Amanda Wingfield in the play The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, was portrayed as a distraught Southern belle trying to control her children's lives. In The Glass Menagerie Amanda is the matriarch of her small family who at first appears to be a woman who cares about her children's future, before becoming so overbearing that she begins to hinder her children's future. Amanda was a single mother who could never grasp reality. The Glass Menagerie was a memory game about a family trapped in destructive patterns. After being abandoned by her husband sixteen years earlier, Amanda was caught between two completely different worlds; worlds of illusion and reality. It seemed that when the world got too hard or harsh for Amanda, she simply closed her eyes and pretended nothing was wrong. When the real world became overwhelming for Amanda, she remembered the days of her youth and how great they were. This was simply a way for Amanda to stay optimistic and stay out of reality. Amanda made the relationship between her and her children very difficult because she never tried to understand her children's different personalities. Amanda was forced to try to shape her children's lives as she wanted them, rather than letting them choose and lead their own lives. The way Amanda helped the children did not allow her to connect with them in the way each of them needed. Because of his one-sided opinion, he did not see that Laura was a shy girl with low self-esteem and needed a mother to show her how to behave in public and that Tom simply needed to change jobs and have someone to talk to. . Tom eventually left home because he realized his weak relationship... middle of paper... and fled the unrealistic world their mother had set for them. Works CitedAls, Hilton. "GLASS HOUSES". New Yorker 81.7 (04 April 2005): 102-103. Academic research completed. EBSCO. December 29, 2008DiSchiavi, Michael. "Tennessee Williams' Women in a Man's World." Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 15.4 (July 2008): 18-18. LGBT life with full text. EBSCO. 28 December 2008. Fambrough, Preston. "Williams's GLASS MENAGERIE." Explainer 63.2 (Winter 2005 2005): 100-102. Academic research completed. EBSCO. January 3, 2009. Schwarzbaum, Lisa. "Belle Weathered." Entertainment Weekly (April 2005): 77-77. Canadian reference centre. EBSCO. January 2, 2009. Smith, Sean. "HEART OF 'GLASS'." Newsweek 145.13 (March 28, 2005): 50-51. Canadian reference centre. EBSCO. January 4, 2009. Williams, Tennessee. The glass menagerie. New York: Penguin Group,1987