Blog 1-The Glass Menagerie

In scene two of The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, Amanda, in a heated conversation with her daughter, Laura, over her absence from school, yields Amanda's own inner conflict. Amanda faces her husband's abandonment and sees his leaving as a sign that she should have married one of her other many suitors. When Amanda hears of unmarried women and where they end up, as "..spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife,"(Williams,1243) she laughs at them. As a single parent, Amanda scorns those women, who too are unmarried, but live in complete dependency of others. Even too, in her tirade, Amanda uses a metaphor to describe the basis of these womens' lives. She says,"little birdlike women without any nest-eating the crust of humility all their life,"(Williams,1243). Amanda believes these women are helpless in the fact that they have any husband and must rely on the charity of others, thus, feeling sorry for themselves. I don't believe Amanda should separate herself from these women in the sense that she shares the same circumstance of being without a husband as they do. She too feels inferior and prideful over them because she can hold position and make a more independent life for herself. Amanda's scorn for these women is much like her constant nagging towards Tom and Laura.