A Mother’s Simple Wishes
-- Portraying Amanda’s Personality Onstage
Xueqing Sun
IB Literature & Performance--A
March 9, 2018
The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams, is a memory play describing the destructive lives of a family of a single mother and her two children in 1937, the year that the country was suffering Great Depression. I played Amanda, a mother who is always nagging to her son, Tom, and daughter, Laura. Tom Wingfield, the narrative of the memory and also the son of Amanda, is supposed to financially support his poor family, but he could not stand Amanda’s control. In the end, he left home and left his mother and crippled sister. Therefore, the relationship of Amanda and Tom is strained. We picked the scene six in act I and scene eight in act II to act out the relationship breakdown. In scene six in act I, Amanda chats with Tom, and then Tom tells her mom that he invited a gentleman caller to dinner. Amanda is surprised, and then she immediately plans the dinner. The other scene is after the dinner, after Amanda knows that the gentleman caller is already engaged. She is pretty mad at Tom’s uselessness and carelessness. From those two scenes, I will portray Amanda’s personality onstage.
Amanda in my first expression is annoying, because she talked too much, and the sentences she says are all redundant and repetitive. For example, when she hears Tom is smoking in the fire escape landing, she is nagging him that the money for smoking can support a night school class. At the beginning of scene six act 1, when Tom smokes in the fire escape, Amanda kept looking for the topics to continue the conversation, although Tom does not want to talk to Amanda. When Amanda talks about the waste of money on smoking, Tom says, “I just want to smoke;” when Amanda wants to talk about the wishes that they made on the moon, Tom just answers “Um-mm.” (Williams, 33) The nasal sound clearly shows that Tom is not in the mood to talk to Amanda, but Amanda keeps asking the question what the wishes he made, which is annoying.
Moreover, Amanda does what she thinks without respecting her son’s hobby. Amanda used to return the book that Tom borrowed to the library without Tom’s permission. Tom is so angry to her mother action, but her mother explains “I took that horrible novel back to the library-- that awful book by that insane Mr. Lawrence. I cannot control the output of a diseased mind or people who cater to them, but I won’t allow such filth in my house.”(Williams, 22). Every adjective word from the sentences showing above is full of negative and extreme disgust feelings. Amanda does not like the book, so she speaks forward. It is acceptable and understandable that the person has different opinions, but it is not proper to combat a person’s hobby and abuse the subject in front of the person who loves it and appreciate. For the action like Amanda does is absolutely egotism. It clearly demonstrates the arrogance and egotism of Amanda, and it also shows that how Amanda does not care others’ feelings. Therefore, the reasons for Amanda that breakdown of the relationship between Tom and Amanda is Amanda’s egotism and loquacity.
However, when I stood on Amanda’s side, a mother’s perspective, I found it Amanda is more than an egotist or a nagging person. In fact, the reason that she overreacts in those personalities is that she loves her son. In other words, she simply loves her son so much that she does not notice that she is at cross purpose. Firstly, she likes to talk to Tom. For Amanda, she notices Tom's impatience, but she still decides to leave the trouble alone and treats Tom as the past. From line said by Amanda when Tom slights over her, “Every time I want to know anything you start going on like that,” we can prove that Amanda can feel Tom’s impatience. (William, 35). Amanda feels Tom's disagreement and dissatisfaction a long time ago, which we can tell the evidence from the word “every time”. It means the same kind of conversations happened a lot, but Amanda still keeps asking questions and talking to Tom. The only reason for Amanda keeps doing the annoying things is that she is trying to get close to his son. She wants to know what his son is doing, so she is looking for him and asking him what he is looking at, and when they talk about wishes on the moon, she asks “what did you wish on the moon” twice, even after Tom gives her back a nasal sound.
