Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie

The lacking of a positive male role model can be very troublesome for any family; especially during the mid-thirties. Prior to the Second World War, women did not have significant roles in the workforce and depended on their husbands or fathers to provide for them financially. There were limited government assistance programs during the era of The Great Depression, and it was up to the families to provide for themselves. The absence of Mr. Wingfield placed enormous strains on the physical as well as mental wellbeing of his family. The effects the abandonment of their father had on the Wingfield family from Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie are undeniable.

The Amanda Wingfield that we come to know is overbearing, worrisome, and full of regret. Amanda’s background of fortune and popularity has made it extremely difficult for Amanda to accept the life she has on hand, and to say the least she is not satisfied with the way her life has turned out. Amanda often relives her past in order to cope with the present, and she is described as a “disillusioned romantic” by Nancy Tischler (Fambrough 100). The statement Amanda made in (Scene 1) attests to her wealth and admirations.

AMANDA (returning with a bowl of dessert). One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain—your mother received—seventeen!—gentleman callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t chairs enough to accommodate them all. We had to send a servant over to bring in folding chairs from the parish house. (Williams 1160)

Amanda could have married a more prominent man, but fell for the charm of Mr. Wingfield. Amanda’s regret is apparent through her remarks of her more promising callers and how one “…left his widow one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in Government bonds...

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...from the liability that his father had left for him. The constant bickering between Tom and Amanda that is driving Laura into the nervous state she is in, could be mitigated if Mr. Wingfield were there to alleviate some of the stress off of Tom and Amanda. Mr. Wingfield leaving the way he did has impacted every member of his family, and has potentially ruined the lives of his wife and children.

Works Cited

Williams, Tennessee. Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Arp, Thomas R., Greg Johnson, and Laurence Perrine. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.

Fambrough, Preston. "Williams's THE GLASS MENAGERIE." Explicator 63.2 (2005): 100-02. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.

Thierfelder III, W.R. "Williams's The Glass Menagerie." Explicator. Vol. 48. Taylor & Francis, 1990. 284. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.