Discuss the role and
character of Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie.
Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie furnishes an
excellent example of a carefully crafted, complex character whose speech and
action arise from the "psychological" being created by the
playwright. In his character description, Tennessee Williams starts his reader
on the road to discovering Amanda's complexity.
AMANDA WINGFIELD the mother. A little woman of great but
confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place. Her
characterization must be carefully created, not copied from type. She is not
paranoiac, but her life is paranoia. There is much to admire in Amanda, and as
much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and
a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at
times, there is tenderness in her slight person. (781)
Before the first lines are spoken Amanda's complexity is
established by the nuances and contrasts given here. This basic description
must be laid over all dialogue and action throughout the play so as to preserve
the fullness of Amanda's character at times when only portions of her nature
are being exhibited.
The complexity of Amanda's character directly affects her
action and dialogue with her children. In her role as mother she exhibits an
overwhelming desire to see her children succeed in life. In trying to push them
toward her ideal of success, she at times unwittingly hurts them even though
she means well. Her actions often hide her intense love for her children, but it
is an important driving force in her motivations. She loves them too well--at
times to a point of smothering them (perhaps the reason for the departure of
her husband)--which results in her attempt to push them towards all the good
things she has known and remembered and away from anything that does not suit
her ideal.
As Amanda calls Tom to the table in Scene I and comments on
manners and habits, we have our first glimpse of Amanda, the mother. She
corrects actions much as mothers have done throughout time in accordance with
her own sense of importance.
Animals have sections in their stomachs which enable them to
digest food without mastication, but human beings are supposed to chew their
food before they swallow it down. Eat food leisurely, son, and really enjoy it.
A well-cooked meal has lots of delicate flavors that have to be held in the
mouth for appreciation. So chew your food and give your salivary glands a
chance to function. (783 ll. 57-65)
Thus, for Amanda, the variety of dishes to be savored during
the elegant leisurely meals of her youth have become synonymous with the status
of the leisurely life-style she so fondly remembers. Tom has no concept of
dinner in the South so she adapts her correction to digestion hoping he will
understand this more physical depiction as opposed to the one that is so vivid
for her while lacking in reality for her children. For Amanda meals should be
an emotional experience enhanced by proper manners. Although she is seeking to
communicate and share this experience with her children, her words only manage
to antagonize Tome and heighten tension between them.
