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A Mothers Love: Too Strong...to Weak

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A Mothers Love: Too Strong...to Weak
A Mother’s Love: Too Strong, Too Weak It is a fact of common knowledge that mother’s theme in literature is quite popular and distinctive, an evidence of which is numerous literary masterpieces, where mother’s characters are involved both first-hand and indirectly. Therefore, their roles are depicted in relatedness with their children, disclosing a nature of their relationships and family ties, and simultaneously emphasizing the meaning of mother’s character not only in literary plot, but in real life as well. That is the case with a purpose of this research paper – to indicate the most considerable and peculiar moments of mother-son relationships in the plays Hamlet and The Glass Menagerie, which are obviously fulfilled with confrontations, issues of moral domination and silent disagreement. While speaking about Amanda Wingfield and Queen Gertrude, it is very difficult not to notice their constant desire to dominate in the lives of their sons, manipulate their feelings and guide them in certain actions. However, their intentions still remain unattainable, which is one of the similarities between them. In particular, Amanda’s nagging of Tom leads to his withdrawal after the last fight, where she claims, “Don 't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who 's crippled and has no job! Don 't let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure I just go, go, go - to the movies!” (Williams, 75). As for Gertrude and Hamlet, their confrontation transforms into mutual accusations of offending the memory of the late King. Hamlet sees a betrayer and a liar in her face, while she cannot accept his impatience and self-rebellion, calling him “my too much changed son at once” (Shakespeare, 29). Hence, Queen Gertrude cannot possibly manipulate her son as well as Amanda Wingfield. One more-aimed resemblance consists in Amanda and Gertrude’s attitude to life. That being that, both of them take everything as it is. To be more precise, Amanda Wingfield always turns


Cited: Bloom H. Hamlet. Chelsea House Publishers, 2008. Print. Bloom H. The Glass Menagerie. Chelsea House Publishers, 2006. Print. Gorman T., Shakespeare W. Hamlet. Saddleback Educational Publishing, Inc., 2010. Print. Pennington M. "Hamlet": A User 's Guide. Nick Hern Books, 1997. Print. Williams T. The Glass Menagerie. Heinemann, 1996. Print. Williams T., Ehrenhaft G. Tennessee Williams 's the Glass Menagerie & a Streetcar Named Desire. Barron 's Educational Series, 1985. Print.

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