Dream And Meaning A Psychological Analysis Of
Dream And Meaning: A Psychological Analysis Of Wid Essay, Research PaperDream and Meaning: A Psychological Analysis of Wide Sargasso Sea At the bend of the century, Sigmund Freud educated the population with his of import book Interpretation of Dreams. Since so, dreams and the survey of dreams, frequently referred to as depth psychology, has been closely linked to understanding non merely real-life state of affairss and people, but literary apprehensions of characters and their fictional state of affairss. In the enterprise to construe & # 8220 ; the dream, & # 8221 ; the reader of a text is building existent representations that can assist them do sense of symbolic codifications of discourse. I will look at both the novel and movie of Wide Sargasso Sea, in which two different attacks are being represented in the signifier of & # 8220 ; the dream.
& # 8221 ; While these attacks are different in signifier, the significance is basically the same. The best topographic point to get down this analysis is with the novel. In the novel the lone individual who of all time has any dream transitions is Antoinette, the chief heroine. The dream transitions are really of import to the novel in that they give us a deeper apprehension of Antoinette & # 8217 ; s state of affairs and uncover her frights and anxiousnesss. We follow Antoinette & # 8217 ; s physical and emotional growing through her dreams. These dreams tell their ain narrative. If they were to be removed from the novel wholly, they would easy stand for the symbolic message of the full novel on their ain. In other words, they act as a corporate whole & # 8211 ; or as a corporate psychological science of Antoinette & # 8217 ; s significance as a character.
The first dream transition appears in the early portion of the novel when Antoinette is a immature kid. She has come to recognize that her household & # 8217 ; s place in Jamaican society is one that is looked down upon and hated for the fact that her male parent was a slave proprietor. Because she and her female parent are of Creole descent, and her female parent is remarried to an Englishman, many of the Jamaican retainers and slaves dislike their presence at Coulibri. Besides, she has late learned that she has a stepbrother, Daniel, who is black and who is besides a slave. Antoinette & # 8217 ; s stepfather, Mr. Mason, does non cognize about Daniel. In order to maintain him from happening out, Antoinette & # 8217 ; s female parent has arranged for money to be given to Daniel to maintain him quiet.
These inside informations are of import because they reflect Antoinette & # 8217 ; s province of head. In the first dream transition Antoinette recounts in first individual: I dreamed that I was walking in the wood. Not entirely. Person who hated me was with me, out of sight. I could hear heavy footfalls coming nearer and though I struggled and screamed I could non travel.
( 27 ) When Antoinette awakens, she finds her female parent near her bedside. Shortly after this, there is a soliloquy of Antoinette & # 8217 ; s ideas refering her dream. She says, & # 8220 ; I lay believing, & # 8216 ; I am safe. There is the corner of the sleeping room door and friendly furniture. There is the tree of life in the garden and the wall green with moss. The barrier of the drops and the high mountains. And the barrier of the sea. I am safe.
I am safe from aliens & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( 27 ) . What is dry about this transition is that she is non safe. The guiltless kid in her expressions towards the familiar, safe things that ne’er change like the sea and the mountains. But these things, safe and stable as they seem, do non maintain their promise. Shortly after this dream, her house is burned down by the Jamaican slaves, her brother is killed, and her female parent finally goes huffy.
But, aside from these facts, we need to look at the dream transition and attempt to do sense of the & # 8220 ; person & # 8221 ; who hates her, but is & # 8220 ; out of sight. & # 8221 ; It appears in this transition that this & # 8220 ; person & # 8221 ; is more of a plural representation, which is besides a bit equivocal. Surely, it must stand for, on some degree, the Jamaican slaves and her brother Daniel. But, when 1 goes back and does a re-reading and compares it to the following two dream transitions, it is obvious that it besides represents Mr. Rochester. It is a prefiguration of what Antoinette & # 8217 ; s relationship will be like with Mr.
Rochester, and represents a type of self-fulfilling prognostication. The 2nd dream transition occurs merely after Antoinette has learned that Mr. Mason has set her up to get married an Englishman. It is a continuance of the first dream, merely in this clip there is more item. Again, Antoinette describes it to us in the first individual stating: Again I have left the house at Coulibri. It is still dark and I am walking towards the wood. I am have oning a long frock and thin slippers, so I walk with trouble, following the adult male who is with me and keeping up the skirt of my frock. It is white and beautiful and I don & # 8217 ; t wish to acquire it soiled.
