The Glass Menagerie: Internal Conflicts

     In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, there are internal conflicts in all of the characters.  Williams does this so they each have their own personal struggle.  Amanda's, specifically, cannot particularly be changed.  The parts that can still be influenced are that she wants the best for her children and she wants them to be successful.  This shows through her push of getting Laura to her typewriter class and strongly suggesting that Tom should go to night school.  What she cannot change is her failed marriage.  She cannot change the fact that her husband left her.  She tries to cope with this by recreating her courting days with Laura.  Amanda says, " 'This is the dress in which I led the cotillion.  Won the cakewalk twice at Sunset Hill, wore one spring to the Governor's Ball in Jackson!  See how I sashayed around the ballroom, Laura'?" (Williams, 1263-1264).  Amanda puts her old courting dress back on to feel young again and to pretend that her life is not over.