the play. Then, the deeper meaning of Laura‘s dream is the implicit meaning from the play. The deeper meaning of Laura‘s dream is not written in the play.
However, the deeper meaning can be found by reading the play and interpreting it by looking at the clues from the play.
1. The Literal Meaning of Laura’s Dream
The liter al meaning of Laura‘s dream is the meaning that is taken from the
play script explicitly. In this part, the literal meaning of Laura‘s dream can be seen from the written conversation in the play. Here the psychological approach from
Freud is applied to analyze the play script in order to get the literal meaning of Laura‘s dream. Based on Freud‘s theory, there are three components or parts of
personality. They are the id, the ego, and super-ego. The id is the basic instinct that a human has to fulfill and it only knows how to fulfill its desire without
considering the realistic. In the play script, Laura is a girl who has physical defect and she is unconfident with her condition. Because of what she feels, she becomes
a girl who is introverted and she prefers to play her glass menagerie. Here there is something that she wants to tell people. It is as what the desire in the id without
considering the realistic. From the way she takes care of the toys collections, she tries to show
people what she really wants. In the play script, Laura is the character that stands as the representative of the ―Glass Menagerie‖ itself. Talking about glass is
talking about something that is fragile, easily broken, and need to be taken care carefully. It is like Laura who has a physical defect that made her walk lamely.
She is fragile because of the physical condition that makes her unconfident to face the world. Her condition makes her pessimistic to see her own future. Due to the
fact that she is unconfident with her condition, she likes to avoid the reality and it makes her asocial.
In the play, Laura must also face a bad situation in her family life. It makes her fragile in the context of her psychology. In the past time, her father
abandoned her mother and also her family. It makes her family life goes uneasily. Her mother tries to give the best things for Laura and Tom because of her position
in the family is the head of the family as a single parent. However, the way she treats her children is too strict and it seems that she is perfectionist. In the play,
Amanda gives big pressure to Laura‘s psychologist. Amanda is afraid of Laura‘s future. Amanda really wants to see gentlemen callers who want to get married to
Laura. She always throws back into her past life about her own gentlemen callers. She is very popular so that there are many gentlemen callers who want to get
married to her. She also hopes that Laura will have the same experience. Because of that, Amanda tries to do everything to make her dream comes true. However,
for Laura it gives bad pressure because she is very pessimistic of her physical condition. On the other side, Tom as Laura‘s brother also gives another pressure
to Laura‘s psychological condition. In their family, Tom is the one who works and takes care of the economy of the family. Tom wants to end his position and
reaches his own dream instead of taking care of his family‘s economy. Everyday, Tom always spends his night time by watching movies in a cinema. He is also
smoking a lot. Because of that, Amanda always gets angry. This condition makes
Laura uncomfortable to live the life. She thinks that Tom is very unhappy with his condition. As a person who cares about her family, Laura gets big impression
from Tom‘s condition. From the condition of life that Laura has, she prefers to be alone and live
in her own life. She likes to go somewhere alone only for avoiding people. She also spends much of her times playing her glass collections. While she is playing
her glass, she can tell others what she feels and what she really needs to face her life. In the following lines there are some conversations in the play that explain
what Laura dreams or what she really needs from the way she tells about her glass menagerie.
JIM: What are you doing now? LAURA: I do not do anything
—much. Oh, please do not think I sit around doing nothing My glass collection takes up a good deal of time. Glass is
something you have to take good care of. JIM: What did you say
—about glass? LAURA: Collection I said
—I have one—she clears her throat and thrones away again, actually shy.
p. 298.
From the conversation, Laura shows that in her mind, playing her glass collection is something that is really precious. For Jim, playing the glass
collection is like doing something weird so he needs to ask Laura by saying ―What did you say—about glass?‖ But for Laura, it takes up a good deal of time.
In her conversation, she also says that glass is something that has to take a good care of. From the conversation above, Laura says that playing the glass menagerie
takes up a good deal of time. Here it can be explained that those fragile things are important. She also says that glass is something you have to take a good care of.
The literal meaning from what Laura says is that dealing with something fragile means those things should be taken a good care of. It will be the same as taking
care of someone who is fragile because of the condition that she has. In the next following lines, there are also literal meanings that Laura wants to show about
what she dreams. JIM: Now how about you? Isn‘t there something you take interest in than
anything else? LAURA: Well, I do
—as I said—have my—glass collection—A peal of girlish laughter rings from the kitchenette.
Jim: I‘m not right sure I know what you‘re talking about. What kind of glass is it?
LAURA: Little articles of it, they‘re ornaments mostly Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world.
Mother calls them a glass menagerie Here‘s an example of one, if you‘d like to
see it This one is one of the oldest. It‘s nearly thirteen. Music: “The Glass Menagerie.‖ He stretches out is hand. Oh, be careful—if you
breathe, it breaks JIM: I‘d better not take it. I‘m pretty clumsy with things.
LAURA: Go on, I trust you with him She places the piece in his palm. There now
—you‘re holding him gently Hold him over the light, he loves the light You see how the light shines through him?
JIM: It sure does shine LAURA: I shouldn‘t be partial, but he is my favorite one.
JIM: What kind of a thing is this one supposed to be? LAURA: Haven‘t you noticed the single horn on his forehead?
JIM: A unicorn, huh? LAURA: Mmmm-hmmm
JIM: Unicorns
—aren‘t they extinct in the modern world? LAURA: I know
JIM: Poor little fellow, he must feel sort of lonesome. LAURA smiling: Well, if he does, he does not complain about it. He
stays on a shelf with some horses that do not have horns and all of them seem to get along nicely together.
JIM: How do you know? LAURA lightly
: I haven‘t heard any arguments among them pp. 300- 301.
From the conversation above, Laura tells that her glass collection is called a glass menagerie by her mother. She also says that Jim must be careful to carry it
