Weaknesses and Strengths of Characters in The Glass Menagerie In an interview, Tennessee Williams once said, "I've always been more interested in creating a character that contains something paralyzed. .. They have a certain appearance of fragility, these neurotic people I write about, but they are really strong." In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the characters' strengths and weaknesses are at the heart of the work. There have been several critics who have raised interesting points regarding this topic. Critic Judith J. Thompson believes that Amanda's "'Great Mother' embodiment" is blinded by her weakness of an unrealistic world (p. 17). She states that the character of Amanda is made up of “the Good Mother, the Terrible Mother, the seductive young witch, and the innocent virgin” (Thompson 17). He supports his theory with the incident where Amanda says she received seventeen gentlemen in one day. Thompson goes on to say that “the exaggeration of the number of Amanda's suitors is reminiscent of romantic fairy tales and legends in which the princess is besieged by suitors until the ideal knight or prince returns” (17). Here, Thompson shows that Amanda's weakness is living in a sort of dream world that overwhelms her intentions of being a "Great Mother" (Thompson 17). A second critic, Joseph K. Davis, believes that Laura's weakness surpasses her ability to be sensitive. Davis divides the dramatic scheme of The Glass Menagerie into two parts. Part of the scheme is “the dramatization of men and women through the display of their fragmented and tortured psychologies” (Davis 192). She states in her analysis of The Glass Menagerie: "His [Tom's] sister Laura tries to live in the present, but her paralyzed body and bleak prospects in secretarial school have overwhelmed her fragile sensibilities" (194). Davis implies that, like Amanda, Laura's weakness consumes her ability to live in reality and her sensitivity, her only strength. A third critic, Tom Scanlan, believes that Tom's weakness is outweighed by his strength. Tom is easily trapped and persuaded into situations he may or may not want to be, which weakens his character, but his strength is greater than this weakness. The critic states that "Tom's reappearance as narrator brings the reader back to the present" (Scanlan 99). It shows the reader that Tom's strength is his ability to stay in touch with reality.