The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams

During the play, Amanda dresses in old-fashioned clothes multiple times. The first is in scene two when she is coming home after finding out Laura dropped out of business school. "Her hat is five or six years old, one of those dreadful cloche hats that were worn in the late twenties." This imagery of the old out of date hat symbolizes Amanda's preoccupation with the past. She was younger in the twenties so naturally she would like the styles worn during that time. However, the fact that she wears this hat to D.A.R. meetings with her fancy clothes added to the dress from her debutante days she wears later on represent her living in the past. Amanda wants to go back to when she was younger and had all of the suitors. Part of the reason is because she regrets choosing Tom and Laura's father, a telephone man, instead of the other gentlemen who got somewhere or who stayed with their wives. She wants to go back and choose again. This shows through her choice of clothes.