Jane-a-dreamstag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice/2382007-05-07T05:19:36ZThe Use of Practical Dreaming in the Plot Development of Jane EyreMovable Type Enterprise 1.02The Practical Use of Dreams in Jane Eyretag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice//238.22352007-04-23T04:01:36Z2007-05-07T05:19:36Z I’ve been told dreams are easy. Sleep. Daydreams. Sudden zomibification. A Scrubs moment over a pretty girl. What’s there to it? You stay up late interpreting The Interpretation of Dreams and you pass out onto the open book-- dream....John A. Dreams
I’ve been told dreams are easy. Sleep. Daydreams. Sudden zomibification. A Scrubs moment over a pretty girl. What’s there to it? You stay up late interpreting The Interpretation of Dreams and you pass out onto the open book-- dream. Is there really anything meaningful happening there? I say there is, and it’s just the kind of stuff you get in Jane Eyre.
As Ernest Hartmann says in his book Dreams and Nightmares, “every morning we awake from an important state in our minds in which we spend a great deal of time and which can sometimes help us accomplish great feats” (1). Exceptional novels, feats of architecture, and essential technology have all been created by people who dreamt. This is the practical aspect of dreaming. Sometimes you get something out of it.
This happens a lot in Jane Eyre. Jane has quite a few dreams, trances, and other fantasies. As Mr. Rochester says, she “[exists] in a kind of artist’s dreamland” (132). Jane keeps her head in the clouds because she uses dreams practically. People have things they mull over in their waking life that they just can’t figure out. They’re just too close to the problem to do the simple math to solve it. Sleep gives the brain a chance to relax and put two and two together. When Jane is confronted with a problem in her waking life, she first participates in some sort of sleep activity- be it a dream, or a daydream, or something as simple as putting her head to her pillow- before she acts on her problem. This is a psychological way of life for her because it allows her to address, sometimes even solve, her problems.
*upper left- dreams are easy... for Richard Nixon.
*lower right- a truly classic Classics Illustrated rendition of Jane Eyre]]>
The Pillow Fairytag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice//238.22342007-04-23T04:01:16Z2007-05-12T18:41:46Z Jane is a practical dreamer herself. Dreams gives her a chance to mull over her everyday problems. As Hartmann says, “dreams deal with them by making a pictured metaphor of our concerns” (2). Take for instance this dream, when...John A. Dreams Jane is a practical dreamer herself. Dreams gives her a chance to mull over her everyday problems. As Hartmann says, “dreams deal with them by making a pictured metaphor of our concerns” (2). Take for instance this dream, when Jane is dissatisfied at Lowood:
I could not tell: nothing answered me; I then ordered my brain to find a response, and quickly. It worked faster and faster: I felt the pulses throb in my head and temples; but for nearly an hour it worked in chaos, and no result came of its efforts. Feverish with vain labour, I got up and took a turn in the room; undrew the curtain, noted a star or two, shivered with cold, and again crept to bed.
A kind fairy, in my absence, had surely dropped the required suggestion on my pillow; for as I lay down, it came quietly and naturally to my mind. -- "Those who want situations advertise; you must advertise in the -shire Herald." (94). When talking about Bronte dreams, I felt that the "pictured metaphor" (2)theory of psychologist Ernest Hartmann was best. I looked at a few dream theorists when trying to find someone scientific who would be comparable to Bronte’s use of dreams. Sigmund Freud’s idea of all dreams being wish fulfillment (181)? Not really. Carl Jung’s theory of dreams compensating for your daily life (38)? Not quite. Biologist J. Allan Hobson’s dogma of all dreams being useless chemical byproducts of the sleeping brain (4)? Not even close. The only thing that came close was Hartmann’s idea of dreams dealing with your waking emotions. Bronte uses her Jane Eyre dreams in a way that is similar to Hartmann, but predates him. Dreams get Jane’s thoughts and emotions out onto a stage where they can play themselves out, like Hartmann’s “pictured metaphor” (2).
