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Amanda Amanda Wingfield is the eccentric Southern mother in Tennessee Williams drama The Glass Menagerie. Amanda is a relic of a bygone era. She lives in a fantasy world of her own creation where she is the Belle of a grand never ending Southern ball. Her children, Tom and Laura also retreat to their own respective worlds of make believe. Amanda doesnt care to recognize the defects in her children, especially in Laura. While she repeatedly lauds her children that they must always be prepared for life to take them where they dont want to go, she does nothing to keep Laura in school.
Perhaps it is because she is unable to break with the fantasy of her past where young woman waited to be courted by wealthy men. Amanda is unable, or unwilling to break with her fantasy of being superior and her children being superior until its too late for anyone to change. Amanda withdraws from reality into fantasy whenever she needs to escape from whatever's troubling her and she constantly reminisces about her life in the Mississippi Delta when she was a girl. Though Amanda acknowledges her situation and the situation of her family, which is poverty, she will never let go of her memory of the South. Whereas Tom retreats into literature and film, and Laura plays with her glass, Amanda retreats mentally and out loud back to her youth (Glass Menagerie). She recounts stories of balls and dances, church socials and gentleman callers.
She needs to remind herself, and anyone who will listen, that she was once important and was courted by important people. Amanda's recollections always come to an abrupt halt at one key point, when she met her husband. Through the entire play she always stops reminiscing when she comes to that time. Faced with the consequences of her poor choice of a husband while surrounded by so many promising suitors, her mind will not allow her to peruse her memories further because to include the failure of her marriage would destroy the images she is so fond of recalling and place blame for her situation on herself (Amanda Wingfield).
There is no distinction between Amanda's fantasies and the world she lives in. To her, she is a Southern Belle who happens to live in less than suitable conditions that can be improved by positive thinking and a little Southern grace. At dinner, Amanda scolds Tom for his hurried eating because for her, savoring an elegant leisurely meal is synonymous with the status and the life-style of her youth (Amanda Wingfield). At mealtime, we also see Amanda playfully taking on a servants role and joking about it to Tom and Laura.
This is another attempt to hold on to the sense of superiority and refinements that she remembers and an attempt to pass on a sense of high-status to her children. Despite her clinging to the past and refusing to se things as they are, Amanda has one strong facet and that is her willingness to sacrifice for her family. She willingly subjects herself to the humiliation of selling magazine subscriptions in order to fund the gentleman callers visit (Sparknotes). It takes little imagination to suppose that Amanda, who has no discernable skills, had to strive very hard to provide for her children after her husband disappeared.
Its her sense of strength in the face of adversity that makes her admirable and shows her to be a good mother. Her willingness to sacrifice causes conflict between her and Tom though because she is unable or unwilling to articulate the difference between a mother sacrificing her later years for her children, and a son sacrificing his youth for a mother. Amanda wants to mold him according to her ideas about his duties as the man of the house and she seeks to teach Tom to fill the role abandoned by his father (Amanda Wingfield). But Toms situation is completely unearned. Amanda chose to reject her high-class suitors and marry Tom and Laura's father knowing that he had nothing. After he left, the responsibly providing fell to her.
Amanda is proud of her strength and independence and the fact that shes managed to survive and still be, at least in her mind, a Southern lady. She is unwilling however to look at the fact that she is completely dependant on Tom and has forced an unearned responsibility on him, and has encouraged Laura's dependency Amanda is a very strong woman but at the same time shes a victim of circumstances. It is her fault alone that she married poorly, though facing that fact would destroy her pleasant memories of high society in the South. It is not her fault per say that her husband abandoned her. When we meet Amanda she is dependent on Tom for support and has allowed Laura to also become dependant. Since she has no way of taking care of herself, she must try to force Tom into always supporting her, or force Laura into marrying a man who will take care of them both.
Amanda's failure to connect with reality and her diluted belief that her children are just like her, superior, blinds her to how dire her situation actually is. Tom has no desire to advance at the warehouse or to earn more than a meager income. Likewise, Laura has abandoned every opportunity shes ever had in favor of being perpetually shy. Laura doesnt receive gentleman callers not because shes crippled or because shes shy, but rather because she simply doesnt really want them. No matter how much Amanda nags or tries to persuade Tom, hes not going to do any better, and no matter how charming she is no gentleman callers are coming for Laura. When Amanda finally recognizes this at the end of the play, she lashes out at Tom, which is really self-destructive on Amanda's part because once hes gone there is no one left to take care of her.
Works Cited: Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. 3 Dec 2004 < web >. Character Analysis. (2001) Sparknotes. 3 Dec 2004
Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandel. 5 th ed. Canada: Thompson Corporation, 2004. 1909.
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