The Glass Menagerie: Amanda, the Hypocrite

Right from the beginning of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, I got the impression that Amanda was a selfish person. If not selfish, she is just self centered, and mainly concerned with her own well being. In Scene 1, she is obsessed with the memories of her own gentleman callers and how's my there were. She seems to live in the last because she isn't pleased with her present. She also skirts around the issue at hand, Laura's lack of confidence and dropping out of school, with selfish concerns. She says, "We won't have a business career-- we've given that up because it have us nervous indigestion!". By including herself in this statement with the use of the word "we", Amanda illustrates her main frustration with Laura is that she cannot support her mother, she is dependent so the only source of income for the family is Tom who loathes his job. Then in Scene 4, Amanda tells a Tom, "Overcome selfishness! Self, self, self is that you ever think of!" Amanda's statement here is quite ironic because she could easily be talking about herself. She is guilty of always being concerned withe herself, but blames Tom for this anyways.