The Glass Menagerie. How does Amanda's Southern Background affect her present life and her relationship with her children?
The Glass Menagerie. How does Amanda's Southern
Background affect her present life and her relationship
with her children?
In the play 'The Glass Menagerie' written by Tenessee Williams there are four characters that
appear onstage. Amanda a single mother of two children Tom and Laura and A gentleman
caller called Jim O'Conner. I will firstly look at how Amanda's traditional Southern background
affects her present life.
You first get the impression that Amanda is a traditionalist of the Deep South of America when
she refers to Laura as sister 'No sister, no sister - you be the lady this time and I'll be the
darkey'. This was a common word traditionally for females to call each other and was popular
in the very South of America. Another cultural difference shown in the quotation is the term
'darkey'. This was one of the common slang words used by Southerners refering to their black
servants. 'Gentleman Caller' is another Southern term used by Amanda throughout the play. It
was a phrased used for a courting man visiting an unmarried woman. In the play Amanda often
boasts about how many gentleman callers she recieved. Amanda also refers to herself as a
Southern Belle. This was the old fashioned term for the higher class woman in the South of
America. She is also a member of D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Republic) which are a
group of Southern traditionalists. Amanda is obsessed with her past and her suitably extravagant
Southern upbringing, and her cultural differences show throughout.
Amanda's pushy, authorative personality is obvious from the very beginning of the play in her
first speech with Tom.
'Honey don't push with your fingers. If you have to push with something , the thing to
push with is a crust of bread. . And chew-chew! Animals have sections in their stomachs
which enable them to digest food without mastication , but human beings are supposed to
chew their food before they swallow it down!
This speech show that Amanda has strong opinions over such a trivial thing as chewing when
she is pontificating to Tom about how to eat. She gives authority to what she says by claiming it
is true using a scientific fact. These points are keys to her personality and clues to her present
life. Tom describes middle class America as 'matriculating in a school for the blind'. Amanda
falls into this catagory. She sees things the way she wants to see them, not as they are. Amanda
had a sheltered Southern upbringing where things were different from her present life, financially
and socially, she ...
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she is pontificating to Tom about how to eat. She gives authority to what she says by claiming it
is true using a scientific fact. These points are keys to her personality and clues to her present
life. Tom describes middle class America as 'matriculating in a school for the blind'. Amanda
falls into this catagory. She sees things the way she wants to see them, not as they are. Amanda
had a sheltered Southern upbringing where things were different from her present life, financially
and socially, she finds it very difficult to change with the times and she lives her life as she did
hen she was young. She also expects things to be similar to her youth. All these will influence
Amanda's morals.
Amanda seems to be more worried about Laura embaressing her than how she feels.
'I wanted to find a hole in the ground and hide myself in it forever.' In this quotation Amanda
describes how embaressed she was when she was told that Laura dropped out of Business
College. Amanda also shows that the money she had to pay angered her when she says 'fiftey
dollers tuition'. She does not however show any concern about how Laura feels. This to most
people would be morally wrong, but to Amanda it is a normal way of thinking. It would seem
she is more concerned about what she wants Alura to do than what Laura wants for herself.
Her upbringing also affects her way of thinking about men and woman's different purposes in
life. She talks about how Laura should be provided for because she is a woman and how
woman should 'entertain' their gentlemen callers. her Southern upbringing has influenced these
views.
Tennesee Williams has ensured that Amanda's obsession with her past is seen by the audience
by her re-telling and exagerating stories of her past and social position. She tells of being
surrounded by suiters and endulging in obsessions. 'among my callers were some of the most
promennant young planters of the Mississippi Delta.' I belive the writer is trying to create a
sense of escapism from her current poor social situation. The only way she can achieve this is to
re-live stories of her past.
The writers uncommon use of legends and images on screen is used to give the audience a sense
of what the character is thinking, and often a character says what is on the screen. The very first
legend on screen 'ont sont les nieges' written in French meaning 'where are the snows' is yet
another link to the past and sets the scene for Amanda's story telling. At the beginning of the
play Tom says,
This play is memory. Being a memory play it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not
realistic'
The legend on screen does a great deal to enhance the fact that the play is not realistic. It
creates a sense of memory, because a lot of the images on screen are linked with the past. The
legend on screen is used more often than images because it can tell the audience more than an
image can.