When I played Amanda, I tried to cover two perspectives, one from the audience and one from a mother’s perspective. Therefore, I continued putting layers in the character building. The first layer would be the behavior and appearance, which is as simple as possible. I spoke a little bit quicker to show how Amanda is so outspoken and usually talks without hesitation. For example, when Jacob, my partner, said "He will come tomorrow," I responded immediately. I responded so fast that Jacob did not even fully pronounce the last consonant in the last word. I said, "Tomorrow? Oh, no, I can't do anything about tomorrow. I can't do anything about tomorrow" with a face with blame and anxiety. From the line, we can see that Amanda's line repeated twice, and this phenomenon actually is often in the book. I thought it was redundant at first, but then I realized that for the people who respond too fast or speaking without thinking, they do not even know what they are talking about. It is what a loquacious woman does. Based on this understanding, I spoke differently between the repeated lines. For the first repeated line, I said quickly with same facial expression, and then for the second repeated line, I slowed down my words and raised up my voice. The purpose of it is to show that I was not sure about the last sentence I said, so I verified by repeating the sentence words by words.
The second layer will be her inner thought. The first scene is more active and happier. I walked brightly in the first scene. When I came out at the beginning, I was wondering where Tom is. For this part, I was aimlessly walking and looking. After Tom response, I felt slightly happy and walk quickly to him with small skips, because I, as Amanda, would love to see what my son is doing. When I kept asking Jacob how soon the gentleman caller will come, Jacob holds the answer back and I was mad at him. I turned my back to him when I said “Every time I want to know anything you start going on like that,” to show that I do not want to talk to him anymore. However, when Jacob, Tom, answered, I immediately spoke to him and did not show any anger. Then, it can demonstrate I am not really angry with him.
In addition, facial expression can also help to improve the contradictions. Acting in the last scene focuses on Amanda’s inner thought more because it is also the tragic ending in the book where Amanda cannot bare Tom’s indifference and rebellion. The last scene is set in the party and then the family receives the bad news. The party should be full of joy and hope, and it really is at the beginning. When the family gets the news, the atmosphere immediately drops into a freezing state from an exciting state. Therefore, the argument happened between Amanda and Tom next is probably the argument without temper restrain or logic. Especially for Amanda, she already has a bad communication skill, and now she loses her temper, so the lines she said definitely does not from her willingness. In other words, she complains, blams, and then she lost Tom. To act out the unwillingness, I not only emphasize the impetuous feeling of crying, shouting, sobbing, and hitting Jacob, but also added a few actions after the last line of the scene. After my last line and also the last line of the argument, “Go, then! Then go to the moon--, you selfish dreamer!” Jacob turned the back to me and exited.(William, 67). I stepped forward and wanted to grab him, but I failed, so I just stood where Jacob left with sobbing. For a few seconds, I used my right hand that I wanted to grab him to cover my mouth, and I ran off the stage from the other side. It is a series feeling changes from anger to regret and then to deep sadness. I used my fist to hit on Jacob’s chest to release my anger, and then I reached out my hand trying to urge him to stay, but I failed, so I withdrew my arm and covered my mouth by hand. There was no word but gesture language. The staging light was dim, and slow blues revealed the tragic ending.
The music was picked for the scene fitted the most. There were two pieces of music, one is called Young and Foolish, which is used in the scene six act I and the other music is called Some, which is used in scene eight act II. They are all in jazz and blues style because 1937 was the year after Harlem Renaissance which is the period a lot of famous art and music work were created in African-American culture. Jazz and blues are originated from Africa. For the first jazz, Young and Foolish is played by piano, bass, and percussion to show a leisurely environment. It can add relax feeling to the conversation between Amanda and Tom. However, for the second music, Some, is quite sad. It is only played by the piano in a stagnant tempo. The music was played at the beginning of scene eight, which it is even before the argument. I wanted to play the music earlier to foreshadowing the tragic ending is going to happen. Amanda and Tom would both regret what they said in the argument, but they could prevent the tragedy.
Through all the performance, I kept in mind that a mother can never be angry and disappointed for her children. Even if a mother shows the mood, the mood is temporary. I pay much attention to the acting and emotion expression. However, I was so nervous that I did not remember the lines for few seconds. I will also focus on memorization on the next performance. Overall, it is a great performance we had.
Work Cited
Tennessee Williams. The Glass Menagerie. Dramatists Play Service INC., 1976. March 9, 2018
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