The question of how to interpret dreams in a novel is one of the most controversial in all of literary criticism. The natural tendency might be to analyze them as if they were real dreams, which includes the implicit assumption that the authors are capable of writing the same type of dreams that our minds produce physiologically. Of course, the popular Freudian mode of interpretation owes much to the act of reading, imbued with notions of symbolism and representation. We are therefore left with little firm ground on which to stand, trusting only in our impression that literary dreams must mean something, since they were deliberately conceived by conscious authors. Frankenstein's most famous scene, in which Victor flees his newborn into his bed, ends with a particularly mysterious dream sequence in which his beloved Elizabeth is transformed into the rotting corpse of her mother. Apparently concocted for the sake of modern computer graphics morphing technology, the scene acquired much of its current intrigue from the Freudian Revolution of the early 20th century. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Yet Dr. Jonathan Glance rejects psychoanalysis as a useful tool for dream interpretation in a pre-Freudian text, choosing instead to examine the psychoanalysis of that era. predominant conception of dreams for clues to their true purpose in Frankenstein. Unfortunately, while Freud's explanation applies to both real and literary dreams, Dr. Glance asserts that the Victorian associationist paradigm which locates the root of dreams in the activities of the day and in the state of the body at moment of falling asleep does not take into account the deliberate manipulation of a dream. the character's thoughts in a story. Instead, he claims that 19th-century authors used dreams to foreshadow future plot twists, offering a warning usually ignored by the protagonist. Although this explains Victor's hallucinations sleeping after animating the creature, since this act of creation will ultimately lead to Elizabeth. following his mother-in-law to the grave, Dr. Glance himself admits that such a reading “may seem reductive.” He nevertheless defends his point of view, but a thorough critic must not be satisfied with this excessive simplification. Indeed, we must explore the possibility, the certainty, that Shelley has more than one reason for the grotesque scene that Victor imagines in his sleep. The date of publication of Frankenstein should not dissuade us from a psychoanalytic interpretation of its events; after all, Freud uses ETA Hoffmann's "The Sandman" (1817) as the best example of a strange text, even though Hoffman died 55 years before the word "psychoanalysis" entered the lexicon. Perhaps incapable of articulating their reasoning, 19th-century writers could still associate a character's thoughts with their psyche. To deflate Dr. Glance's argument, one need only turn the page of Shelley's text and see the undeniable evidence that she imbues dreams with more than just premonitions. . After abandoning Geneva in pursuit of his creature, Victor endures his solitary journeys only through dreams of escape: “in my sleep, I saw my friends, my wife and my beloved country; again I saw the kind face of my father, I heard the silver tones of my Elizabethan voice, and I saw Clerval enjoying health and youth” (213). Clearly, these images do not refer to anything inthe future of the novel. (We could postulate that they reveal Victor's future celestial existence, where he would reunite with his loved ones, but an honest critic should not assume events that are not included in the text itself.) The very presence of These non-prophetic dreams cast doubt on Dr. Glance's one-dimensional interpretation of the first sequence, requiring a more nuanced reading. Indeed, even if a pre-Freudian author cannot create dreams that fit perfectly within a psychoanalytic approach, Shelley is perfectly capable of constructing a symbolic link between the dream scenes and the broader trajectory of the novel. Both dreams represent Victor's deceased loved ones, but while the later dream focuses on the previous existences of the elder Frankenstein, Elizabeth, and Clerval, the first represents Victor's mother in her current corpse state. In a way, we could say that this distance from the physical reality of death reflects Victor's growing detachment from his previous efforts. Rather than imagining his missing loved ones as actual corpses, as the raw material for a scientific experiment gone wrong, he instead uses them as objects of nostalgia to distract himself from the hideous creature. However, despite this apparent discrepancy, both dreams indicate the same thing. characteristic: Victor's inability to face reality. At the first sight of the creature, Victor feels no pride but only abject horror, and he willingly submits to his weariness, “trying to seek a few moments of oblivion” (49). Although the resulting dream scene seems repugnant, it represents Victor's attempt to reassert the supremacy of death, replacing the animate tissues of his laboratory with the still-lifeless mother of his memory. The connection between young Elizabeth and the corpse of Caroline Beaufort reinforces the inevitability of human decadence, a process that Frankenstein has thus far endeavored to reverse