Discussion Topic
Conflicts and Family Dynamics in The Glass Menagerie
Summary:
The Glass Menagerie explores the conflicts within the Wingfield family, driven by personal desires clashing with harsh realities. Amanda struggles with her past and current status, living in a fantasy to escape her economic struggles and failed marriage. Laura retreats into her own world to avoid confronting her insecurities. Tom seeks freedom from family obligations, causing tension with his mother Amanda, who imposes her aspirations on her children. These inner conflicts create familial tension and drive the narrative.
What are the conflicts and the setting in Act 1, Scene 1 of The Glass Menagerie?
The Glass Menagerie has three main characters: there is a mother and her two children. The mother is Amanda; she has a daughter named Laura and a son named Tom. Tom introduces and narrates the play.
The conflicts in this play have various sources. One set of conflicts comes from what an individual character wants and and can't attain. So, ask yourself: What does Tom want and can't get? What does Amanda want and can't get? What does Laura want and can't get?
Another set of conflicts comes from conflicts between preople. Are there any conflicts between the individual characters? Between the siblings? Between Amanda and her children?
As to the setting of this play: where and when does the play take place? This is answered on the first page and in the summary. Is it in a city or in the country? A house or an apartment? Is the...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
family rich or poor?
If you are having trouble reading the play itself, click on the links below, and read the enotes summary of the play and the descriptions of the characters.
Good luck.
What are the main conflicts in The Glass Menagerie?
A major conflict in The Glass Menagerie is that of fantasy versus reality. Amanda does not want to live in reality because it is too harsh for her to deal with, so she reverts to fantasies that buttress her damaged ego and help keep her hopes alive in a desperate situation. Laura also retreats into a fantasy world where she doesn't have to deal with her mother or her own sense of inadequacy as a "cripple."
Amanda was raised to marry, like most women of her era, and to depend on her husband to support her, but this path is shattered when her husband abandons the family. She has also been used to middle-class comfort, but this reality is shattered by the Great Depression and the lack of opportunities for an uneducated woman to make a living in this context. Her notion of what life should be is in constant conflict with the reality she is forced to face.
Another conflict in the play is Tom's desire for freedom from a dysfunctional family running up against the reality that he is the main financial support of his mother and sister. He wants to get away from his mother and the pressure of the past that is ever present living with her, but he knows this will leave the women in a terrible predicament.
A third conflict is the societal expectations placed on women in this period to be gracious wives and mothers, which runs up against the reality of economic needs. It is easy to fault Amanda for being a manipulative martyr who drove her husband away as she does her son, but we might also see her as a character in conflict with circumstances that leave her with few choices and unequipped for life.
In The Glass Menagerie, what inner conflicts create tension in the family?
It is Tom Wingfield's inner conflict that creates the major tension in the family and functions as the driving conflict in the play. Tom is torn between his responsibility to his mother and sister and his desires and dreams. Working at a mind-numbing factory job, Tom longs for a life that takes him into the world, far beyond the dingy walls of his family's Depression-era St. Louis apartment. His frustrations are reflected in his desire to write and his attempts to escape his reality by drinking and going to the movies. Tom does not suffer in silence; his restlessness and resentment poison his relationship with his mother and often frighten and distress his sister.
Amanda's inner conflict is less evident than her external conflicts with Tom and Laura. There is some evidence, however, that Amanda does not enjoy seeing Tom "held prisoner" in their home. She thinks a gentleman caller for Laura would be the means through which Tom can claim the life he wants. Her recognition of her son's needs conflicts with her fear of abandonment. Amanda functions in the mode of economic survival. Her absent husband's picture hanging in the apartment reminds her daily that Tom is the family's only financial support.
Laura's internal conflict exists between her fear of disappointing her mother and her inability to function in the world. The incident in which Amanda spends precious funds to send Laura to business school reveals Laura's emotional turmoil in this regard. Laura understands the sacrifice, but she simply cannot bear to do what her mother wants her to do. She drops out, but keeps her actions from Amanda, until the truth is revealed.
In The Glass Menagerie's first scene, who causes the family tension and how?
In this scene we see the underlying tension in the Wingfield household rise to the surface as the family sits at dinner. Amanda almost immediately reprimands Tom for his lack of table manners and Tom responds with extreme irritation, abruptly leaving the table. This is the first instance of many in which Amanda and Tom are seen to be at war with one another.
A second cause of tension arises when Amanda brightly tells Laura not to bother with the dishes, as she has to ‘stay fresh and pretty’ in case any young man comes to call on her. Laura points out that she’s not expecting any, but Amanda completely disregards this and goes on to blithely recall how she used to receive callers in her youth:
One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain your mother received – seventeen! gentleman callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t enough chairs to accommodate them all. (scene 1)
This long-ago social triumph, when she was absolutely swamped with suitors, evidently remains engraved on Amanda’s memory, but she completely ignores the fact that her daughter Laura, by contrast, doesn’t expect or want any gentleman callers.
This scene introduces the two main causes of conflict in the Wingfield family. Amanda is at odds with both her son and daughter. She continually nags at Tom to better himself and improve his prospects, and also to find a suitable husband for Laura. She also tries to push the unwilling Laura into becoming the kind of bright, popular girl that she was herself.
Amanda is not solely responsible for creating the tensions within the family, but in this first scene, and generally throughout the play, she is the one who causes these tensions to flare up. She is always trying to foist her ideas and plans onto her children without really stopping to listen to what they want.