38
of importance that has happened in the chapter and to repeat them,
sometimes in a slightly altered form.
This function is to tell the reader once more which events are really
the most inportant to the hero so far in the novel The second function
is to create the mood in which the reader undergoes all these
developments. In this way the reader experiences the same feelings the
hero himself has. This is why I consider the mood created by the dream
so very important.
IV DREAMS IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS
In GREAT EXPECTATIONS as in DAVID COPPERFIELD the dreams are all
dreamed by the main character, as this novel has been written in the
first person singular as well.
Dreams occur again and again to delineate the hero, Philip, Pirrip or
Pip as he calls himself, as haunted by tha past and by his guilty
conscience. The dreams express his inner life and are a sign of life,
not only of Pip but also of other characters in this novel and others.
A character like Miss Havisham who has buried herself alive ever since
her fiancé Arthur Compeyson had left her in the lurch, does not dream,
not in the sense that U use the word "dream" in this paper. As was
explained in the Introduction there are night dreamsdaydreams and the
"word" dream used as a figure of speech (as in "It was like a dream to
see her again" or "with dreamy eyes..."). A night dream in which people
digest their experiences of the day or in which reality can find an
outlet or a compensation when one's frustrations become to much, Miss
Havisham cannot have, she only has day dreams and bad ones at that.
In these daydreams the reader comes to see her in her full tragedy,
she is static, still, motionless and emotionless. Het house is empty
and dead as well, there is no noise, there are no animals, the garden
is left wild and uncontrolled, of the house not all the rooms are
used, only the apartments where Miss Havisham awaits her death. Her
dream is a dream of revenge and in this light we regard her character.
Thus the feeling with which the reader comes to think of Miss Havisham
is created, her character is enveloped in an atmosphere of cold, hard
and bitter revenge
