But Amanda is full of other paradoxes. She wants only the best for her children, but then she fails to understand that what they most want is quite different from what she wants for them. She does gear her whole life toward their happiness because she doesn't want them to make the same mistakes that she made and yet in devoting herself to them, she has made herself overbearing and nagging.
Amanda's refusal to see that her children are quite different from her causes her many uncomfortable moments. She cannot understand why Laura cannot develop charm and gaiety but Amanda's idea of charm differs vastly from that of Laura's idea. Amanda can, at any moment, turn on a volley of chatter, be exceptionally lively and gay; Laura, on the other hand, lives in a quiet, sensitive world.
But Amanda possesses strong attributes. She does devote herself to her children. She does possess a great determination and strength. Many women could not have survived under the same situation. When she thinks a gentleman caller is coming, she sets herself to the task of preparation with a determination that cannot be equaled in her children.
If, in the final analysis, she is seen as giddy and frivolous, it is because life has passed her by. When her husband deserted her, she found herself faced with an empty and meaningless life. She then began to fabricate things with which to fill her life. She devoted herself too much to her children and began to live through her children. Since she was reliving her own life, she failed to understand the different personalities that her children possessed and ended up driving Tom away from home.
Thus Amanda is a person who lives alternately between a world of illusion and a world of reality. This fluctuation between these two worlds is her only defense against the boredom and emptiness of living.
