“For nowadays the world is lit by lightning”
The Glass Menagerie“For nowadays the world is lit by lightning” is the final line spoken by Tom Wingfield in the play’s closing farewell to Laura. Its image of lightning converts the light that has illuminated the world into a force that is sudden and harsh, while Laura’s extinguished candles make the leave-taking visible. The phrase gives the ending its defining contrast: Tom has escaped the family home, but he cannot escape his continuing attachment to his sister.
Placement and Immediate Context
Tom speaks after recalling the fragile, colored-glass objects that fill Laura’s collection, “like bits of a shattered rainbow.” His memory turns from those delicate objects to the moment when Laura touches his shoulder and he looks into her eyes. The encounter is presented as a return within his recollection: despite having tried to leave her behind, he finds himself still bound to her.
Image and Contrast
Lightning is not a steady, comforting source of light. Set against the little candles Laura is about to blow out, it suggests an illumination that arrives in flashes and leaves darkness behind. The contrast enlarges a small domestic gesture into the play’s final image: Laura bends over the candles, Tom speaks, and she blows them out. The phrase therefore joins the world beyond the family to the intimate scene of farewell without resolving the pain between them.
Narrative and Thematic Significance
The line concludes Tom’s effort to describe the persistence of memory after departure. He lists actions meant to distract him—reaching for a cigarette, crossing the street, going into movies or a bar, buying a drink, and speaking to a stranger—yet none can extinguish the memory he carries. The candles’ actual extinction gives physical form to the goodbye, while the lightning image makes that goodbye feel less like release than an abrupt return to the world’s glare. The phrase gathers the ending’s opposing movements: Tom leaves, but remains faithful to Laura in memory; the candles go dark, while the remembered world continues to flash.
