The Wingfield Way

13 Pages 3293 Words

illiams 713-714). Amanda is obviously living a world of self-made illusions. Amanda believes that Laura’s “difference is all to her advantage,” but Laura’s self-isolation is hardly a characteristic for a mother to be proud of (Williams 713). Amanda also entertains the fantasy that her crippled daughter is going to have gentlemen callers knocking down her door. She repeatedly orders Laura to “stay fresh and pretty-for gentlemen callers” (Williams 696). According to Presley, “Laura’s role, as Amanda fantasizes it, is that of the southern belle” (35). In Laura’s twenty-six years she has never had a gentleman caller, but Amanda is so delusional she believes only a flood or a tornado could keep them from coming. Every time one of her children mentions Laura’s disability, Amanda quickly snaps back. She says things like “. . . you’re not crippled, you just have a little defect . . .” and “don’t say crippled—you know I never allow that word to be used” (Williams 701, 713). It seems as if the only person that...