Abandoned by her husband and left penniless, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, lived in a small alley apartment on the lower middle-class section of town with her two adult children Tom and Laura, which was far cry from Amanda’s youth during the Victorian era at Blue Mountain to her present situation of poverty and uncertainty. As a single mother, Amanda was worried about her family’s financial security along with concerns about her daughter’s lack of marital prospects; for that reason, her need to enrich her life by molding the lives of her children resulted in illusions overpowering reality that also brought out destructive illusions within herself, her son Tom, and her daughter Laura. Endowed with beauty, charm, and elegance, Amanda remembered living an affluent life at Blue Mountain where she was courted by several prospective suitors and spent many nights attending social balls and galas. The world she envisioned was one of formality and manners in which high expectations of a person were part of being a socialite. As time went by, she married a man who did not fulfill the expectations of sophistication and monetary abundance that she had visualized; hence, shattering the lifestyle she imagined for herself and her children. Amanda’s demanding and idealistic views, along with the stories of past suitors were too much for her husband to bear so he ultimately abandoned her and their children for another woman he had had a long distance affair. Poverty stricken, Amanda and her family relied heavily on the meek income that her son Tom bought in from his job at a shoe warehouse and what little money she would occasionally make selling magazine subscription, whereas Laura was unable to contribute to... ... middle of paper ... ...da loved her children and had the best intentions for their future, her idealistic views of the past interfered with the realities of the world that they lived in. The worries and expectations she placed upon them were so damaging that it held her son’s confidence in himself back and diminish any dreams of a normal life for the daughter. Amanda’s illusion affected the family and herself the most because she did not want to appreciate the bright, beautiful, and kind children she had around her because she was too blinded by paranoia and the belief that nothing and nobody was ever good enough. The result of her actions drove her son Tom to finally leave home to join the Merchant marines and her daughter to seek shelter in her own world of fantasy with no hope for a normal life. Amanda was a mother trapped in her perception of a reality that was only an illusion.
To start, Amanda Wingfield displays different characteristics from Troy. Amanda lives with her son and daughter who are in their 20’s and are supposed to be starting their lives. Amanda wants Laura to succeed in life and be a remarkable wife to one of her future gentleman callers. When Amanda discovers Laura has stopped going to her typewriting class, Amanda realizes her dreams of Laura succeeding are flickering away, “My hopes and ambitions for you”(Williams 14).
The Glass Menagerie is a play written by Tennessee Williams. It involves a mother, Amanda, and her two children, Tom and Laura. They are faced with many problems throughout the play. Some of these problems involve: Amanda, the mother, only wants to see her kids succeed and do well for themselves. How does her drive for success lead the book?
Amanda is also well characterized by the glass menagerie. The glass sits in a case, open for display and inspection for all. Amanda try’s to portray herself as a loving mother, doing everything she can for her children, and caring nothing for herself, when in fact, she is quite selfish and demanding. Amanda claims that she devotes her life to her children, and that she would do anything for them, but is very suspicious of Tom’s activities, and continually pressures Tom, trying to force him in finding a gentleman caller for Laura, believing that Laura is lonely and needs a companion, perhaps to get married. Like the glass, her schemes are very transparent, and people can see straight through them to the other side, where ...
Amanda's reality check comes from another dreamer, her son, Tom who is totally annoyed by Amanda's nagging and domineering, he thinks that everything will be better if he can just get away. Amanda and her family go on living their fantasy lives.
Laura's mother and brother shared some of her fragile tendencies. Amanda, Laura's mother, continually lives in the past. Her reflection of her teenage years continually haunts Laura. To the point where she forces her to see a "Gentleman Caller" it is then that Tom reminds his mother not to "expect to much of Laura" she is unlike other girls. But Laura's mother has not allowed herself nor the rest of the family to see Laura as different from other girls. Amanda continually lives in the past when she was young a pretty and lived on the plantation. Laura must feel she can never live up to her mothers expectations. Her mother continually reminds her of her differences throughout the play.
Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son Tom's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.
On one event, she abandons her little girl in a hot auto while she takes part in illicit medication use with a gathering of interesting men, along these lines jeopardizing both herself and her kid (Phillips, M. 2007). All in all, this satisfies the fundamental prerequisite of awful child rearing. Other Thoughts Consequently, while not legitimately adequate, Doyle would have been advocated in keeping Amanda. His decision to restore her to her mom is corrupt because of the earlier information that she would just be mishandled.