Jane is really chewing over a predicament that she just cannot solve while awake. But as soon as her head hits the pillow-- BAM-- problem solved. (Now that’s some practical dreaming.) It’s a pillow fairy. (That’s not to say, an actual fairy, but a solution that comes directly from sleep.) Many of the dreams play out in a fashion similar to this one (although perhaps not as directly). Bronte uses her Jane Eyre dreams in a way that is similar to Hartmann, but predates him. Dreams get Jane’s thoughts and emotions out onto a stage where they can play themselves out, like Hartmann’s “pictured metaphor” (2). Problem. Dream. Solution.
*upper left- young Jane and her everyday problems (from the recent BBC production).
*lower right- picture this metaphor.
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Big Bad Berthatag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice//238.22332007-04-23T04:00:50Z2007-05-07T05:23:56Z With the pillow fairy out in the open, it seems that I should make a disclaimer here that not all of Jane’s dreams are this easy to deal with. Jane’s action isn’t always heralded to her direct from her...John A. Dreams
With the pillow fairy out in the open, it seems that I should make a disclaimer here that not all of Jane’s dreams are this easy to deal with. Jane’s action isn’t always heralded to her direct from her pillow. Sometimes the cause and effect relationship is hard to follow. In fact, some of her dreams are downright terrifying. With this criterion in mind I now bring up Jane’s dream about Bertha. (And what Jane Eyre paper would be complete without a visit from big bad Bertha?)
Right before she is supposed to wed Mr. Rochester, Jane experiences a case of (what can only be described in complicated medical terminology as) cold feet. The fantasy quality that made this marriage so ideal is suddenly the reason for it not working. She has an argument with Mr. Rochester about how her new title, Mrs. Rochester, seems too strange to be true (256-257). (Obviously this is a front, covering up her conflicting emotional issues on the subject.) Jane is frightened and her dreams become frightening. The night before her wedding, Jane is confronted out of sleep by the foul specter of the first Mrs. Rochester:
She took my veil from its place; she held it up, gazed at it long, and then she threw it over her own head, and turned to the mirror. At that moment I saw the reflection of the visage and features quite distinctly in the dark oblong glass."
[...]"Fearful and ghastly to me -- oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discoloured face -- it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!"
[...]"This, sir, was purple: the lips were swelled and dark; the brow furrowed: the black eyebrows widely raised over the bloodshot eyes.
[...]"Sir, it removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them."
[...]"It drew aside the window-curtain and looked out; perhaps it saw dawn approaching, for, taking the candle, it retreated to the door. Just at my bedside, the figure stopped: the fiery eyes glared upon me -- she thrust up her candle close to my face, and extinguished it under my eyes. I was aware her lurid visage flamed over mine, and I lost consciousness: for the second time in my life -- only the second time -- I became insensible from terror." (280-281).
But wait, you say, Jane was awake during this-- how can this count as a dream? This is what’s called, in the science of sleep, as a hypnopompic state. That is the state of mind after immediately waking; you are seeing real things, however, your brain is still in the creative space of dreams. It allows Jane to vent her inner psychology in waking life just like her daydreams and visions. So when Jane sees Bertha, dressed in white and wearing her wedding veil, her subconscious mind twists the situation to express a lingering fear. This is not what Bertha looks like. Jane’s brain makes her to have “lips [...] swelled and dark, black eyebrows, [... and] bloodshot eyes” (281). Psychologically, the whole thing seems to foreshadow a future Jane is very afraid of. Obviously this ordeal does not divine a solution to Jane’s problem. However, following the dream she acts on the fears represented by the dream and decides not to marry Rochester. Because the two events- the dream and the action- happen directly next to each other, the cause and effect relationship is implied.
*upper left- she walks! (from the BBC)
*lower right- a remarkable child. (also BBC)
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A Novel Ideatag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice//238.22322007-04-23T04:00:25Z2007-05-07T05:25:31Z Structurally, Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman, a story of the main character’s development from childhood to adulthood. This causes a lot of scholars to view Jane’s forward progression as the sole importance of the book. For example, in her...John A. Dreams
Structurally, Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman, a story of the main character’s development from childhood to adulthood. This causes a lot of scholars to view Jane’s forward progression as the sole importance of the book. For example, in her essay “Plain Jane’s Progress,” Sandra Gilbert uses the first line to exemplify the book’s odyssey:
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” Both the occasion (“that day”) and the excursion (or the impossibility of taking one) are significant: the first is the real beginning of Jane’s pilgrim progress toward maturity; the second is a metaphor for the problems she must solve in order to attain maturity. (475).
