Relationship Between Text And Dream example essay topic

At the Threshold of Interpretation In the beginning of the novel, Wuthering Heights, Lockwood is the narrator. This continues for the first three chapters. It is difficult to follow the book because the characters are constantly changing who the narrator is. "how are we to interpret this curious point of articulation between the first three chapters of the novel and the narrative that follows? Certainly not by taking lockwood at his word". (p. 353) Lockwood's dreams have to do with Catherine's books that were left on the window sill. These books also contain some of her dairy which also affects his dreams. "Lockwood's narrative elaborates a system of careful causality to establish the relationship between text and dream". (p. 354) he describes how after reading Catherine's name, he then starts to dream of it.

After one of her diary passages, lockwood experienced his last dream. He tries to let go of a child's hand and it get's cut by the broken window pane. "The waking, rational Lockwood thinks to master this violence by reestablishing the reality of certain texts, but his nightmares mock him. They mimic the structure of his relationship of his relationship to those same texts and reverse the apparent order of ascendancy". (p. 355) Lockwood immediately finds himself dealing with books, diaries, carved writing, and fearful dreams that come to him from his idle reading. His very first experience, his reading of the carved initials, confers on the whole scene a provocative connection between the interior of the paneled bed and the interior of a text. Therefore, the initials Lockwood reads return to him in his semiconscious state.

Another very interesting idea that Jacobs cited from another author's interpretation is the use of names as a sort of anagram for the story's plot. She quotes Frank Ker mode as he found a relationship between the first Catherine, and her daughter, which "generates the movement of the text" (p. 356) .".. you see the point of the order of scribbled names, as Lockwood gives them: Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, Catherine Linton. Read from left to right they recapitulate Catherine Earnshaw's story; read from right to left, the story of her daughter, Catherine Linton" (p. 356) Jacobs interpretation focuses mainly on the relationship between Lockwood from his perspective and from inside Wuthering Heights itself through Nelly's narrative, and how all the elements of character, theme, setting, and plot interconnect to make the story a challenge to interpret. I liked the book, and with the help of some of the interpretations I read although difficult to try to put into words to summarize, I think those interpretations help to understand how all the things that seem so unimportant may be helpful after all..