What is the “Paradise Dance Hall”? What does it probably symbolize?
Introduction
The author mentions a dance hall named “Paradise Dance Hall” in the play “The Glass Menagerie”. Actually, by the dance hall, the author wants to signify and reveal some things to the readers. So, truly the dance hall is not just a hall, but it bears some symbol.
Click here for more notes of Drama
A fake Heaven
This dance hall speaks to a fake paradise that furnishes the inhabitants of the area with a level of secrecy and physical satisfaction that is deprived of them in their lives. Youthful couples are caught kissing behind ash-pits and telegraph poles there-
“You could see them kissing behind ash pits and telephone poles.”
False reality
The Paradise Dance Hall is an ideal instance of how individuals can be sucked into the bogus realities of the world. People from everywhere go dancing and forget the concerns of their lives even all through the difficulties of the great melancholy.
Hope
The Paradise Dance Hall is a sign of hope for the characters of the play. Amanda and Tom sitting on the fire escape wish on the moon and enclosed by the music and lights of the neighboring dance hall. When Tom asks about her wish, she says-
“Success and happiness for my precious children!”
The rainbow-hued lights and the energetic music highlight a universe of freedom, simplicity, and great occasions.
Garden of Eden
The name Paradise Dance Hall itself is figurative as well as sarcastic. “Paradise” is an indication of the lost Garden of Eden, and here the reference shades the American Thirties (a global economic and political crisis that concluded in the Second World War) as a time of virtuousness before the chaos of World War II.
Click here for more notes of Drama
Conclusion
So, as we can learn from the above discussion, that the Paradise Dance Hall is not just a dance hall, but a stage of hope, a stage of disguise for the depressed people, and also a stage of sensual satisfaction.
