"kris" <kriskringle17.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote
> You know, it's sort of funny that you mention Hawthorne... A while ago I
> bought a copy of the Time Magazine featuring (published May 8, 1939)
> Joyce on the cover.
>
> All it says below the full-page drawing (of poor Joyce struggling
> to read a sheet of paper with a lookingglass):
>
> JAMES JOYCE
> He wrote Hawthorne's dream book (books).
>
> If you guys are interested, I'll try to find the text of the feature and
> post it here. I scanned in the cover - and have made it available at the
> following address: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.tollund.com/joycetimemag.pdf" target="_blank">www.tollund.com/joycetimemag.pdf</a> . The file is quite
>big (full color Acrobat file): 9.1 MB so I'll remove it again in a week or
so.
>
> Best,
> Christian Schoenberg
--------------------------------------------------------------------
James Joyce on Time Cover: Jan 29, 1934 & May 8, 1939
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/covers/0,16641,1101340129,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/covers/0,16641,1101340129,00.html</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/covers/0,16641,1101390508,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/covers/0,16641,1101390508,00.html</a>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Value of Dreams in Two Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Written for English 1205 by psycho17
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://members.fortunecity.com/smashx14/dreams.html" target="_blank">http://members.fortunecity.com/smashx14/dreams.html</a>
<<Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Birthmark"
both make use of dreams to affect the story and reveal the central
characters. With each story, the dreams presented are extremely beneficial
to the development of the story as they give the reader a new view of the
plot itself, or the characters within. At the same time, however, it becomes
difficult to determine how much of the dream has been affected by the
character, and how much is pure fantasy. This is true with Young Goodman
Brown, who cannot determine whether the events in his life actually
occurred, or if they simply were created in his troubled mind while he
slept. In "The Birthmark," Aylmer too is haunted by his night-time musings
as he dreams of mutilating his wife in order to rid her of a small
birthmark. This small detail later turns out to foreshadow the conclusion of
the story, while giving readers further insight into his diabolical nature.
Dreams thusly play an important developmental role in the explication of
Hawthorne's characters.
Young Goodman Brown's dream near the end of his story has a most
profound effect on his character. After a night of making deals with the
Devil, having all of his fellow countrymen show their Satanic sympathies and
himself becoming affiliated with the Fallen Angel, Brown understandably
looks to account these incredible events to a dream state. However, Brown
acts coldly towards Faith after that particular night, and completely
changes his demeaner as he begins to question whether the dream was, in
fact, a dream, or reality. What may have been but a dream turns out to haunt
Brown for the rest of his life, as he can no longer accept the people in his
life for what they appear to be, and can not forget that he saw them all at
the witch-meeting. In contrast, is the debatable question of whether or not
the dream was only a "wild dream" (Hawthorne, 318). If Young Goodman Brown
indeed did dream of the witch-meeting, then he has wasted his life with his
unrestrained, unrelenting paranoia. Because of the ambiguity of the
situation, where neither the reader, narrator nor protagonist can be sure of
the validity of the dream's depictions of the residents of Salem, Hawthorne
makes it difficult of analyze Brown's character. It it therefore impossible
to come to any absolute conclusions regarding the nature of Young Goodman
Brown as one cannot accurately assess what has happened to him, and the
consequences of those events.
In "The Birthmark," Aylmer has a dream in which he commits an act of
unspeakable brutality to his wife. This dream provides the reader with an
insight into his personality, as we begin to realize that Aylmer will stop
at nothing in order to destroy the slight imperfection on the cheek of
Georgianna. As a dream can be perceived as an insight into one's unconscious
mind, where thoughts run pure and untouched by the conscious self, Aylmer's
dream can not be ignored, and Georgianna is aware of this. We are able to
see that Aylmer is not just a selfish man, thinking only of himself as he
demands these concessions from his wife, but that he is unable to control
his desires, much like child. Resulting from this new view of Hawthorne's
character, we must now become aware that Aylmer is bound by nothing in his
quest for what he understands to be perfection.