So why does Bronte include dreams at all? A scholar must ponder this. Perhaps it’s for realistic purposes. As Frederick J. Ashe argues, in his essay “Jane Eyre: The Quest for Optimism”, that Jane has always been a depressed little girl. Depression is certainly a condition that lends itself to dreams and fantasy. One could certainly have a daydream while laying, Doritos stained and motionless, on the couch for several hours. Even realistically, dreams are useful. To prove just how useful they can be I will now share my own personal pillow fairy. I dreamt this and recorded the incident in a blog entry called “Secondary Revision and... The Shadow”:
Something felt wrong. The room I was in had a strange glow. I was in a modern looking office building. The colors were realistic but everything had a halo around it, like it was being viewed through a soft filter. I feel like my head's being tumbled in a clothes dryer. I was sitting at a table. Two literary agents were flanking me. Apparently they work for me.
They hand me a manuscript that they say is a play the other half of my brain wrote.
- This is ridiculous, I protest. This is absolute absurdity!
I looked across the table and I saw my self, my shadow (archetype). I didn't get a great look at him. He looked sloppy, almost deranged, but younger that my current self because his hair was shorter.
- This is the play, they say as they open the manuscript for me.
I looked directly at the script as it opened-- and then I woke up, probably from the absurdity I felt, and I had a violent urge to go to the bathroom.
I remember one sentence manifesting itself in my mind as I faded back into waking consciousness. Your brain will take care of you. It was after this I had the courage to write a play (which went pretty well, by the way). See, practical dreaming happens in real life too.
But realistic or not, dreams serve a practical purpose in Bronte’s book. Dreams are essential to the development of the plot in Jane Eyre. Some of these dreams are outright helpful to Jane, giving her a solution to something she’s been mulling over, but other times they are not. However, when following the plot, it’s plain to see that all of Jane’s actions are precursored by a dream, daydream, or trance.
*upper left- here's a title you're sure to recognize.
*lower right- novel good!
]]>
Suggested Readingtag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice//238.22312007-04-23T03:59:49Z2007-05-07T05:28:12Z (To get a well-rounded perspective on Jane Eyre and dream theory in general, I think you should start here and work your way forward.) Ashe, Frederick L. “Jane Eyre: The Quest for Optimism.” Novels for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context,...John A. Dreams
(To get a well-rounded perspective on Jane Eyre and dream theory in general, I think you should start here and work your way forward.)
Ashe, Frederick L. “Jane Eyre: The Quest for Optimism.” Novels for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Novels. Ed. Diane Telgen. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1997.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Beth Newman. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Trans. Joyce Crick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Gilbert, Sandra M. “Plain Jane’s Progress.” Jane Eyre. Ed. Beth Newman. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996. 475-501.
Hartmann, Ernest. Dreams and Nightmares: the Origin and Meaning of Dreams. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2001.
Hobson, J. Allan. The Dream Drugstore. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.
Jung, Carl G. Dreams. 1974. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990.
*upper left- Orson Welles-- my favorite Rochester. (As for Timothy Dalton-- just like in James Bond, anyone else is better.)
*lower right- Look up! Now look these up.
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About the Authortag:blogs.qc.cuny.edu,2007:/blogs/dreams/jrice//238.22302007-04-23T03:59:06Z2007-05-07T15:35:36ZJohn has weedled his way into the hearts of dozens with his Groucho Marx-like antics and stunning good looks. (And some people even say that he's pretty bright.) He hasn't recieved this much attention since he played King Lear in...John A. Dreams
John Rice is graduating Queens College with a BA in English, with high honors. He has currently accepted admission into the Queens College creative writing MFA program.
*left- A stunningly intelligent (and good looking) man.
*right- A stunningly fantastic actor. (From the Orson Welles film adaptation of Jane Eyre)
]]>
This happens a lot in Jane Eyre. Jane has quite a few dreams, trances, and other fantasies. As Mr. Rochester says, she “[exists] in a kind of artist’s dreamland” (132). Jane keeps her head in the clouds because she uses dreams practically. People have things they mull over in their waking life that they just can’t figure out. They’re just too close to the problem to do the simple math to solve it. Sleep gives the brain a chance to relax and put two and two together. When Jane is confronted with a problem in her waking life, she first participates in some sort of sleep activity- be it a dream, or a daydream, or something as simple as putting her head to her pillow- before she acts on her problem. This is a psychological way of life for her because it allows her to address, sometimes even solve, her problems.
