Considering gender roles, how can The Glass Menagerie be compared and contrasted with A Streetcar Named Desire?

I think that you would want to focus on how women are
depicted in both of Williams' work.  Amanda and Blanche might be a good starting point
on how both women are depicted.  Both have some challenge in dealing with reality.
 Amanda cannot fully understand the implications of her behavior on her son and,
probably, her husband.  She has trouble being open and honest about her past and her own
sense of self indulgence about it helps to create a distorted view of her self and of
reality.  I would look for lines where this embellishment and this sense of self
indulgence is present.  Where can we find delusion in Amanda?  What does this do to
those around her and who have to live with her?  Blanche is living in a state of denial.
 I think that you can examine recent posts in the group of "A Streetcar Named Desire"
where myself and other editors have talked at length about Blanche's own challenges with
reality, her own past, and her sense of self.  Additionally, you can compare how Amanda
ends up impacting others as Blanche impacts others.  Both do a fairly good job of making
life challenging, to say the least.  I would also examine their relationship with men in
terms of whether or not there is a level of honest and forthrightness in these
associations.  If you wanted to do so, I think you can also examine how women, as a
group, are seen by Williams as complex in a world that might not fully acknowledge
complexity.  The response to this divergence of narrative is to dismiss or "send" them
away.  Examine how Blanche is "dealt with" by Stanley's manipulation of Stella and then
how Laura is dealt with by her family.  In the end, perhaps Williams is making a case
that in a normative society that is driven by consensus, the different experiences and
narratives that many women possess might not be immediately validated and
authenticated.