"AMANDA: I took that horrible novel back to the library- yes ! That hideous book by that insane Mr. Lawrence. [Tom laughs wildly.] I cannot control the output of diseased minds or people who cater to them - [Tom laughs still more wildly.] BUT I WON'T ALLOW SUCH FILTH BROUGHT INTO MY HOUSE ! NO, no, no, no, no!"
~ The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
Fair warning: I left my book at school, so I won't have page numbers for my quotes.
So one of the things we talked about during class was realistic vs. nonrealistic vs. unrealistic. One of the characters I think fits really well into the unrealistic category is Amanda, the mom. Amanda is a little ridiculous - she says things and does things that most mothers don't. While most mothers have to keep their children grounded and in touch with reality while the children may have wild imaginations or hyper-emotional states that illicit irrational outbursts, Amanda assumes the role of the child. She constantly talks about her days as an adolescent, and it is obvious that she wishes she could regress to that time when she was the center of attention and her life was seemingly perfect, when she had yet to make crucial mistakes that would follow her the rest of her life. She still cares about very superficial aspects of both her life and her daughter's. She loses her patience and temper with Tom when she assumes that something is going to threaten the structure or stray from social convention in her life, as if her life were functional. Amanda does not act how a normal mother would, so I would say she is a bit unrealistic.
No comments:
Post a Comment