The Glass Menagerie Post #2: Maybe it's not all Amanda's fault

             Scenes 5-7 of The Glass Menagerie emphasize the ways in which Amanda's treatment of Laura has the potential to actually benefit her. Although Amanda focuses all of her energy on convincing herself that Laura is beautiful and perfect like she wants her to be, her efforts to ensure that a gentleman caller visits Laura ultimately force Laura to reach a level of understanding and contentment that she otherwise would not have known.  Without Amanda's constant nagging and returning her to reality, Laura would completely lose sight of her identity.  Laura would escape into her own world, and never confront her problems.  It is because Amanda never gives up and never loses hope in the idea that Laura could potentially marry that Laura is able to connect with Jim on an emotional level and face her biggest fears.  In other words, Amanda's persistant and controlling tendencies are both the source of and the solution to her fears.

            Amanda's worst trait with regards to parenting remains that she brags about herself and how she acted at Laura's age, and creates a model of behavior that Laura could never achieve.  However, she still shows sympathy and a desire to help Laura in the form of patience and persistence in her efforts to find Laura a caller.  Amanda begs Tom to help find Laura a male caller, and even though she partially is acting on her own selfish motives to leave Laura, she still is working towards a better future for Laura to help mend the wounds that she herself has created.  During Laura's encounter with Jim, there are many specific instances in which Laura tries to leave Jim, but Amanda forces her to return to him.  Right as Jim arrives, Amanda asks Laura to open the door and Laura blatantly refuses.  Laura begs for Amanda to act for her and relieve her of her fears.  Rather than giving in, Amanda refuses and orders Laura, "Laura Wingfield, you march right to that door!"(57).  In this way, Amanda forces Laura to confront her fears rather than run from them, even after enabling Laura to escape reality for so much of her life.  As the night goes on, Laura repeatedly avoids Jim by moving to a different room and calling herself ill.  When Jim offers to help Amanda, Amanda asks Jim to visit with Laura in the other room.  She suggests to Jim, "And how about coaxing sister to drink a little wine?  I think it would be good for her!"(10) in order to help Laura gain the confidence to speak with and compose herself next to Jim.  When Jim obeys Amanda's requests and privately speaks with Laura in the candlelight, he is able to provide Laura with advice regarding what she should do in order to be less shy and insecure.  In my opinion, this helps Laura and benefits her because she is not only forced to practice socializing with another man, but the man she socializes with brings her constructive criticism that she can apply in the future.  Jim also comforts Laura by telling her, "...every has problems, not just you, but practically everybody has got some problems....look around you and you will see lots of people as disappointed as you are"(76).  Therefore, Amanda's persistant efforts to bring Jim closer to Laura allow Laura to gain knowledge, happiness, and contentment.  Consequently, Laura benefits from Amanda's actions.

           I personally can relate to the idea that sometimes it takes other people to rope you into doing things that you don't want to do in order to be happy.  I think there are a lot of risks that people wouldn't take on their own.  Often friendships are formed when one person introduces another person to someone they would not normally talk to, and the friendships formed during these times are stronger than expected and probably otherwise would not have been formed. Altogether, I think that in daily life, it's really important to have someone there to influence your actions because you would miss out on a lot of things if you only ever did what was comfortable for you. 

The Glass Menagerie Blog Post #1: Amanda and Laura's Relationship

           Throughout scenes one through four of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Amanda places too much pressure on Laura, and consequently strips Laura of the ability to make her own decisions and lead her own life. Not only does Amanda's control keep Laura from pursuing her own interests, but it also hinders her ability to be productive and fit into society, because she knows that she must succeed or else her mother will consider her an immense failure.  When Amanda pays to put Laura through business college, Laura is overwhelmed by nerves because she is finally placed in a position where what she does could make or break her relationship with her mother as well as her entire future.  She becomes so overwhelmed that according to her teacher her "hands shook so she couldn't hit the right keys!  The first time we gave a speed test she broke down completely"(2.16).  Rather than facing her own problems, she retreats into her own imagination and leads a life completely different than her mother anticipates.  She is so terrified of admitting to her mother that she has stopped attending school that she spends countless days walking around, visiting the zoo and walking around the parks in order to avoid her priorities while convincing Amanda that she is still in school.  From the beginning, Amanda does not simply want Laura to find a job so that she can be happy and lead the best life possible, but rather so that she can provide for her family and secure a financially stable future.  There is no actual feeling of love or concern motivating Amanda's decision to force Laura to find a job or find a husband.  Amanda does not realize that she is to blame for Laura's nerves, and instead places the blame on Laura.  Upon discovering Laura's dishonesty, Amanda scolds Laura, "So what are we going to do for the rest of our lives?  Stay home and watch the parades go by?  Amuse ourselves with the Glass Menagerie, Darling? ... We won't have a business career-- We've given that up because it gave us nervous indigestion!"(2.34)  This constant source of pressure and dissatisfaction does nothing to aid Laura in overcoming her shyness, and in fact serves as a catalyst.  Amanda convinces Laura that she is a failure by exposing the child-like qualities of her actions rather than encouraging her to improve her life.  Laura finds so much pleasure in her glass distractions that when they shatter, she finds it difficult to hide her disappointment.  When Tom's jacket shatters Laura's glass, she "cries out as if wounded"(3.18) and "covers her face and turns away"(3.18).  Since Laura has invested so much in her glass, and become so familiar with using it as her escape from reality, she is unable to function without it and is physically and emotionally hurt by the loss of such sentimental items.  This proves that Amanda's constant pressure that she places on Laura does not help her, because she in turn becomes too invested in distractions such as glass which could shatter and break at any moment.
            In my own life I know what it's like to be pressured into doing something to the point where it becomes terrifying to do.  Not only wanting to please others, but wanting to prove to myself that I am capable of doing something is enough to trigger nerves that could hinder my ability to think clearly and perform properly.  Sometimes no matter how focused you are I think that external forces and pressures can be a distraction.  For example, when basketball players are shooting free throws, they often miss shots that they could easily make as a result of the pressure and the amount of people watching them and wanting them to succeed.