in order to find another misery. He wakes up immediately to avoid the initial predicament, but he must face his creature again; Victor thus finds himself in an impasse, confronted with the opposing but equally intolerable options of ultimate death and abject resuscitation. Unable to bear these two possibilities, Victor can only flee in horror and “take refuge in the courtyard where I remained for the rest of the night” (49). It is telling that in the aftermath of his miserable creation, Victor spends hours in an in-between space located both within and outside the confines of the house. Indeed, this setting reflects his current psychological state, stuck between two unbearable perceptions of the world: the mental image of man's inevitable mortality and the external reality of a vile living corpse. Likewise, Victor admits that his later dreams serve to counteract the solitude of his isolated pursuit: My life, as it thus passed, was indeed odious to me, and it was during sleep alone that I could taste the joy. O blessed sleep! Often, when I was most unhappy, I would sink into rest, and my dreams would lull me to the point of rapture. The spirits who guarded me had given me these moments, or rather hours, of happiness so that I could maintain the strength to complete my pilgrimage. Deprived of this respite, I would have sunk under my trials. (213) Cleverly, Victor has found a new way to avoid thoughts of both mortality and reanimation, instead imagining those he knows to be dead in their previous states. Sleep thus becomes a real respite, rather than a secondary source of horror. Yet this does not represent a fundamental variation in his character, but simply thenext step in his rejection of the harsh reality he sees around him. Having achieved only isolation both in the natural order and through its scientific subversion, he withdraws as much as possible from his external life into the sanctuary of his own reminiscences, even going so far as to "persuade himself that they are still lived” (213). This language of self-delusion recalls the words Victor uses earlier to describe his initial disbelief at his mother's death: "It takes so long before the mind can persuade itself that the one we saw every day and whose very existence which seemed to be part of ours may have disappeared forever” (33, emphasis added). Undeniably, just as young Frankenstein must try to convince himself that his established reality is no more - and, subsequently, that death cannot actually be defeated, so too does the tired world. The version imagines that his friends still live, that he has not fathered a murderer. Consequently, these dreams leave Victor unmotivated in his revenge, since they allow him to forget his cause, but just as Victor, the sad creator, must wake up with awareness of his creature's face, he cannot now forget his pursuit for more than a single night's sleep. This is not to say that the two dreams play an identical role in Frankenstein, that our reading would not benefit from an analysis of the important distinctions that exist between them. Rather, we must pay close attention to the key points of the deviation, notably the inclusion of two characters in the first dream who are ignored in the second: Victor's mother and Victor himself. In the initial nightmare, Victor plays an active role: Delighted and surprised, I kissed Elizabeth, but as I printed the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the tint of death; her features seemed to change, and I thought I was holding the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped his form, and I saw the grave worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. (49) By the dream at the end of the novel, however, he has become a simple observer, using only the verbs "seen", "heard" and "seen"; his sole mention of "enjoying reality in their arms" is simply a figurative representation of their presence in his mind. Victor's diminishing subjectivity in his dreams indicates not only that he is consistent in his refusal to accept reality, as I have argued, but that his detachment from the world around him actually grows as the creature causes more and more devastation in his life. is horrified by the first sight of his creation, he has not yet recognized the full implication of his experience. Thus, his dream retains some basis in a reality that once existed, in the earlier inflexibility of death. The dreaming Victor appears to produce the corpse through his actions, suggesting that the waking Victor still feels he has the ability to undo what he has done, tear up his notes, and restore the previous laws of human experience . Unfortunately, Shelley provides clear evidence that, even now, such regression would revolt Victor as much as the sight of a reanimated corpse: “I awoke from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered and all my limbs became convulsed". In this way, Victor's narrative moves from a grotesque vision of his mother's corpse to an equally ugly description of his own body, then like the creature's disgusting face, linking his obsession with defeating death to his constant awareness of his own physical state as he makes grand claims about his ambition to save all humanity from mortality. , pointing to his mother's death as his first recognition of his plight...