The Glass Menagerie

Amanda is the mother: “A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place” (751). Although Amanda seems delusional and even monstrous at times, she persists in the hope that her children can be happy. She certainly has a rigid view of what that happiness looks like, but she is exceedingly persistent in fighting to make that vision a reality. As a young woman, Amanda was a debutante who, according to her memory, fielded offers from endless suitors. She claims to have chosen Mr. Wingfield out of a sea of offers from the heirs to wealthy landowners and future businessmen. Although Mr. Wingfield left the family, Amanda talks about him as if he is simply traveling. She is a woman who was bred to believe that relying on a husband is the only proper path for a lady. Without her husband, she demonstrates a remarkable resiliency. 

Although she relies on her son’s help, she also works selling magazine subscriptions and is an earnest saleswoman. As the figure of the aging Southern belle, Amanda represents what would become a key trope in Tennessee Williams plays. The character is drawn from Williams’s own mother, who he never forgave for lobotomizing his sister.