Compare and Contrast of the Mothers in the Glass Menagerie Death of a Salesman

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 many chances to encourage her children's real talents. 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 is as emotionally helpless as his father. At the beginning, Linda tells Willy, when he feels confused and exhausted, "But you didn't rest your mind. Your mind is overactive and the mind is what counts" (Miller, Death of a Salesman, p. 1674). Here, Linda is on the right track, but only briefly. Soon afterward, she fails to note Willy's obviously exhausted and confused mental state when he says "Biff is a lazy bum" and then, a few lines later: "There's one thing about Biff -- he's not lazy" (p. 1674).

Linda spends her energy trying to keep Biff and Willy from fighting. Biff yearns to express himself earnestly to Willy, but Linda fears Biff's the truth to Willy, as Biff sees him, will only drive Willy deeper into despair. Instead, Linda chooses to delude Willy about everything, including his sons' true feelings about him: "Few men are idolized by their children the way you are" (p. 1688). Later, when Biff asks Linda how long Willy has been wandering outside talking to himself at night, and asks "Shouldn't we do something?" (p. 1696), Linda says, "Oh my dear, you should do a lot of things, but there's nothing to do, so go to sleep" (p. 1696). Like Amanda, but for different reasons, Linda finds it impossible to think objectively or to speak truthfully within, or about, her family. Although both Willy and Biff speak truthfully to Linda, she cannot speak truthfully about them.