How Does Amanda Williams Use Symbols In The Glass Menagerie

Apart from the objects, Williams places symbols in Amanda’s life from her memories and past such as a photograph, the memories of her youth, and the way she talks. For example, when Tom sets the scene for the play he describes the characters taking part in the memory play, he says, “There is a fifth character in the play who doesn’t appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel,” (5). Ever since her husband left, Amanda keeps this picture in sight because she would rather deceive herself into believing she married a good man instead of the flake she did marry. Helping the family cope with his departure, this photograph presents the illusion that the father left and now lives an exciting and full life, “larger-than-life” in their
Additionally for Amanda, the illusion doubles because she would also prefer to believe that her husband still lives at home and together, they raised their children and now they live as a whole and complete family. As another example of her illusions, Amanda continues to focus on her past, in particular, one story that both Laura and Tom know very well from the numerous times she tells it, “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountains-your mother received-seventeen!-gentleman callers…” (8). Living in her trapped and terrible condition, Amanda’s reminiscence of the past becomes so often and common, that she almost lives in her illusion of the past more than her present reality. As the reader later learns in the play, Amanda deceives herself of what actually happened in her past, since she never proved as popular as she believes. But worse than the misconception of what happened, Amanda lives in the fantasy that she remains as popular in the present and still expects gentleman callers. Finally, Williams writes Amanda speaking in the dialect of her youth, southern accents and abbreviation when Jim arrives, she says, “I think light things are better fo’ this time of year. Same as light