Nathaniel Hawthorne Weaves Dreams Into Reality In Much Of His 19th Century Prose

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

latter part of the period of Puritanism expands his observations of mankind with keen insight.
Truth often finds its way to the mind close-muffled
in robes of sleep, and then speaks with uncompromising
directness of matters in regard to which we practice
an unconscious self-deception, during our waking
moments. (par.15)

The prophetic statement was made by Hawthorne to open the reader's mind and perhaps inject an introspective glimpse of his perspective that dreams do indeed contain precursors or warnings of future conscious realities. He also contends that people often purposely disregard the contents of their dreams and do not face the realities that they are confronted with while in unconscious moments of slumber. Hawthorne's writings are marked by intrinsic depth and a sincere desire to crawl inside of the characters he has created. He accomplishes this objective by allowing them to dream. He makes his presence known by frequently commenting openly throughout his prose ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

trap. (Book of
Job 33:14-18)

Elihu's speech and other similar biblical scripture were part of Hawthorne's personal conceptual beliefs. His foundation consisted of these early Puritanical Christian precepts. These teachings reveal the significance as to the reason he believed dreams to be a reflection of the waking mind and subsequent approaching events. The Bible was considered the law among Puritanists and sacred biblical history is threaded with incidents of dream prophecy. The mystery that surrounds human existence and the need to trust God was imbedded in Hawthorne's own infrastructure at a profound level. Hawthorne believed that mankind simply did not have enough knowledge ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: