Blowing Out the Past

In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the play ends with another symbol: Laura blowing out the candles. Literally, Tom wants to forget about Laura so he can move on with his life and have no regrets. More specifically, he is trying to forgot the old memory of her. He is trying to forget the terrible situation that he left his mother and sister in. Symbolically, Laura blowing out the candles represents a call for moving forward: "For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura--and so goodbye. . ." (Williams, 1289). That quote shows that the memory of Laura is in the past and now the current time is in the present. The act of blowing the candles out represents letting go of our past and moving on into the future. It also represents letting go of our former selves and forming  a new and better person. Tom is wanting Laura to change herself for the better when he states this. He is not wishing to never see or remember her again, but rather, he wants to see her as a shining human being that she is supposed to be.