacy of the alley. You could see them kissing behind ash-pits and telegraph poles.

This was the compensation for lives that passed like mine, without any change or adventure….

[AMANDA turns from the picture and comes outside.]

AMANDA [sighing]: A fire-escape landing's a poor excuse for a porch. [She spreads a newspaper on a step and sits down grace and demurely as if she were settling into a swing on a Mississippi veranda.] What are you looking at?

TOM: The moon.

AMANDA: Is there a moon this evening?

TOM: It's rising over Garfinkel's Delicatessen.

AMANDA: So it is! A little silver slipper of a moon. Have you made a wish on it yet?

TOM: Um-hum.

AMANDA: What did you wish for?

TOM: That’s a secret.

What does the fire escape symbolize in the play?

It indicates a place where the family can enjoy some free entertainment from the dance hall.

It represents the family’s need to escape the reality of their desperate situation.

It suggests that the Wingfields are superstitious people who believe that wishes come true.

It shows that the Wingfields like to spend time outdoors when the weather is nice.