Hawthorne is able to change our views on his characters with the simple
use of dreams. Dreams prove to be an effective plot device in both "The
Birthmark" and "Young Goodman Brown" as they provide an air of uncertainty
to the character that they are associated with. Aylmer, in "The Birthmark,"
is a husband who questions the beauty of his bride, which is, at least,
unsettling, until his dream of butchering Georgianna is revealed. Troubled,
too is Young Goodman Brown, who can not determine whether or not the
incredible visions of the previous night were real. As a precaution, he
avoids contact with the dream-related peole and lives the remainder of his
life alone, but surrounded by those who were once his friends, associates,
and family. As evidenced by these two short stories, we can see the
important role that dreams can play in the effective telling of a tale.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hawthorne's Search for Man in "Young Goodman Brown"
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.colin.cc.ms.us/humanities/stories/hawthorne.htm" target="_blank">http://www.colin.cc.ms.us/humanities/stories/hawthorne.htm</a>
By: Rebecca Martin
<<Nathaniel Hawthorne in his search for the essence of man created "Young
Goodman Brown," a short story that combines pure allegory with psychological
dreams as well as reality. Hawthorne creates an allegorical story centered
around the central character's quest to find himself. Hawthorne's characters
are each symbolic by name, dress, and social position. Young Goodman Brown
is symbolic of the innocence of youth in the average man. His pretty young
wife Faith is identified by the pink ribbons in her hair. It is ironic that
Brown associates her with something as slight and insignificant as a ribbon.
The color of the ribbons symbolizes the mixture of man's soul - purity of
white combined with the wantonness of red. Characters such as Goody Cloyse,
Deacon Gookin, and the Minister are leaders of the town of Salem. They are
believed to be the most pious people of their community and are revered by
all for their righteous ways in life. The Devil, whom Goodman Brown meets
while in the woods, resembles Brown, and he carries a staff which resembles
a live serpent. The staff represents evil and his appearance stands for the
reflection of evil in every man. "Young Goodman Brown," like many of
Hawthorne's other dream stories, takes on the same form and pattern.
According to Rita K. Gollin in her book, Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Truth
of Dreams, "Initially the dreamer undertakes a journey which is also a
quest. He is not after power, material profit, or even love the usual
objects of a quest. He is impelled by curiosity or a desire for
self-fulfillment, and the ultimate direction of each journey is inward. He
always feels in control at the start." (134-3
. In the beginning of the
story, Faith tries to hold Brown back from his journey, but he insists on
going. Why he must go is not stated. We can defer from the story itself as
well as ideas of the time that his journey is one of curiosity as well as
something not thought to be pure. Brown is leaving his house at sunset for a
journey that will take him into the woods. Night time and the woods are
believed to be the haunting grounds of witches. For a man to be so pure of
heart, he obviously had some questions about himself in order to risk losing
his Faith and reputation upon a journey into the woods. This in part shows
that the story is a parable because he is on a quest for religious and
secular purposes. While Brown is in the woods he sees many of the upstanding
members of his community which confuses him as to what is right and what is
wrong. Gollin calls it "A parabolic story of self discovery, of bewilderment
only partly dispelled, of night journeys terminated but not completed"
(115-16). As Brown heads further into the woods he tries harder to figure
out what is going on. When he sees Goody Cloyse he thinks back to his
catechism and wonders why she would be in the woods at night, being so naive
as to think that she would not be involved with such a meeting. Brown sees
all of what is around him and his perception of the events seem very
realistic. However, all of the occurence is just a dream and as he walks
further into the woods he is actually going further into his mind. During
this evaluation of his soul, he not only approaches the scene of climax in
the story, but "the vortex of self knowledge" (Gollin 115-16). Upon the
midnight hour Brown finds himself in the center of the woods at the meeting
of the pagans. He believes his wife is there, and on being brought before
the altar for the baptismal services, he sees that she is, in fact, there.
Brown screams for Faith to hold on to her God and everything vanishes. Brown
is left to live in doubt over what really happened. Did he really see the
satanic meeting in the woods? Or, did he go to the woods in search of
himself and dream the entire episode? Brown believes that he actually saw
everything that went on that night, no matter how unusual and fanciful it
seemed. Therefore, Brown loses his belief in mankind, as well as his Faith.