Amanda uses her past as an escape from reality. This is an appeal to the audience as it shows
that she has a way of coping with difficult situations, and that is her way of escaping from her
present life.
Amanda's language is that of an educated Southener. She often shouts and asks questions that
she doesn't expect to be answered. A clear example of this would be in scene six where all the
characters are at the dining table. 'What is that? Rain? A nice cool rain has come up!' This
frequent and slightly annoying use of raising her voice has developed from her Southern
upbringing.
Amanda's relationship with her children has suffered because of her Southern upbringing. Her
relationship with them is not normal. She thinks of her daughter Laura as she was when she was
that age, ignoring Laura's real needs. She treats Tom as a small child at some pojnts in the play
and Tom treats most things she says as a complete joke.
'I took that horrible novel back to the library - yes! That hideous book by the insane Mr
Lawrence' (Tom laughs wildly)
You can see from this that when Amanda and Tom's difference surface into discussion and
action Tom does not take much notice of Amanda's words. This would add to the insecurity in
their relationship.
Amanda has many cultural differences than those around her. She sees herself because of her
background as a Southern Belle and she sees Laura as a young lady that, like her, should be
surrounded by gentleman callers. However Laura is painfully shy and crippled and she stays at
home, so there is no way that she can possibly meet men. Amanda ignores her disability and
cannot understant why she is not like herself. 'Not one gentleman caller? It can't be true! There
must have been a flood, there must have been a tornado!' This quote shows that Amanda just
can't accept that Laura unlike herself never recieves any gentleman callers. She uses
extraordinary excuses to explain this.
Amanda's feelings are that Tom, because he is male should be the provider for the family, and
Laura because she is a young female should be lined up with a suiter and married then provided
for. She thinks that this is the only way that things should happen. Tom does not accept her way
of thinking, but does provide for the unstable family for the sake of Laura. He wants to escape.
Amanda sees his desire to leave when she says.
'I mean that as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of
her own, independent-why then you'll be free to go whereever you please'
Amanda sees it as Toms duty to stay and provide for Laura until she is married and provided
for. This way of thinking has come from her Southern upbringing where a lady should always be
provided for.
Amanda is ignorant of her children's wants and needs and insists that her way of thinking is the
only way. She tries to force this culture on her children resulting in Laura being confused and not
able to speak for herself and Tom wnating to leave so much he goes to the cinema to get away
from 'the real world'.
Amanda has very different morals than Tom and she constantly advises himto act upon them. As
she does in scene 5.
'You smoke too much. A pack a day at fifty cents a pack. How much would that amount
to in a month? Thirty times fiftey is how much, Tom? Figure it out and you will be
astounded at what you could save. Enough to give you a night-school course in
accounting at Washington U!
In this speech Amanda is trying to deter Tom from smoking and asks Tom to do what she
thinks is right, take a class in accounting. By always telling him not to do things like smoke it
makes him want to do it more often because he despises what she says so much that he feels he
should do the opposite. Amanda acts upon her moral judgement once again when she takes one
of Tom's books back to the library in scene 4.
'I took that horrible novel back to the library - yes! That hideous book by the insane Mr
Lawrence. I cannot control the output of diseased minds or people who cater for them.
But I won't allow such filth brought into my house! No, no, no, no, no!'
By selfishly trying to force her own traditional morals upon her children she has actually made
Tom detest them and turned the already shy Laura into somebody with no self confidence. So
Tom does not take anything his mother says seriously and adds to the reasons he wants to
leave.
Tennesse Williams appeals to the audience in a variety of ways, the most promenant being the
sense of escapism. Amanda, Tom and Laura all have their own seperate ways of escaping.
Amanda escapes to her past - her Southern background to escape from her current poverty
and re-lives better times. Tom escapes from the reality of life in the appartment in a very
different way. He regulary goes and watches movies. Laura on the otherhand rarely leaves the
appartment and her only means of escaping from reality is listening to her victrola and polishing
her glass menagerie.
Amanda's relationship with her children is troubled and lacks understanding due to her livivng in
the past. This results in a disjointed and unharmonious lifestyle in the apartment. This results in
the inevitable departure of Tom.
