Illusions and denial in "The Glass Managerie" by Tennessee Williams

As human beings we all indulge in illusions and escape mechanisms. In "The Glass Menagerie" Tennessee Williams presents us with a family that exhibits this very human tendency to escape reality and avoid unhappiness. Unfortunately in the end, we see that for the Wingfield family these survival mechanisms can be more destructive than helpful.
Amanda Wingfield, the mother, lives in the popularity of her past. She is a single mother living in poverty during the Great Depression with two adult children. Yet she continues to think and behave as if she were the pampered southern belle of her ch…