In The Glass Menagerie, what is the symbolism of the victrola?Tennessee Williams

Interestingly, the characters of Tennessee Williams's
play, The Glass Menagerie, are themselves somewhat symbolic.  For,
Williams's play is not realistic; instead, it is expressionistic, and so the characters
represent types of people.  Laura, a character not unlike Williams's sister Rose, is
physically disabled and emotionally crippled.  For, because of her leg, she avoids
socializing, which in turn causes her not to know how to socialize.  So, when she tries
to take the speed test at Rubicum's Business College, Laura is traumatized and leaves
the school to walk about at the zoo during class time.  When her mother Amanda learns of
Laura's failed attempts at business school, the nervous Laura retreats to the victrola
and plays the music of her mother's past, thus finding comfort in the lyrical memories
of the past.

Later on, Amanda tells Tom that Laura cannot
spend the rest of her life listening to the victrola, indicating that memories are
further crippling Laura and depriving her of any future. So, while the music of the
victrola and its old memories protects Laura from the real world, it furthers Laura's
illusions and emotional fears.   Like the unicorn and the other glass animals of the
menagerie, the victrola symbolizes Laura's fear of a reality that she can only live in
briefly.