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

Term Paper Title	Nathaniel Hawthorne Weaves Dreams Into Reality In Much Of His 19th Century Prose
# of Words	1404
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.62

Nathaniel Hawthorne Weaves Dreams into Reality in Much of His 19th Century Prose

     Nathaniel Hawthorne, a master of American fiction, often utilizes dreams within the annals of
his writings to penetrate, explore and express his perceptions of  the complex moral and spiritual conflicts
that plague mankind.  His clever, yet crucial purpose for using dreams is to represent, through symbolism,
the human divergence conflict manifested in the souls of man during the firm Christian precepts of the Era
in which he lived.  As a visionary in an extremely conservative Puritanical society, he carefully and
successfully manages to depict humanity's propensity for sin and secrecy, and any resulting punishment or
atonement by weaving dreams into his tales.  The dreams he refers to in many of his writings are heavily
symbolic due to his Christian foundation, and they imply that he views most dreams as a pigmentation of
reality.  Hawthorne's ability to express and subsequently bring to fruition the true state of man's sinful
nature by parallelling dreams with reality represents not only his religious beliefs but also his true mastery
of observation regarding the huma!
n soul.
     An examination of Hawthorne's own narrative in his short story, The Birthmark, published in 1850
during the 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 and interject a narrative of his assertions.   Hawthorne
historically has his characters confront reality following a dream, or he reveals that the whole ordeal that
his characters have faced are, in fact, dreams.   Hawthorne nudges the reader to conclude that dreams can
sometimes solve conflicts that are many times c!
ategorically denied while one is awake.  Hawthorne expresses the fact that dreams are possibly warnings
and that often mankind does not heed them.    His profound statement about dreams suggests that by paying
attention to the sleeping imagination, a person  might reconcile adverse moral behavior and establish more
balance and clarity of reality while they are awake.
      The Bible was a direct source of reference for Hawthorne.  He grew up reading and studying religious
concepts.  In the Book of Job, Elihu's speech to Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar expresses Hawthorne's
belief in God's "answer" to mankind's sinfulness.
               For God speaks again and again, in dreams, in visions of the
               night when deep sleep falls on men as they lie on their beds.  He
               opens their ears in times like that, and gives them wisdom and
               instruction, causing them to change their minds, and keeping
               them from pride, and warning them of the penalties of sin, and
               keeping them from falling into some 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 ...

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