How Does Amanda Wingfield Create Tension In The Glass Menagerie

An illusion can be anything, from simply being unable to acknowledge the world to the disbelief that one can escape a nailed- up coffin without removing a single nail. We have all seen or experienced an illusion at some point, but not quite how the Wingfields have. Amanda Wingfield and her two children, Laura, and Tom, are all trapped within the confines of their apartment, they each have their own methods of escaping from the complications of the outside world. Tom smokes and drinks while Laura avoids school and work, instead losing herself in the fantasy of her glass menagerie. Amanda lives vicariously through her children and yet seems trapped in the memories of her past. As the play continues, the reader begin to see how these seemingly
“[A blown-up photograph of the father hangs on the wall of the living room. A handsome man, gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say ‘I will be smiling forever’”] (28) The craving for adventure branches from his job at the warehouse, in a state of boredom all day. Entertaining himself by writing poems on shoeboxes, putting his money in the Merchant Marines rather than paying the lighting bill. However this ___dramatic..theatre___ creates the romantic lighting. He loses himself in the illusory world of dreams and fantasies symbolically presented by the movies. In the end, he chooses to abandon them as their father had done, but can't without__ “ Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but i am more faithful than I intended to be. I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger-anything that can blow your candles out...Blow out your candles, Laura -and so goodbye” The play
Constantly reminisces about her days IN Blue Mountain She never forgets to tell Laura and Tom about her receiving seventeen gentlemen callers in Blue Mountain when she was young: "One Sunday afternoon-your mother received-seventeen!-gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren't enough chairs enough to accommodate them all" (26). She says though many are successful ---planters?--- she had still chosen their father. Jim, a gentleman caller, is coming for Laura, Amanda treats this as a chance for herself, as if Jim is coming for her. She dresses in and her fancy dress, puts on “All prety girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be. This is the prettiest you'll ever be!” (86) Amanda is desperately searching for a way to save Laura from becoming an “old maid”. She tries a school, so Laura might be able to support herself, but after that doesnt work out, she turns to search for a gentleman caller. Old clothing, trying to return to her youth. Amanda Wingfield was a complex character that encompassed many facets of her