Although Amanda tries to be caring, for Tom it is mostly interference. This is shown in his reaction when his mother confiscates his “hideous book by that insane Mr. Lawrence.” He is shocked but also now in such a rage he “laughs wildly” at Amanda. This shows the rigid, puritanical order that Amanda likes to exercise over the family, which Tom finds incredibly claustrophobic. He calls himself “El Diablo!”(Meaning the devil) and sometimes blasphemes deliberately knowing this will provoke his mother.
From the start of the scene the two characters are so angry that they interrupt each other and speak over one another, which clearly shows they are not listening to each other and that their relationship is breaking down. As this is a memory play the way in which this scene is remembered is unreal. Amanda and Tom are surrounded in a “turgid smoky red glow”, an unsubtle use of colour to symbolise the emotions anger and passion and to emphasise it is a memory play and therefore it is not reality. “Their gesticulating shadows” cast onto the ceiling create a larger then life image, but often overwhelming shadows are associated with hell so perhaps this scene is showing each characters own personal hell.
It is not just Tom who is angry, Amanda is also incensed by Tom and believes he has no right to “jeopardise [his] job” by going to the movies every night and “moping and doping because {he’s] in no condition”. The main reason that Amanda is so angry with Tom is that the prospect of Tom losing his job means that the family and her social status would drop dramatically. Social class is important to Amanda as she still lives back in the days of Blue Mountain and has not yet come face to face with the circumstances under which she lives. The bitterness and perhaps hatred felt by her towards the departure of her husband is shown by the fact that she wears “a very old bathrobe, much too large for her slight figure, a relic of the faithless Mr Wingfield”. This symbolises that she is trying to take responsibility for the family but the fact that the bathrobe is too big shows she cannot cope with it. This perhaps explains her anger with Tom, who is becoming too like his father for her liking.
She senses Tom is envious of the fact that his father managed to escape the family and the suffocating world in which the three of them live when in a heated speech to Amanda he states, “if self is all I thought of, Mother, I’d be where he is - GONE!” This reveals his animosity to his mother and father. Tom is perhaps also envious of the “gentlemen caller”, although an illusionary figure he has the freedom to call where he pleases and to ask girls out, something that Tom has not and would dearly love.
Although Amanda is angry with Tom, perhaps some of this anger is generated by the fact that she herself is envious of Tom. She realises that Tom is the real authority in the family, for without his money the family would not survive and Tom, instead of her has control. The confiscating of the books gives Amanda the illusion of control as she “will not allow such filth to be brought into [her] house” but also perhaps she is jealous that Tom has had the opportunity to read literary classics such as DH Lawrence. When Amanda is selling her magazine, “The Homemakers Companion” she compares it to Gone with the Wind and a classic piece of literature, and the irony is that there is no comparison. She is jealous of Tom being able to read DH Lawrence.
The hatred and anger shown in Scene three by Amanda and Tom is apparent to Laura and she can see the emotional equilibrium breaking down and reacts to the hatred and anger in the way that she does by the “clenched hands and panicky expression”. Her one word, “Tom-!” is her attempt to rebalance the emotions in the household but she is overpowered by the other voices. This fragile emotional equilibrium is symbolised using the Glass Menagerie as, at the end when the argument has reached its climax, the glass menagerie is struck and there is “a tinkle of shattering glass”. The use of the word “tinkle” contrasts with the noise and shouting of the argument before hand and emphasises the point that emotions are so fragile. The glass animals almost destroy all of the anger that has gone before it as they are almost destroyed themselves.
This scene although a negative scene overall, does have other emotions which are particularly poignant at the end. Tom’s love for Laura is particularly obvious when he glances at Laura “as if he would speak but couldn’t”. This particular moment along with the tinkling, dreamy music contrasts to the vicious shouting match before and acts as a medium to trigger the viewers’ emotions. The love that Tom feels for Laura is a parallel to what William’s felt for his sister Rose so to say that all his plays are full of the, anger and envy is untrue because there is a certain love and hope, as well as a certain sadness.
The hope that is attached to the “spectre” of the gentleman caller gives it an almost religious quality, the Jews in Israel waiting for their Messiah, the Wingfield family waiting for theirs. The phone conversation held at the beginning of the scene shows Amanda is capable of taking practical steps in a world of reality. This gives the viewer hope that things in the family are perhaps not as bad as they seem and perhaps Tom gains hope from this as it might mean a way out for him if his mother has a job.
However, with this hope also comes sadness. The play and the characters in it revolve around the pain of living but in different ways. For Laura it is her painful shyness that prevents her from entering into the world of reality and instead she finds her solitude and comfort in her glass menagerie. For Tom it is the sadness that comes with being trapped in the home and the world of these three individuals. The real world seems so much more enticing to Tom and perhaps the sad fact is that to get there he has to sacrifice the lives of two others to get his happiness. The fragility of human life is a sad but beautiful thing symbolised all too well in Laura and her Glass Menagerie.
Tennessee William’s psychiatrist was right in the sense that many of his plays contain “hate, anger and envy”, a reflection of his life but he missed the more beautiful poignant emotions that William’s was trying to convey. The love for a sibling, the fragility of human life, the pain of living or hope that quickly dies are all mentioned in this one scene alone, reflecting the other side of William’s life and mind.