When talking about Bronte dreams, I felt that the "pictured metaphor" (2)theory of psychologist Ernest Hartmann was best. I looked at a few dream theorists when trying to find someone scientific who would be comparable to Bronte’s use of dreams. Sigmund Freud’s idea of all dreams being wish fulfillment (181)? Not really. Carl Jung’s theory of dreams compensating for your daily life (38)? Not quite. Biologist J. Allan Hobson’s dogma of all dreams being useless chemical byproducts of the sleeping brain (4)? Not even close. The only thing that came close was Hartmann’s idea of dreams dealing with your waking emotions. Bronte uses her Jane Eyre dreams in a way that is similar to Hartmann, but predates him. Dreams get Jane’s thoughts and emotions out onto a stage where they can play themselves out, like Hartmann’s “pictured metaphor” (2).
Jane is really chewing over a predicament that she just cannot solve while awake. But as soon as her head hits the pillow-- BAM-- problem solved. (Now that’s some practical dreaming.) It’s a pillow fairy. (That’s not to say, an actual fairy, but a solution that comes directly from sleep.) Many of the dreams play out in a fashion similar to this one (although perhaps not as directly). Bronte uses her Jane Eyre dreams in a way that is similar to Hartmann, but predates him. Dreams get Jane’s thoughts and emotions out onto a stage where they can play themselves out, like Hartmann’s “pictured metaphor” (2). Problem. Dream. Solution.
[...]"This, sir, was purple: the lips were swelled and dark; the brow furrowed: the black eyebrows widely raised over the bloodshot eyes.
[...]"Sir, it removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them."
[...]"It drew aside the window-curtain and looked out; perhaps it saw dawn approaching, for, taking the candle, it retreated to the door. Just at my bedside, the figure stopped: the fiery eyes glared upon me -- she thrust up her candle close to my face, and extinguished it under my eyes. I was aware her lurid visage flamed over mine, and I lost consciousness: for the second time in my life -- only the second time -- I became insensible from terror." (280-281).
But wait, you say, Jane was awake during this-- how can this count as a dream? This is what’s called, in the science of sleep, as a hypnopompic state. That is the state of mind after immediately waking; you are seeing real things, however, your brain is still in the creative space of dreams. It allows Jane to vent her inner psychology in waking life just like her daydreams and visions. So when Jane sees Bertha, dressed in white and wearing her wedding veil, her subconscious mind twists the situation to express a lingering fear. This is not what Bertha looks like. Jane’s brain makes her to have “lips [...] swelled and dark, black eyebrows, [... and] bloodshot eyes” (281). Psychologically, the whole thing seems to foreshadow a future Jane is very afraid of. Obviously this ordeal does not divine a solution to Jane’s problem. However, following the dream she acts on the fears represented by the dream and decides not to marry Rochester. Because the two events- the dream and the action- happen directly next to each other, the cause and effect relationship is implied.
They hand me a manuscript that they say is a play the other half of my brain wrote.
- This is ridiculous, I protest. This is absolute absurdity!
I looked across the table and I saw my self, my shadow (archetype). I didn't get a great look at him. He looked sloppy, almost deranged, but younger that my current self because his hair was shorter.
- This is the play, they say as they open the manuscript for me.
I looked directly at the script as it opened-- and then I woke up, probably from the absurdity I felt, and I had a violent urge to go to the bathroom.
I remember one sentence manifesting itself in my mind as I faded back into waking consciousness. Your brain will take care of you. It was after this I had the courage to write a play (which went pretty well, by the way). See, practical dreaming happens in real life too.
But realistic or not, dreams serve a practical purpose in Bronte’s book. Dreams are essential to the development of the plot in Jane Eyre. Some of these dreams are outright helpful to Jane, giving her a solution to something she’s been mulling over, but other times they are not. However, when following the plot, it’s plain to see that all of Jane’s actions are precursored by a dream, daydream, or trance.
