'The
Glass Menagerie' (1944) by Tennessee Williams and the 'Death of a Salesman' (1949) by Arthur
Miller are considered to be two of most important plays of twentieth century
American theatre. Written in the same decade, both of the plays delve into two
different families and relationship between its members. The mother-son
relationship in these two families is interesting to study, because it shares
many similarities and differences. Though there are many gaps, both of the
plays involve similar role of mothers toward sons of similar nature.
In 'The Glass Menagerie', Amanda Wingfield
is the mother, and Tom Wingfiled is her son. The dramatist describes Amanda as
"a little woman of great, but confused vitality… She is not paranoiac, but
her life is paranoia." Her age is
not given in the play. She has already lost her husband, thus is solely
responsible for family and children. The son Tom is of poetic nature, and works
in a warehouse. He is dissatisfied with his current life and seeks changes. He
also acts as a narrator of the play. Besides Tom, she has a daughter named
Laura.
Linda Loman is
the mother figure in the 'Death of a Salesman'. She is wife of the salesman,
Willy Loman. She has two sons: Biff (aged 34) and Happy (aged 32). The
playwright has not mentioned about her age. Without definitive independent
role, she acts as a peacemaker in her family – mediates between the father
Willy and sons Biff and Happy. Biff and
Happy most of the times appear together in the play and they share on values
and beliefs too. They have dissatisfactions with their lives, and desire for
some changes.
Both Amanda and
Linda are very much concerned with their responsibilities toward family and
children. As Amanda has already lost her husband, she has no any option but to
be a stronger parent. She cares her children too much: Tom and Laura; she is
seen suggesting them what to do and what not time and again. In comparison, Linda has husband, but he is
less efficient and less interested in household issues; he is a kind of 'living
dead'. Thus it requires Linda to be as caring and active as Amanda in her
family. When Willy dies at the end of the play, Linda's situation as a mother
is exactly similar to Amanda in 'The
Glass Menagerie'.
Both have
attainable and unattainable expectations from their sons. They try to reinforce
their expectations into the children so that they will fulfill it and make them
happy. However, what is interesting is that both mothers are directly
manipulated by expectations of their husbands. Linda expects something from
Biff and Happy only when she needs to make Willy happy for his sons.
Independently she doesn't have any expectation that is different from
expectations from her husband. Though Amanda's husband is absent on stage, his
influence can still be reflected into expectations of his wife. In fact, this
is the reason why the big photograph of the father is hanged on the wall. Tom,
introducing characters as a narrator, considers the larger-than-life photograph
to be "the fifth character" of the play. In this sense, though both
mothers are seen to be in close contacts with their children; they are more
mediums to connect their husbands with their children, than independent mothers
themselves.
In 'The Glass Menagerie', Amanda asks Tom
to bring a gentleman caller for Laura. In the beginning, Tom is also obedient
to her mother and wants to make her happy, thus invites Jim O'Connor as a
gentleman caller. But when Jim is found to be already engaged with another
girl, Amanda scolds Tom for catching a wrong man. For her, Tom then becomes a
man, who does "live in a dream and manufacture illusions". In
response, Tom also feels too much tensed under the mother's expectations and
decides to leave home. This is the main piece of the play where we can portray
mother-son relationship in the Wingfield family.
Even earlier,
there are frequent disagreements. Amanda never likes Tom's habits of smoking
and movie-going. She always complains about it: "You smoke too much. A
pack a day at fifteen cents a pack." and "Not to the movies, every
night to the movies! I don't believe you always go to the movies!" She
asks for Tom's promise not to be a drunkard. At another time, Tom expresses
that her mother is not happy with his plans about future that he would leave
home. Yet at another point of time, Tom scolds his mother so fiercely that it
resulted into no talk between them for many days. Amanda becomes so upset that
she never talks to Tom until he apologizes.
In 'Death of a Salesman', Linda acts much
like in the same way. As said earlier, she is much like just a mediator between
Willy and Happy and Biff. She always talks only about positive qualities of the
sons – strengths, achievements and dreams – with Willy, but not weaknesses and
failures, even if he is all the time possessed with pessimism about them. Linda
also has many worries for her sons, and asks them to do this and not do that
like Amanda. She wants her sons to be moral and honest. When she finds that
Biff stole a ball, she suggests "he'd better give back that football… it's
not nice." She also doesn't like Biff's rough nature that "all the
mothers are afraid of him." She is upset when Biff flunks math exam and
asks Willy to talk to the teacher to settle the problem. In very similar role
like Amanda, she makes Biff promise to stay at home and make the father happy.
Whenever there is dispute between father and sons, she speaks up for the sons
despite the fact that Willy time and again threatens her not to interrupt. Until the end of the play, she tries to bring
her sons in good relation to their father.
Linda is so
happy when there is talk about her sons' success in career, even if there is no
possibility or guarantee of its success in real life. She promises "a big
breakfast" if Biff gets Oliver's job back. Her relation with the sons initially
seems stronger and better than Amanda. It can be justified when she has a long
conversation with the sons about the father's feelings toward them. Her sons
seem helpful to her as well. Biff, for example, takes the rubber tube off from
the place where Willy can find it and try suicide. In fact, Linda wanted it to
be removed, but couldn't do it herself to avoid Willy's notice that she knows
the suicidal attempts. And, finally Biff makes it happen as wished by Linda.
She scolds her
sons only once throughout the play when they leave their father alone in the
restaurant; but that is so strong that it brings shift in their relationships.
She asks, "Don't you care whether he lives or dies?" It also can't be
taken negatively because she wants her sons to be responsible toward family.
One interesting
example of expectation that both mothers share with their sons is request to
comb hair. In 'The Glass Menagerie',
Amanda in Scene 5 asks Tom, "Comb your hair. You look so pretty when your
hair is combed!" In the similar tone, Linda during the phone call by Biff
says, "You got your comb? That's fine." This fact also represents other
similar expectations from both of the mothers.
Both 'The Glass Menagerie' and the 'Death of a Salesman' end with the
similar situation – the mother-son tension reaches the climax, and they get
separated. In 'The Glass Menagerie', Tom can not resist pressure from Amanda thus
leaves the home. In 'Death of a Salesman',
Biff (and Happy too) already have a plan to leave home. On this very issue,
Biff argues with Willy at the end of Act II, which ultimately leads to suicide
of Willy and emotional separation between Linda and Biff. After Willy committed
suicide, Biff has physically joined the funeral and mourning, but he seems
emotionally absent. In both of the plays, what happens next regarding the
mother-son relationship is absolutely uncertain.
This is not
argued that there is zero disparity between mother-son relationships of these
two plays. Of course, there are. Linda-Biff-Happy relationship is far happier
than Amanda-Tom relationship. The Linda-Biff-Happy bond is destroyed only at
the end, otherwise it is always connected. On the other hand, the Amanda-Tom
bond never has true emotional connections except in some exceptional
situations. Amanda in 'The Glass
Menagerie' is stronger than Linda in 'Death
of a Salesman'. Similarly, Biff in 'Death
of a Salesman' is stronger than Tom in 'The
Glass Menagerie'. However there is limited number of differences. And, from
a closer view there lies similar relationships in two different families.
Both 'The Glass Menagerie' and 'Death of a Salesman' are family
tragedies. They explore similar kinds of family relationships. In particular,
mother-son relationship is a shared element of the play. Though between two
mother-son relationships one appears happy and another sad in the beginning,
both end with the tension. Thus, both of the plays suggest similar nature of
mother-son relationship.
goruntulu show
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