Scene 3 of the play The Glass
Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, is titled After the Fiasco.
In this scene Tom explains that his mother, Amanda, is "a woman of
word as well as action" in terms of her determination to make ends meet by
selling magazine subscriptions over the telephone.
In this
particular scene, Tom illustrates how his mother:
...conducted a vigorous campaign on the
telephone, roping in subscribers to one of those magazines for matrons called The
Home-maker's Companion...
Tom
also recalls a conversation between his mother and one of such subscribers who is
identified as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D. A. R), to which
Amanda belongs.
Presumably, the woman is trying to avoid
Amanda's subscription renewal call by replying that she is still sick with bad sinus
infection.
Being a typical Southern "belle," Amanda's
reaction is to exaggerate her commiseration and use embellished language to express how
sorry she feels for her client (although she really does not). This is why she
says:
You're a
Christian martyr, yes, that's what you are, a Christian
martyr!
Basically, Amanda is
comparing this woman with a sinus problem with a religious martyr that has been skinned,
boiled, quartered, and burned alive in the name of the cause of Christianity: An immense
exaggeration, but one that is typical of a woman with the eccentric nature of Amanda
Wingfield.
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