Amanda R. Ismail
Of the three main characters in Tennessee Williams’s ‘The Glass Menagerie’ Amanda is set to appear as the most dominant and in control. As the mother of the family unit the audience expects her to hold some kind of responsibility over her children as well as providing for them. The idea of the sense of duty she has for Tom and Laura’s future still remains even when the audience discover that the person financially supporting the Wingfields is actually Tom.
Amanda Wingfield is in many ways like most parents. She only wants what she thinks is best for her children. In the ‘Glass Menagerie’ this can be a strength and a weakness. Amanda believes that gentlemen callers will be chasing after Laura and she constantly reminds Laura that she should be prepared. She blindly believes that these gentlemen callers will arrive which is a strength because she tries to boost Laura’s self confidence. The reality is that there are no gentlemen callers. The weakness of the situation is that Amanda is living in a dream world where she believes that her supposed love life in her youth will be born again through Laura. “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain – your mother received – seventeen! – gentlemen callers!”
