The Glass Menagerie- father's impact

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Impact of father

Although Tom and Laura’s father is not a character in The Glass Menagerie, he does have a prominent impact on the characters in the play. There is a large picture of the father in the apartment. This picture symbolizes the constant reminder of the father’s impact on the family’s life. Moreover, when things go wrong, Amanda always blames the problem her husband, even though he is not present in her family’s life anymore. Amanda uses her husband as an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for her actions. Tom’s mother constantly compares him to his father. Moreover, Tom constantly threatens to leave the house because his job makes him unhappy and he is constantly getting into arguments with Amanda. She is paranoid that Tom will end up just like his father. Tom is similar to his father in the sense he seeks adventure. Despite Amanda talking negatively about her husband, Tom followed in his father’s path. For example, “I descended the steps of this fire-escape for the last time and followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space—I traveled around a great deal,” (Williams, 1288). Despite Amanda’s efforts to keep Tom from being like his father, he turned out to be just like him.