Themes of the Glass Menagerie The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is the story of the Wingfield family, Amanda, the mother, Tom, the son, and Laura, the daughter. Wingfield's story is one in which there are many underlying themes that each character experiences throughout the play. This essay will thoroughly explore the themes, the difficulty in accepting reality, the impossibility of true escape, and the relentless power of memory, as well as each character's abandonment issues left behind by Mr. Wingfield. One of the main themes in the Glass Menagerie is the difficulty in accepting reality. This is demonstrated by every member of the Wingfield family. In Amanda's case, she often seems stuck in the past and constantly recalls events from her youth. Terry Teachout describes Amanda in The Irrelevant Masterpiece as someone who "longs to retreat into her own dreams of her genteel Southern youth" (59). Amanda often compares Laura to herself when she was younger, telling stories of the night she attracted seventeen gentlemen as if she expected Laura to be capable of doing the same. Amanda has a very strong influence on Laura and appears very domineering. Eric P. Levy states that she "transforms her daughter into a mirror in which her flattering self-image is reflected, but to do so she must first transform herself or, more precisely, her judgment, into a mirror that reflects Laura's limitations " (530). This refers to Amanda's inability to accept that Laura is not like her and is handicapped, due to one leg being shorter than the other, which in turn makes her very self-conscious and shy. Levy goes on to say, "Amanda despises Laura's appearance even as she praises it." (530). Amanda then goes on to tell Laura... middle of paper... love, hope and, ultimately, pain." Her constant comparison of her experiences with gentlemen who call her and Laura's inability to attract one is indicative of her inability to let go and move on. Comedy, Amanda recalls the story of the seventeen gentlemen who called and how they were "some of the most important young planters in the Mississippi Delta." proudest in life. Writer Eric P. Levy says the following about Amanda's role in this theme: "But the limiting power of that past comes from her mother's nostalgic attachment to her more distant past and desperate need to exploit motherhood as a means to revive “the legend of her youth” (Levy 529). The memories haunt Tom and Amanda because they are about to be truly happy. Acting almost like an anchor that prevents them from living life as they imagine.