Amanda and Laura in light-coloured dresses are removing dishes from the table, in the upstage area, which is shadowy, their movements formalized almost as a dance or ritual, their moving forms as pale and silent as moths.
This reflects as well how even the stage directions have the element of memory in them. The quotation above is very dream-like and has a real soft feel, which relates to memories being fuzzy in our minds. It also fits in with Williams says in the beginning that, with The Glass Menagerie being a memory play, the actions or events in it may un-realistic or exaggerated, often like how dreams and memories are like. Also, this hints on how people tend to use memory to their advantage or exaggerate it to suit them.
In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings.
Here Tom (as the narrator) is expressing to the audience what memory is, in his own way. People often associate memories with music, which romantizes them to suit the person and here Tom is providing the “truth”, that memories most of the time aren’t realistic or reality.
On the whole, Tom is basically a character that is on the outside looking in, especially when he changes into the role of the narrator. The whole play is of his memories, but he isn’t the only one with haunting memories in the play. Amanda (Tom’s mother) also relates to her memories, but there is an extreme difference between them. In a way Tom can be seen as a dogmatic figure. Everything that occurs in the play is Tom’s memory, which indicated that everything that is happening is under his control, sort of like a dream, giving his character an almost God-like position. In the play, Amanda’s constantly speaks of her past to Tom and Laura, relating everything in the present to her past in the South. Also, it can also be seen that the events that are occurring in the play are of Tom’s past and he is looking back on them. Therefore, in other words, Tom as the narrator is in the present and when he is his character in the play, he is recalling on the past.
In regards to Amanda, memory is a negative force that prevents her from finding happiness in the present. Her bygone past has shaped her values. She has not adjusted these old values to present realities. Amanda came from a predominant Southern family and has received a traditional upbringing. Eventually, there were some changes in her economic and social fortunes since marrying her husband, who has abandoned the family. She often speaks of her popularity where she used to live and the amount of gentlemen callers she used to get. Not only is this a fond memory of Amanda, but it is also an obsession, something she constantly relates to and consequently attempts to reinforce the kind of lifestyle she used to have on her daughter, Laura.
One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain- your mother received- seventeen! - gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t chairs enough to accommodate them all.
The theme of memory is not blatantly apparent in Amanda’s conversations and ways of thinking, but also in her appearance. In the beginning of Scene 2, Amanda is describes as wearing:
…one of those cheap or imitation velvet-looking cloth coats with imitation fur collar. Her hat is five or six years old, one of those dreadful cloche hats that were in the late twenties and she is clasping an enormous black patent-leather pocketbook with nickel clasps and initials.
Not only is Amanda dressed in fashion of ten years before (the 20’s), she is attempting to look rich to hide her poverty, but in the end looks very cheap. This links with the Amanda’s memories and obsession, because in the past she was considered a “belle” and she is still trying to maintain that image, although she doesn’t realize that she doesn’t actually look like one anymore, which fits in with how she is living in the past. This proves how the character of Amanda is out of touch with the present reality and is so caught up with her memories.
Critics have often suggested that by Tennessee Williams re-entering his past, is able to embrace the mother her scorned, blamed and rejected as a young man. He is also attempting to come to peace with the ghost of his sister, whose memory has haunted him for so long. When Tom takes on the role of the narrator it confirms the uncontrollable power of his own memories. The other characters are also unable and, can be argued, unwilling to forget the past. Amanda lives her memories fighting to reconstruct them in the present and Laura is attached to objects, like her menagerie and the victrola, which implies memories are her only comfort. Therefore, it can be argued that the characters in The Glass Menagerie use memory to escape their present struggles that they face everyday, in other words, it is their survival in the harsh world.
Tennessee Williams portrayal of memory in his play The Glass Menagerie indicated that it is something almost impossible to resist. Because of this, critics have often criticized the play of being too sentimental, but perhaps we shouldn’t try too hard to escape the clutches that memory brings. “The heart is a nostalgic organ, and sentimentality is what makes us human, and most importantly, humane.” In this memory play the “trick”, which all the characters do not manage to succeed in is to find a way of living the present while accommodating the past. After Williams wrote this play, the characters in his other plays had this exact trait and, in a way, makes them more vulnerable characters, but perhaps their fragility makes them more appealing and easier to relate to.