I follow him, sick with fright but I make no attempt to salvage myself ; if anyone were to seek and salvage me, I would decline. This must go on. Now we have reached the wood. We are under the tall dark trees and there is no air current.
& # 8216 ; Here? & # 8217 ; He turns and looks at me, his face black with hatred, and when I see this I begin to shout. He smiles slyly. & # 8216 ; Not here. Not yet, & # 8217 ; he says, and I follow him crying. Now I do non seek to keep up my frock, it trails in the soil, my beautiful frock. We are no longer in the wood but in an enclosed garden surrounded by a rock wall and the trees are different trees. I do non cognize them.
There are stairss taking upwards. It is excessively dark to see the wall or the stairss, but I know they are at that place and I think, & # 8216 ; It will be when I go up these stairss. At the top. & # 8217 ; I stumble over my frock and can non acquire up. I touch a tree and my weaponries hold on to it. & # 8216 ; Here, here. & # 8217 ; But I think I will non travel any farther. The tree sways and dorks as if it is seeking to throw me off.
Still I cleaving and the seconds base on balls and each one is a 1000 old ages. & # 8216 ; Here, in here, & # 8217 ; a unusual voice said, and the tree stopped rocking and yanking. ( 59-60 ) The cardinal phrase ( s ) in this transition which prove that Antoinette & # 8217 ; s dreams are a type of self-fulfilling prognostication resonate in & # 8220 ; I make no attempt to salvage myself ; if anyone were to seek and salvage me, I would decline. This must happen.
& # 8221 ; At this point, we as readers are non certain why Antoinette feels this manner, but it is obvious she feels her matrimony has to take topographic point, and that it has to be with the Englishman. Again, this dream transition means more to the reader one time one has finished the book. For illustration, at this phase in the novel, we may merely presume Antoinette is juxtaposing Jamaica with England.
Once we have read the novel, we know she is juxtaposing the two. We besides know that England, and more specifically, Mr. Rochester & # 8217 ; s house, will be her keep. In other words, Jamaica was her freedom, and England will go her gaol. Both of these scenes are manipulated and influenced by Mr. Rochester’s presence.The terminal of Antoinette & # 8217 ; s dream comes near the terminal of the novel, after she has been taken to England by Mr.
Rochester. She says, & # 8220 ; That was the 3rd clip I had my dream, and it ended & # 8221 ; ( 187 ) . Here, everything that has been equivocal falls into topographic point and outputs rich significance. At the beginning of the dream, Antoinette has escaped her keep room and has set the house on fire with tapers she found. The dream continues: I knew how to acquire off from the heat and the cheering, for there was shouting now. When I was on the crenelations it was cool and I could barely hear them.
I sat there softly. I don & # 8217 ; t cognize how long I sat. Then I turned unit of ammunition and saw the sky. It was ruddy and all my life was in it. I saw the gramps clock and Aunt Cora & # 8217 ; s hodgepodge, all colorss, I saw the orchids and the stephanotis and the jasmine and the tree of life in fires. I saw the pendant and the ruddy rug downstairs and the bamboos and the tree ferns, the gold ferns and the Ag, and the soft green velvet of the moss on the garden wall. I saw my doll & # 8217 ; s house and the books and the image of the Miller & # 8217 ; s Daughter. I heard the parrot call as he did when he saw a alien, Qui est La? Qui est La? And the adult male who hated me naming excessively, Bertha! Bertha! The air current caught my hair and it streamed out like wings.
It might bear me up, I thought, if I jumped to those difficult rocks. But when I looked over the border I saw the pool at Coulibri. Tia was at that place. She beckoned me and when I hesitated she laughed. I heard her state, You frightened? And I heard the adult male & # 8217 ; s voice, Bertha! Bertha! All this I saw and heard in a fraction of a 2nd. And the sky so ruddy.
Person screamed and I thought Why did I shriek? I called & # 8216 ; Tia! & # 8217 ; and jumped and woke. ( 189-190 ) When Antoinette awakens, the stoping paragraph of the novel, Antoinette says, & # 8220 ; Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to make & # 8221 ; ( 190 ) . And, so the reader is left to presume that Antoinette will transport out the terminal of her dream. This last dream transition unites the two opposing forces of the decease of her artlessness at Coulibri and the decease of her love and devotedness to Mr. Rochester in England. The destructive fire that ruined her life at Coulibri is now her Jesus and release from her bare life in England. Now, she has realized that she is non frightened any more. The thought that & # 8220 ; I make no attempt to salvage myself & # 8221 ; has been dispelled.
