Amanda Wingfield, the matriarch of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie means well, but she is so annoying to her son Tom, we can understand why he wants to leave home for good.
Check out her typical dinner conversation in this irritating monologue:
AMANDA (to her son): Honey, don’t push with your fingers. If you have to push with something, the thing to push with is a crust of bread. And chew—chew! Animals have sections in their stomachs which enable them to digest food without mastication, but human beings are supposed to chew their food before they swallow it down. Eat food leisurely, son, and really enjoy it. A well-cooked meal has lots of delicate flavors that have to be held in the mouth for appreciation. So chew your food and give your salivary glands a chance to function!
Can you imagine listening to that every night?! Tom doesn’t like it much either, and the monologue is followed by one of the play's many arguments.
Read more Mother Character Monologues.
