Which aspects of the play are realistic and which are unrealistic?

What seems realistic about the play is the situation in which the Wingfield family finds itself. Amanda is a single mother of two adult children since her husband has deserted all of them. Like many single mothers, Amanda struggles to make ends met, and adding to her stress is the fact that her daughter Laura is mentally and physically fragile. It seems realistic that Amanda would look to her son Tom to look after them and that he would resent the burden and want to make his own life plans.
What seems less realistic are the lengths to which Amanda is willing to go to have Laura looked after. She is too eager to foist Laura onto Jim O'Connor, a former classmate and a colleague of Tom's, about whom she knows very little. At the awkward dinner party she organizes, she tries to sell Jim on Laura calling her "very pretty" and "very domestic" and calling Jim their "gentleman caller" as if he is there solely to court Laura. Because of Laura's issues, one would expect that her mother would be very protective and skeptical of any man who showed interest in Laura instead of trying to lasso a casual acquaintance into a serious relationship over a single dinner.