English Literature 9695

The Glass Menagerie: Amanda Wingfield

Q. Role and Function of Amanda Wingfield.

Williams has presented realistic characters with real life issues in 'The Glass Menagerie' but as these characters are seen through the yes of a man recalling memories tinged with subtle regret, we do to know to what extent the personalities are accurate. This produces a unique complexity in each character, and perhaps the most complex character by far in any of William's plays in Amanda Wingfield.

Williams has presented the ideas: intention action and consequence in the shape of Amanda. If one considers her situation, the act that she is a rejected woman who has had to raise her two children alone, allows one to understand that her intentions may have been pure. But, we see this story through one of the children, Tom's, eyes who is watching her actions, not her intentions, especially as it is clear that Tom is trying to reduce his burden and guilt by relaying some of the blame of his departure on Amanda's boisterous behaviour. Unfortunately for Amanda he intentions do not decide results, her actions do. The way she treats Laura when Jim comes to supper and when she find out Laura is not going to school and the way she tries to control Tom's life leave the audience with a bad impression of her character. Thus concluding that a person should think of the consequences before speaking and acting but also that one should consider the big picture and walk in someone's shoes before passing an immediate verdict.

Compared to the other characters in this play Amanda is perhaps the most vocal, but ironically what she says makes little sense and makes the atmosphere more awkward like how her interactions with Jim were mostly her bragging or bad jokes (Noah in the dark) at which he just politely laughed. Her speeches do not reflect the speech of a mother or of virgin Mary whom she is compared to by Laura, rather they attract laughter and act to enhance the dark humour Williams has laced into the play. Interestingly despite her expressiveness she is not quite expressive. At one occasion while discussing Laura's future with Tom she admits she is not able to express what is in her heart and we see a bonding moment between mother and son as Tom too suffers the same difficulty to express himself bu before either of them get the chance to share how they really feel Amanda begins her chattering again and continues to nag Tom which forces him to lose the desire to open up to her as well.

It can be said that Amanda's way of coping with her reality is through talking. Talking of ideal pasts that may or may not be true, speaking fondly of Laura to Jim knowing much of she is saying are lies and overly dramatising her disappointment in Laura dropping out of school through long speeches, repetitions and exaggerated gestures. Unlike Amanda, Laura copes with reality by recoiling to her own little world and remaining mostly silent but the one moment we see her talking about her past with Jim and opening up to Amanda, Amanda is absent -minded and gives curt answers eventually ignoring Laura's confessions and reaching a conclusion by herself: Laura must get married to survive. This is ironic behaviour as when she talks about her past she expects her children to listen even though it seems she has repeated it a few dozen times as in Scene 1 we see how Tom feels as if they are following a script, yet when Laura expresses her nostalgic happiness of a past which seems to be true and seems to be the first time she's spoken about this, her mother neglects her. It can be argued that this behaviour towards Laura is what caused her to feel crippled and insecure in the first place, similarly Amanda's attitude may be the prime reason Tom and possibly even the father decided to leave.

Tom and Amanda are similar in many ways. Both of them are brilliant at exaggeration, acting and seem to occupy a high level of imagination if Amanda's stories of her youth are proven to be false. When one thinks about Amanda's account of her youth, her seventeen gentlemen callers, the blue mountain and the summer cotillions with hundred of jonquils, and then think about Tom's two false descriptions of what he does instead of going to the movies: a vivid picture of him being an assassin and that of Malvolio the Magician really how they both seem to be using their talent with words to avoid facing they respective realities. They both consider themselves christian martyrs, Amanda believes she sacrificed her youth for her family and Tom believe he is sacrificing his freedom and dreams for Amanda and Laura. Each one avoids reality. Amanda is usually chatty but at the mention of the father she goes quite or changes the subject, the father's looming presence and over sized picture as well as his robes are proof she is not entirely over his desertion. Meanwhile Tom is not able to accept his desires for freedom, when confronted by Amanda about the Marines he does not answer and even while arguing his tone is sarcastic regarding how he enjoys making shoes and how if he had been selfish he'd be where the father is, 'GONE!' yet he never gets to the point and never admits to Amanda his true ambitions. Maybe Amanda never gave him a chance. The both care deeply for Laura but often give in to personal motives and end up hurting her like when Amanda was getting her ready for Jim's and commented on Laura's figure being 'painfully flat', then proceeding to look like the gentleman caller was there for her and not Laura. Similarly Tom has hurt her due to his desperation to leave the house after an argument that resulted in accidentally breaking one of her glass menageries. One commendable difference between the two is how despite having left everything behind and having her husband desert her, Amanda stuck by her family while Tom left them when they probably needed him the most. It can be assumed that Tom, the narrator, has presented her in such a way to attract sympathies towards himself but in the end she is a mother who took care of her children in trying times and he is a man who could not handle the longing of freedom and left.

Amanda is complex and unpredictable from start to finish. After an argument with Tom and breaking of the menagerie she gets angry and leaves her children to pick up the broken pieces alone just like their father had but after Jim left, leaving behind ruins of a storm in his wake she is there to comfort Laura and for the first time 'she has dignity and tragic beauty'. Earlier she refused to accept that Laura is crippled, at the end in her rage at Tom (despite knowing he is not responsible for the failure of attracting Jim as a gentleman caller as Jim himself told her Tom did not know of his engagement) she refers to Laura as 'crippled'.

Her passionate concern for her daughter often becomes mixed up with selfishness and unthinkable cruelty. She is seen as an unchangeable force rather than as a dramatic subject capable of emotional evaluation and we unconsciously view Amanda from the outside rather than a character to identify with directly. We see her, in short, through Tom's eyes that never really go beyond the outer shell in the short duration of the play.