Amanda Wingfield and Linda Loman
Comparing and Contrasting Mothers in Tennessee Williams's the Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Two plays from the 1940's, Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), although much different in tone and content, both have female characters who want only the best for their families, yet live completely in the past. Amanda recalls her youth filled with "gentlemen callers," and cannot see Laura's (or Tom's) strengths and talents. Linda avoids confronting Willy about his plan to kill himself. Both refuse to see their families as they are. In this essay, I will compare and contrast Amanda and Linda, in terms of their hopes and wishes for, and treatment of, their families.
As Tennessee Williams describes Amanda Wingfield in the List of Characters, "Amanda, having failed to establish contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions" (The Glass Menagerie, p. 1541). The play is narrated by Tom, who plays a dual role of narrator and major character. We see Amanda through his eyes: she is motherly yet overbearing; concerned yet controlling. She is also quite talkative and explicit in her conversation (although she does not listen well to others). As she tells Tom at dinner, for example "chew your food and give your salivary glands a chance to function!" (p.1544).
Amanda talks at Tom and Laura, not with them. Consequently, she misses...
Tom craves excitement, adventure, and variety. Yet instead of encouraging Tom to find a creative channel for these restless yearnings, Amanda disparages them. Early on, Laura admits she has cut class:
I went in the art museum and the birdhouses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and went to the movies!
Lately I've been spending most of my afternoons in . . . that big glass housed where they raise the tropical flowers. (p.1548)
Here, Laura signals interest in art; animals; film; and raising flowers. But all Amanda can say is: "You did all this to deceive me, just for the deception?" (p. 1548). She is totally self-centered in her disappointment, and not thinking at all about Laura herself, or what Laura's true interests are or what she might actually enjoy doing. Consumed as she is by self-pity, and stuck in her past, Amanda cannot see either Tom or Laura as separate human beings, independent from herself.
Linda Loman, Willy's long-suffering wife in Death of a Salesman, although less out of touch than Amanda, is unable to confront Willy, the most important person in her life, about the depth of his misery, or his plan to commit suicide. When Linda finds evidence in the garage of Willy's plan, instead of insisting that Willy level with her, and then should seek outside help, Linda merely confides Willy's suicide plan to Biff, who…