Gollin explains his experience: The burden of his midnight vision is that
evil exists but Brown's mistake is to confuse partial knowledge with
absolute truth. His nightmare knowledge of evil in all men obliterates his
ability to believe in human virtue. (128) Brown loses the joy he once had in
life. He loses the self confidence that he had prior to his quest. He lives
and dies a miserable man because he could not bring himself to trust anyone,
not even himself. Hawthorne greatly admired man's quest for inner truth and
that is probably why he wrote about it so often. He also believed in dreams
and their tie to the subconscious. According to Rita K. Gollin, Hawthorne
strongly suggests, "...that dreams are a mode of knowledge, a necessary
complement to-but not a substitute for-awareness of the waking world" (139).
She was right. Brown should have paid attention to his dream and accepted it
for what it was rather than acting like a petulant child and scorning the
world for fooling him all of these years.>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
XI. Grandfather's Dream by Hawthorne
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
<<GRANDFATHER was struck by Laurence's idea that the historic chair should
utter a voice, and thus pour forth the collected wisdom of two centuries.
The old gentleman had once possessed no inconsiderable share of fancy; and
even now its fading sunshine occasionally glimmered among his more sombre
reflections.
As the history of his chair had exhausted all his facts, Grandfather
determined to have recourse to fable. So, after warning the children that
they must not mistake this story for a true one, he related what we shall
call Grandfather's Dream.
Laurence and Clara, where were you last night? Where were you, Charley, and
dear little Alice? You had all gone to rest, and left old Grandfather to
meditate alone in his great chair. The lamp had grown so dim that its light
hardly illuminated the alabaster shade. The wood-fire had crumbled into
heavy embers, among which the little flames danced, and quivered, and
sported about like fairies.
And here sat Grandfather all by himself. He knew that it was bedtime; yet he
could not help longing to hear your merry voices, or to hold a comfortable
chat with some old friend; because then his pillow would be visited by
pleasant dreams. But, as neither children nor friends were at hand,
Grandfather leaned back in the great chair and closed his eyes, for the sake
of meditating more profoundly.
And, when Grandfather's meditations had grown very profound indeed, he
fancied that he heard a sound over his head, as if somebody were preparing
to speak.
"Hem!" it said, in a dry, husky tone. "H-e-m! Hem!"
As Grandfather did not know that any person was in the room, he started up
in great surprise, and peeped hither and thither, behind the chair, and into
the recess by the fireside, and at the dark nook yonder near the bookcase.
Nobody could be seen.
"Poh!" said Grandfather to himself, "I must have been dreaming."
But, just as he was going to resume his seat, Grandfather happened to look
at the great chair. The rays of firelight were flickering upon it in such a
manner that it really seemed as if its oaken frame were all alive. What! did
it not move its elbow? There, too! It certainly lifted one of its ponderous
fore legs, as if it had a notion of drawing itself a little nearer to the
fire. Meanwhile the lion's head nodded at Grandfather with as polite and
sociable a look as a lion's visage, carved in oak, could possibly be
expected to assume. Well, this is strange!
"Good evening, my old friend," said the dry and husky voice, now a little
clearer than before. "We have been intimately acquainted so long that I
think it high time we have a chat together."
Grandfather was looking straight at the lion's head, and could not be
mistaken in supposing that it moved its lips. So here the mystery was all
explained.
"I was not aware," said Grandfather, with a civil salutation to his oaken
companion, "that you possessed the faculty of speech. Otherwise I should
often have been glad to converse with such a solid, useful, and substantial
if not brilliant member of society."
"Oh!" replied the ancient chair, in a quiet and easy tone, for it had now
cleared its throat of the dust of ages, "I am naturally a silent and
incommunicative sort of character. Once or twice in the course of a century
I unclose my lips. When the gentle Lady Arbella departed this life I uttered
a groan. When the honest mint-master weighed his plump daughter against the
pine-tree shillings I chuckled audibly at the joke. When old Simon
Bradstreet took the place of the tyrant Andros I joined in the general
huzza, and capered on my wooden legs for joy. To be sure, the by-standers
were so fully occupied with their own feelings that my sympathy was quite
unnoticed."
"And have you often held a private chat with your friends?" asked
Grandfather.
"Not often," answered the chair. "I once talked with Sir William Phips, and
communicated my ideas about the witchcraft delusion. Cotton Mather had
several conversations with me, and derived great benefit from my historical
reminiscences. In the days of the Stamp Act I whispered in the ear of
Hutchinson, bidding him to remember what stock his countrymen were descended
of, and to think whether the spirit of their forefathers had utterly
departed from them. The last man whom I favored with a colloquy was that
stout old republican, Samuel Adams."
