The Glass Menagerie Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Scene.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a big long monologue.

Quote #10

"After the fiasco at Rubicam’s Business college, the idea of getting a gentlemen caller for Laura began to play a more important part in mother’s calculations. It became an obsession. Like some archetype of the universal unconscious, the image of the gentleman caller haunted our small apartment…" (3.1, Tom).

Just as Tom pursues escape, an ultimately unobtainable goal, so Amanda pursues what is eventually unobtainable as well: a husband for Laura.

Quote #11

Now we see Amanda; her hair is in metal curlers and she is wearing a very old bathrobe, much too large for her slight figure, a relic of the faithless Mr. Wingfield. (Scene Three, stage directions).

Amanda’s failed marriage is ever-present throughout the play, adding to her desperation to find a husband for Laura.

Quote #12

"There’s so many things in my heart that I cannot describe to you! I’ve never told you but I—loved your father…"

[gentle]: "I know that, Mother." (4.61, 4.62, Amanda and Tom).

For Amanda, marriage is not necessarily associated with love.