ind. All the characters seem to separate themselves from the cruel realities of their lives. Their efforts to escape serve only to distract them from their problems. Laura has come to a understanding degree of self interest as a dependent sad girl. Tom still faces a dead end life, though he runs away to find his dream. Amanda still has no means to support herself and Laura remains beset by a past colored by fantasy. While Jim leaves the stage, we wonder if he ever leaves the warehouse. The comical relief is when Amanda accuses Tom of going out drinking every night. Tom creates a humorous story about how "Killer, Killer Wingfield spends his nights in opium dens, dens of vice and criminals' hangouts." By agreeing with his mother and turning the argument into a form of exaggeration, Tom wants to protect himself. Tom seems to be distancing himself from the situation and avoiding the pain by turning it into a joke. He then makes a joke of his father's abandonment, which he refers to his father as a "telephone man who fell in love with long distances," to shield himself. He also talks of the last time he heard from his father with an ironic twist of humor of a postcard saying, "Hello" and "Goodbye." It is also ironic that Tom's last words in the play are the same as his father's, "and so goodbye." The character Amanda also exhibits much irony in her character. She wants the best for her children, but she spends so much time worrying about it that she fails to realize what is best for them. Amanda dreams back to the time when she was a young girl and had seventeen gentlemen callers and says, "Those certainly were better days." Though her past was wonderful, the present reality is that she is now an abandoned wife with two children. From that, she forces her ideas and opinions on her children and places them in bad situations. Especially, her ideal and obsession views are still based from her time and when she used to be wel...
