Stagnant Lives in a Streetcar Named Desire and the Glass MenagerieStagnant Lives of Blanche DuBois and Amanda Wingfield "All the Significant Characters of Williams they are pathetic victims – of time, of their own passions, of immutable circumstance” (Gantz 110) This assessment of Tennessee Williams' works proves true when one looks closely at Blanche DuBois's characters in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda. Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Their lives run closely parallel to each other in their respective dramas. They reject the present life, but their methods of escape are different holding back, and unintentionally suffocating, those they left behind. One of the major problems both Blanche and Amanda face is their misconceptions of reality and the "New South." helpless in the grip of the new world, while her old world of social standing and financial security is a paradise lost (Gassner 78). They are victims of a society that has taught them that virtue, attractiveness and kindness lead to happiness. When tragedy strikes, Blanche and Amanda are unable to adapt to modern society and ultimately retreat into the securities of the past "For Blanche and Amanda, the South forms an image of youth, love, purity and all the ideals that are collapsed along with the villas and family fortunes" (Tischier 319). Tragedy after tragedy befalls Streetcar's Blanche DuBois character until there is nothing left but her tenuous grip on sanity. Her young homosexual husband, Allan, kills himself, leaving her tormented by a sense of guilt that she cannot manage. It's as if the "Grim Reaper has pitched his tent," taking the... medium of paper... New York: Chelsea Publishers. , 1987. 99-112.Gassner, John. “Theatre at the crossroads. New York”, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960. pp. 77-91, 218-231.Howell, Elmo. “The Gentlemen Calling Function: A Note on The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.” TennesseeWilliams's The Glass Menagerie: Modern Critical Interpretations. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea, 1988. Contemporary Literary Criticism 11 (1979): 575-576. Nelson, Benjamin. Tennessee Williams: The Man and His Work. New York: Ivan Obolensky, 1961. Tischler, Nancy M. "The Glass Menagerie: From History to Play." Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie: Modern Critical Interpretations. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea Publishers, 1988. Williams, Tennessee. A tram called Desiderio. New York: Viking Penguin, 1976.