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what he has done before, as was shown earlier in this chapter. Still,
as a structural device it serves the same purpose, it draws extra
attention to what happens at the level of the plot and it serves as
the turning point, a moment when the emotions are running highest
and undergo major changes. Once Pip has made up his mind the second
stage of his great expectations are over and he changes into a mature
young man, having come to terms with reality and poverty now that he
is no longer part of someone else's dream.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper my major concern has been to see how the individual dream
functions within the overall construction of a literary work and not
merely see it as a psychological fact. I have come to the conclusion
that in the first place the tone - the prevailing character of senti
ments - that pervades the whole dream passage seems to be the most
important thing, this tone is used to link up the dream with whatever
happened before while at the same time it provides a link with what
will happen later on in the novel. The dream tells the reader what the
hero (the dreamer) feels and gives at the same time a guide line as to
what the reader feels. The dream is a continuation of the action or
actions described in the chapter but more important, determines the
reader's state of mind or feelings. In this manner the dream is a
literary device albeit of a quite different nature than the ones used
in classical and medieval literature
Charles Dickens is in control of the situation of the dream. He uses
the dream for whatever it can give him but does not let it dictate the
contents. The dreams sometimes provide comic relief, sometimes they
are visual dreams with a clear description of what happens.
If the dream is not described in full details the reader is only given
hints of the tone (by using an adjective such as "wid and fearful dreams"
or "a restless night, dreaming all the time"). But in those cases the
dream has the same function, that is to tell the reader where he stands
emotionally.
