Nostalgia: Relive the Lost An essay on The Glass Menagerie

Nostalgia: Relive the Lost
Dr. Fred Davis once wrote of the nostalgia phenomenon saying, “It leads us to search among remembrances of persons and places of our past in an effort to bestow meaning upon persons and places of our present” (Davis, vii). Amanda Wingfield is a character whose entire being relies on this very definition of nostalgia and her past. Throughout the play, The Glass Menagerie, she is continuously searching for remembrances of her better days to reflect on with her children. The incessant theme of nostalgia in the Tennessee Williams’ play is significantly portrayed through Amanda’s continual flashbacks to the gentile southern lifestyle that she once wreaked of and is mirrored in the her expectations of her daughter, Laura Wingfield.
Amanda’s yearning for the past, in reality, is quite credible. The audience is continuously reminded of the luxurious, plantation-like lifestyle that she once lived and the presumably less-than-fantastic life she now leads. S...