Amanda has chosen to hide from reality by trying to relive her past. She is living in the unreality of her youthful memories and sees herself as still being as young as Laura when she says to her, ?No, sister, no, sister ? you be the lady this time and I?ll be the darkey? (p 237). She reminisces about ?one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain? (p 237) when she received seventeen gentleman callers, and then tries to relive this through Laura. She arranges for Tom to bring home some nice young man for his sister. When Tom brings home a gentleman caller, Amanda wears ?a girlish frock of yellowed voile

with a blue silk sash? (p 276), the dress that she wore as a girl for her own gentleman callers. The reader can see from this that Amanda is definitely living in the past. Another way that Amanda hides from reality is that she tries to deny anything that she does not want to accept. She denies that Laura is crippled, saying ?Nonsense! Laura, I?ve told you never, never to use that word.? (p 247). Amanda believes that if she denies something so much, that it will not be true. This also occurs when Laura thinks that the gentleman caller will be her high school crush, and Amanda denies that it could be, ?It won?t be him! It isn?t the least bit likely.? (p 278). It is in these ways that Amanda Wingfield hides from reality.

Laura Wingfield has chosen to hide from reality in the play The Glass Menagerie. She seems to live in a world of her own, and hides from everything and everyone outside of the apartment. Laura is terrified of anything new or different. Her mother sent her to business college, but Laura was so afraid that ?The first time [they] gave a speed-test, she broke down completely ? was sick at the stomach and almost had to be carried into the wash ?room.? (p 243). Laura uses her limp as an excuse to hide from the world. She believes that her slight limp makes her crippled and that she cannot be a part of the real world because of it. Laura?s glass menagerie and the victrola act as things which protect her from the real world in the play. Whenever she is uncertain or afraid, Laura reaches for one of these two things for comfort. When she finds out that Jim is engaged, and won?t come to see her again, ?she rises unsteadily and crouches beside the victrola to wind it up.? (p 307). The glass menagerie represents Laura to some extent, as she is fragile,

Some topics in this essay:
Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams, Blue Mountain, Tom Wingfield, Doing Tom, Laura Ive, Straight Bourbon, Merchant Seamen, glass menagerie, Hello Goodbye, real world, hide reality, chosen hide, chosen hide reality, Laura Wingfield, play glass, play glass menagerie, hides reality, hide reality play, wingfield family, reality play, wingfield hides, wingfield chosen, wingfield chosen hide, wingfield hides reality,