Amanda was a woman who lives in a world of fantasy and reality. In the past memory and the future of the fantasy made Amanda very strong, but in the face of reality she was fragile. Just like Tom used to explain “I give you truth in the
Amanda Wingfield (mother) is the most unrealistic of all the characters. She clings desperately to the past as she repeatedly relives the memories of receivin...
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a touching play about the lost dreams of a southern family and their struggle to escape reality. The play is a memory play and therefore very poetic in mood, setting, and dialogue. Tom Wingfield serves as the narrator as well as a character in the play. Tom lives with his Southern belle mother, Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura. The action of the play revolves around Amanda's search to find Laura a "gentleman caller. The Glass Menagerie's plot closely mirrors actual events in the author's life. Because Williams related so well to the characters and situations, he was able to beautifully portray the play's theme through his creative use of symbolism.
The three family members are adults at the time of this play, struggling to be individuals, and yet, very enmeshed and codependent with one another. The overbearing and domineering mother, Amanda, spends much of her time reliving the past; her days as a southern belle. She desperately hopes her daughter, Laura, will marry. Laura suffers from an inferiority complex partially due to a minor disability that she perceives as a major one. She has difficulty coping with life outside of the apartment, her cherished glass animal collection, and her Victrola. Tom, Amanda's son, resents his role as provider for the family, yearns to be free from him mother's constant nagging, and longs to pursue his own dreams. A futile attempt is made to match Laura with Jim, an old high school acquaintance and one of Tom's work mates.
Amanda also finds herself being overwehlemed with the huge lifestyle changes as a result of moving away from the only place she's ever lived (Ohio) and finds it very difficult to concentrate/adjust to her new surroundings. Amanda’s grades begin to severely slip in one of her classes which she then tries to fix by paying more attention towards that class and putting her other classes on the back burner. This causes her to have poor attendance in some of her classes and results in her not being present for a few exams that were given. For the next few weeks Amanda works on getting back into the “groove” she was in when she was a great student but by the time she is back on track it is too late and she is unable to bring her grades up before the semester ends. The following semester Amanda much more confident in herself and decides to really push herself to make up for doing so poorly and enrolls into courses she failed to retake then for a far better grade as well as new courses.
...o have an employed man in her life. Amanda served as a perfect model to exemplify this belief, and the way that Williams’ makes use of naturalistic themes in his play. He proves that without a strong man in the house to support Amanda and Laura, the women would not survive. While Amanda tries to raise her children without a husband, she exhibits many naturalist mannerisms. Williams’ reveals examples of Charles Darwin’s theories of “survival of the fittest”, and of natural selection through Amanda, and her interactions with her son, her daughter, and her character and disposition. Williams’ also demonstrates the naturalistic principle that character traits and personalities are hereditary. Tom Wingfield was the main provider for the family, and when he followed his father’s footsteps and abandoned Laura and Amanda, the women were left unaided and hopeless.
Amanda loves her children and tries her best to make sure they do not follow her path to downfall. Unfortunately, while she is trying to push her children toward her ideals of success, she is also pushing them away. Amanda Wingfield is a kind woman stuck in the wrong place and time; she is trying to make her children’s life perfect while attempting to get a re-do on her love life with Laura and forcing Tom to fill the role that her husband abandoned. Amanda Wingfield was never meant to be in the situation that she finds herself in.
The role of abandonment in The Glass Menagerie can best be described as the plot element that underlies the overall tone of despondence in the play because it emphasizes the continuous cycle of destruction and hardship that the Wingfield family experiences; indeed, abandonment in the play is a reiterative element that strips the excesses from the three main characters in the play and leaves them in their barest forms, united by a sorrowful reality and clutching each other through the ever-present need to sink into a self-constructed oblivion. The first, and perhaps the most notable and most frequently discussed, example of abandonment in the play would be that of Amanda Wingfield’s husband’s abandonment of his family; he left them at an unspecified time in the past because “he fell in love with long distances,” and evidently forsook any obligations and emotional affiliations that he may have had with his wife and offspring (Williams 5). Having been abandoned by a man who was both husband and father affected Amanda, Tom, and Laura in that it established many of their familial dynamics...