The Glass Menagerie: Absent Amanda

After reading The Glass Menagerie, a play by Tennessee Williams, I noticed the presence of dramatic irony in the Scene Seven of the play. In the final encounter between Amanda and her son Tom, Amanda yells at him for once again avoiding the family and going to the movies. She yells, “You don’t know things anywhere! You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions!” (Williams, 1288). This statement is terribly ironic, as Amanda was the character who consistently created her own illusions throughout the entire play. Although Tom did write poetry and wish to escape his overbearing mother, he did not lose himself in the past like Amanda, who devoted her time to childhood memories. Tom wished to create a better future for himself, where he could make his own decisions and escape the ditch he was stuck in. Furthermore, Tom’s dream is proven to not be an illusion, as he does leave his mother and his sister in search of a better life. However, Amanda is still trying to live vicariously through her daughter Laura, dreaming up the gentlemen callers that flocked to her door during her youth. These flashbacks to the past prove that the character who is really living in a dream and manufacturing illusions is Amanda.