The Glass Menagerie Family Quotes

"A blown-up photograph of the father hangs on the wall of the living room, to the left of the archway. It is the face of a very handsome young man in a doughboy's First World War cap. He is gallantly smiling, ineluctably smiling, as if to say, "I will be smiling forever." (stage directions, Scene One).

There is a fifth character in the play who doesn't appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel. This is our father who left us a long time ago. He was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances; he gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the light fantastic out of town…

The last we heard of him was a picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, containing a message of two words: "Hello – Goodbye!" and no address. (1.1, Tom).

"Honey, don't push with your fingers. If you have to push something, the thing to push with is a crust of bread. And chew - chew! Animals have secretions in their stomach which enable them to digest food without mastication, but human beings are supposed to chew their food before they swallow it down. Eat food leisurely, son, and really enjoy it. A well-cooked meal has lots of delicate flavors that have to be held in the mouth for appreciation. So chew your food and give your salivary glands a chance to function!" (1.6, Amanda).

"I haven't enjoyed one bite of this dinner because of your constant directions on how to eat it. It's you that make me rush through meals with your hawklike attention to every bite I take. Sickening - spoils my appetite - all this discussion of - animals' secretion - salivary glands - mastication!" (1.7, Tom).

"You smoke too much." (1.10, Amanda). Amanda constantly harps on Tom with orders and complaints.

"I know what’s coming!"

`"Yes, but let her tell it."

"Again?"

"She loves to tell it."

(1.17-1.20, Tom and Laura).

"It isn’t a flood, it’s not a tornado, Mother. I’m just not popular like you were in Blue Mountain." (1.38, Laura).

Seeing her mother’s expression, Laura touches her lips with a nervous gesture. (Scene Two, stage directions).

"Oh! I felt so weak I could barely keep on my feet! I had to sit down while they got me a glass of water! Fifty dollars' tuition, all of our plans - my hopes and ambitions for you - just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that." (2.16, Amanda).

"Mother, when you’re disappointed, you get that awful suffering look on your face, like the picture of Jesus’ mother in the museum!" (2.31, Laura).

[in a tone of frightened apology]: "I'm crippled!"

"Nonsense, Laura, I've told you never, never to use that word. Why, you're not crippled, you just have a little defect - hardly noticeable, even! When people have some slight disadvantage like that, they cultivate other things to make up for it - develop charm - and vivacity - and - charm! That's all you have to do!" (2.47-2.50, Laura and Amanda).

"Don’t you use that—"

"—supposed to do!"

"—expression, Not in my—"

"Ohhh!"

"—presence! Have you gone out of your senses?"

"I have, that’s true, driven out!" (3.4-3.9, Amanda and Tom).

"You will hear more, you—"

"No, I won’t hear more, I’m going out!"

"You come right back in—"

"Out, out, out! Because I’m—"

"Come back here, Tom Wingfield! I’m not through talking to you!"

"Oh, go—"

[desperately]: "--Tom!" (3.22-3.28, Amanda, Tom, and Laura).

She crosses through the portieres and draws them together behind her. Tom is left with Laura. Laura clings weakly to the mantel with her face averted. Tom stares at her stupidly for a moment. Then he crosses to the shelf. He drops awkwardly on his knees to collect the fallen glass, glancing at Laura as if he would speak but couldn’t. (Scene Three, stage directions).

[beseechingly]: "Tom, speak to Mother this morning. Make up with her, apologize, speak to her!" (4.16, Laura)

A second later she cries out. Tom springs up and crosses to the door. Tom opens the door.

"Laura?"

"I'm all right. I slipped, but I'm all right." (Scene Four stage directions, 4.29, 4.30, Tom and Laura).

[hoarsely]: "Mother. I—I apologize, Mother."

Amanda draws a quick, shuddering breath. Her face works grotesquely. She breaks into childlike tears.

"I’m sorry for what I said, for everything that I said, I didn’t mean it."

[sobbingly]: "My devotion has made me a witch and so I make myself hateful to my children!" (4.32, Tom, Scene Four stage directions, 4.33, Amanda).

[with great enthusiasm]: "Try and you will succeed! [The notion makes her breathless.] Why, you – you’re just full of natural endowments! Both of my children—they’re unusual children! Don’t you think I know it? I’m so—proud! Happy and—feel I’ve—so much to be thankful for…" (4.39, Amanda).

"You can’t put in a day’s work on an empty stomach. You’ve got ten minutes—don’t gulp! Drinking too-hot liquids makes cancer of the stomach…Put cream in." (4.47, Amanda).

"We have to do all that we can to build ourselves up. In these trying times we live in, all that we have to cling to is—each other…" (4.51, Amanda).

"A few days ago I came in and she was crying."

"What about?"

"You."

"Me?"

"She has an idea that you’re not happy here." (4.55-4.59, Amanda and Tom).