The Wingfields are a family whose social status has declined along with its financial status. For the two young adult children, the vision of an unpromising future is just as burdensome as their current poverty-line subsistence. For the mother, however, the decline is disastrous because she is plagued with the memory of her privileged upbringing.
Amanda, the mother, was raised in a well-to-do family in an era when upper-class girls were strongly discouraged from developing any practical skills. Such girls were expected to marry well, into a family at least as wealthy and well-connected as their own. Amanda did not do so; she married an irresponsible dreamer. His impracticality combined with the extreme reversals of the Depression spelled disaster, and he abandoned the family.
As Amanda has slowly reconciled herself to the fact of her financial limitations, she tries to earn some income. She has imparted to her children, however, the idea of superior status; she cannot see how much more difficult this notion makes their lives. Because she cannot acknowledge that there were any flaws in her upbringing or in the society that encouraged that way of life, she tries to make her children feel like failures.
Laura has internalized this criticism and, the playwright suggests, will be unable to provide for herself. If Amanda cannot increase her earnings after Tom leaves, the women will become dependent on social services. Tom both engages in wage labor and formulates a vision of personal success that requires him to extricate himself from his mother's tenacious, nostalgic grip.
As a family unit, Tom, Laura, and Amanda are first impacted by the Great Depression through the departure of Amanda's husband (Tom and Laura's father). Unraveled by the collapsed economy, Amanda's husband chooses to execute a "poor man's divorce" by leaving his family with no advanced warning.
This action forces Tom into a position of tremendous responsibility within the family, and he takes a job at a shoe warehouse in order to financially support his mother and sister. Meanwhile, his real dream is to be a poet. This interest in the arts seems to serve as a mental escape from the tedious nature of his work and the burden of his role as the breadwinner. The pressure of this situation eventually becomes too much to bear, and Tom chooses to escape this limited life by leaving his home behind.
The financial peril of the family also impacts Amanda, who remains greatly affected by the departure of her husband. Amanda cannot make enough money working at the magazine to support her children. With Tom already working, she attempts to force Laura to take a business class and actively scopes out a suitable husband for the girl, eventually idolizing Jim as the man who will save them from their dire situation. The revelation that Jim is actually already engaged becomes a devastating blow to Amanda, who lashes out at Tom in anger; in a way, this experience mirrors the disappointment she faces in her abandonment at the hands of her husband.
Meanwhile, Laura must cope with her mother's intense pressure, her brother's dissatisfaction, and the weight of her own disability. Due to her intense introversion, self-consciousness, and dependence on her family, Laura becomes increasingly alienated from the outside world. This is a problem that is only psychologically worsened by the impact of the Great Depression and the attitude of scarcity that prevailed at the time. She becomes complicit in the search for a spouse simply to unburden Tom; she does not want to live off of his earnings for the rest of her life, knowing that this responsibility is suffocating him. As a dropout, a female, and a physically limited person, Laura has very few prospects in the world, and marriage is her only real option for financial stability.
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