"And how happens it," inquired Grandfather, "that there is no record nor
tradition of your conversational abilities? It is an uncommon thing to meet
with a chair that can talk."
"Why, to tell you the truth," said the chair, giving itself a hitch nearer
to the hearth, "I am not apt to choose the most suitable moments for
unclosing my lips. Sometimes I have inconsiderately begun to speak, when my
occupant, lolling back in my arms, was inclined to take an after-dinner nap.
Or perhaps the impulse to talk may be felt at midnight, when the lamp burns
dim and the fire crumbles into decay, and the studious or thoughtful man
finds that his brain is in a mist. Oftenest I have unwisely uttered my
wisdom in the ears of sick persons, when the inquietude of fever made them
toss about upon my cushion. And so it happens, that though my words make a
pretty strong impression at the moment, yet my auditors invariably remember
them only as a dream. I should not wonder if you, my excellent friend, were
to do the same tomorrow morning."
"Nor I either," thought Grandfather to himself. However, he thanked this
respectable old chair for beginning the conversation, and begged to know
whether it had anything particular to communicate.
"I have been listening attentively to your narrative of my adventures,"
replied the chair; "and it must be owned that your correctness entitles you
to be held up as a pattern to biographers. Nevertheless, there are a few
omissions which I should be glad to see supplied. For instance, you make no
mention of the good knight Sir Richard Saltonstall, nor of the famous Hugh
Peters, nor of those old regicide judges, Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell. Yet I
have borne the weight of all those distinguished characters at one time or
another."
Grandfather promised amendment if ever he should have an opportunity to
repeat his narrative. The good old chair, which still seemed to retain a due
regard for outward appearance, then reminded him how long a time had passed
since it had been provided with a new cushion. It likewise expressed the
opinion that the oaken figures on its back would show to much better
advantage by the aid of a little varnish.
"And I have had a complaint in this joint," continued the chair, endeavoring
to lift one of its legs, "ever since Charley trundled his wheelbarrow
against me."
"It shall be attended to," said Grandfather.
"And now, venerable chair, I have a favor to solicit. During an existence of
more than two centuries you have had a familiar intercourse with men who
were esteemed the wisest of their day. Doubtless, with your capacious
understanding, you have treasured up many an invaluable lesson of wisdom.
You certainly have had time enough to guess the riddle of life. Tell us,
poor mortals, then, how we may be happy."
The lion's head fixed its eyes thoughtfully upon the fire, and the whole
chair assumed an aspect of deep meditation. Finally it beckoned to
Grandfather with its elbow, and made a step sideways towards him, as if it h
ad a very important secret to communicate.
"As long as I have stood in the midst of human affairs," said the chair,
with a very oracular enunciation, "I have constantly observed that Justice,
Truth, and Love are the chief ingredients of every happy life."
"Justice, Truth, and Love!" exclaimed Grandfather. "We need not exist two
centuries to find out that these qualities are essential to our happiness.
This is no secret. Every human being is born with the instinctive knowledge
of it."
"Ah!" cried the chair, drawing back in surprise. "From what I have observed
of the dealings of man with man, and nation with nation, I never should have
suspected that they knew this all-important secret. And, with this eternal
lesson written in your soul, do you ask me to sift new wisdom for you out of
my petty existence of two or three centuries?"
"But, my dear chair "--said Grandfather.
"Not a word more," interrupted the chair; "here I close my lips for the next
hundred years. At the end of that period, if I shall have discovered any new
precepts of happiness better than what Heaven has already taught you, they
shall assuredly be given to the world."
In the energy of its utterance the oaken chair seemed to stamp its foot, and
trod (we hope unintentionally) upon Grandfather's toe. The old gentleman
started, and found that he had been asleep in the great chair, and that his
heavy walking-stick had fallen down across his foot.
"Grandfather," cried little Alice, clapping her hand," you must dream a new
dream every night about our chair!"
Laurence, and Clara, and Charley said the same. But the good old gentleman
shook his head, and declared that here ended the history, real or fabulous,
of GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: The name's Bloom... Leopold Bloom. 
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