Unfortunately, it is non the & # 8220 ; salvaging & # 8221 ; the reader has hoped for. Alternatively, it is a moral economy, which leads her to kill herself as a agency of get awaying her hopelessly bound life. This calamity is paralleled, but with more poignance, to Antoinette & # 8217 ; s female parent & # 8217 ; s life and decease.
It represents the whole model of the novel, and it is besides through this analogue that the significance of the movie is symbolized. The dream passages in the movie are rather different and are shown through non merely Antoinette, but Mr. Rochester excessively. For those of the audience who have read the book, the movie plays on the audiences prior cognition of the dreams that are in the book, but it besides adds its ain turn by demoing us the dreams of Mr.
Rochester. Antoinette & # 8217 ; s dreams in the movie are merely at that place to make full in spreads of cognition about Antoinette & # 8217 ; s life. They act as a storyteller, in a sense, trying to steer the unread spectator along. The apposition of Antoinette & # 8217 ; s dreams in the movie is somewhat different from the book, but their intent is to demo the analogue between Antoinette & # 8217 ; s life and her female parent & # 8217 ; s life. Indeed, the movie is faithful to the stoping of the novel, for we hear Antoinette & # 8217 ; s voice-over say, & # 8220 ; Now I know what I must make in this house where I am cold and non belonging. I will woolgather the terminal of my dream.
& # 8221 ; The significance is the same, merely expressed in a somewhat different manner. However, the add-on of Mr. Rochester & # 8217 ; s dreams is an added dimension worth some geographic expedition. Mr. Rochester & # 8217 ; s first dream in the movie comes merely after he has read the missive sent to him by Daniel. This missive, reproduced through voice-over, has informed Mr. Rochester that he has been misled about Antoinette & # 8217 ; s household and heritage.
It besides comes at a clip when he has had jobs seting to Jamaican life, peculiarly the clime. As a consequence, Mr. Rochester dreams he is submerging in the seaweed of the Wide Sargasso Sea. ( Historically, the seaweed is ill-famed for its value and profusion in that country. ) As the reeds entangle him, he sees Antoinette swimming up to him merely before he awakens.
The movie efforts to demo that the dream Mr. Rochester has is a contemplation of his insecurities about life in Jamaica with a adult females who he knows nil about, and who he thinks has lied to him. The fact that Antoinette shows up in his dream in this manner, may be a symbol that he thinks of her as person who might be able to salvage him, or protect him from the dangers of Jamaica. It could besides intend that possibly she is the ground he feels he is metaphorically submerging. The dream is continued in a 2nd dream that takes topographic point merely after he is drugged by Antoinette. The obeah mixture causes him to woolgather that he is once more submerging in the seaweed. But, this clip, there is no Antoinette and he becomes even more embroiled and unable to liberate himself. At this phase, Mr.
Rochester has become cognizant that his life with Antoinette in Jamaica is going unmanageable and destructive. This straight contrasts with Antoinette, in that, where Jamaica is her safety and England her fright, the exact opposite is true of Mr. Rochester. Thus, the dreams appear to work as a interior expression at Mr. Rochester & # 8217 ; s frights and anxiousnesss. The movie decides to demo the audience this position, possibly as a manner of giving some extra penetration into Mr.
Rochester where the book does non. It makes Mr. Rochester appear more human to us, and of class, acts a parallel to Antoinette & # 8217 ; s feelings and defeats. To do sense of this narrative, I think the movie relies more on the book than it stands on its ain. It seems to make full in the space we have as readers of the novel, but adds its ain originality to the story-telling, thereby giving us a glance into a fictional universe through realistic representations. Therefore, the significance in non lost in the movie version.
Actually, it becomes more heightened and more existent to us. The usage of dreams in both texts allows us in to the consciousness and unconsciousness of the characters and their state of affairss. Without the dream, the novel and the movie would surely lose such deepness and significance.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Norton, 1996. ( Reprint ) Wide Sargasso Sea. Dir. John Duigan. Fineline Features, 1993.
