What is the symbolism of the fire escape? The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

One of the
major symbols of "," the fire escape is the means of exit for the characters, an
escape from the fires of frustration and rage that burn in the hearts of Williams's personages,
and an exit for the father and eventually Tom. At the beginning of the drama, Tom describes this
stairway as part of the setting,

The apartment faces an
alley and is entered by a fire-escape, a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic
truth, for all of these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of
human desperation.

It is interesting that all the
characters also use the fire escape to enter the apartment when these stairs are only made for
escape.  For, climbing these stairs must be rather difficult for Amanda, and especially
challenging for Laura, suggesting that the safety of the apartment is preferable to the real
world at the foot of the stairs. For Laura and Amanda, the fire steps are, indeed, not an
escape. In Scene Four, Laura slips on the fire escape, indicating that she truly is incapable of
leaving her home.

That Tom steps out frequently onto the landing of the fire
escape in order to smoke foreshadows his final departure, while it also suggests his ambivalence
about his own motives and about abandoning his sister and mother.  In addition, his leaving the
rooms of the apartment indicate his inability to face and resolve conflicts.  Significantly, the
fire escape is the path of escape for all the male characters involved in the play: the father
flees his responsibilities to his family, Tom emulates his father in also fleeing, and Jim, the
"gentleman-caller" makes a hasty exit from Laura. The women, damaged psychologically
and physically are left to live their desperate lives inside the apartment from which there is
no escape except through illusions.