The Hidden Dreams in Reality
Life. Expressed to be a beautiful experience. Therefore, as you experienced it pure bliss was engulfed through your body. First, your birth not real thought or felt in the point in time but, a necessity to begin your journey. Numerous years go by without notice really. Finally, you found the one. The one that will accompany you forever for the remainder of your journey. Unexpectedly, new members join in on your journey. Children. More years pass by. There you are laying on your deathbed.However, not saddened. You have loved life. Severa memories, moments of happiness and joy. At last you let your eyes fall. But, your eyes does not remained shut. Your eyes open. In shock, your eyes shoot open. Franticall, scanning yoursurroundign while, your heartbeat is felt throughout your whole body. You cannot believe your eyes. There you lying in your childhood bedroom. Waves of questions crash throughout your mind: Was it all dream? My entire life? How could it be? It felt real right? Am I still dreaming? This concept is explored in both the short story, Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the poem, Dream Within a Dream, composed by Edgar Allan Poe. In comparison, the literature works carry more similarities than in differences. For example, the both carry the central concept of dream versus reality and share a significantly alike opening to their works. However, going into specifics in theme there are shown to be different. To start off, the most obvious similarity between the two works is their exploration or representation of fantasy against reality. In Hawthorne's short story, the protagonist questions whether a particular event in the woods was a figment of his imagination or reality. The time the character was in the woods various shocking reveals were presented making the character overwhelmed and changed forever therefore, the questioning of the whole situation came into play. For the reason, that the character woke in the middle of the woods after walking into the woods at night. The imagery playing a key role is this situation because the descriptive wording of the woods and situation helped place understanding of the questioning. However, the answer of whether it was real or not is never answered. Now, in Poe's poem, the lines indicates life is a dream itself. In other words, what we experience and or envision is our own mind displaying what we want to see and or feel. This allows or ignites the readers to feel the questioning of reality. It is inevitable to question. So, in the end it is pretty explicit to see how these two works are the exact same when it comes down to the question of dream against reality.
To add on, the introduction. Opening. Hook. Whatever, floats your boat. In regards, to these two literary works, their intros are exactly the same. In both the poem and short story, the first sentences involve the feeling and or event of departure. In Nathaniel's part, the protagonist is departing from his beloved wife, faith. As the protagonist goes, further and further away from is loved one more and more negativity follows. This is showing how the feeling or sense of leaving from a loved one will result in bad events or just bad feelings in general. Then, in Edgar's piece, the opening is, "Take a kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now", (Poe lines 1-2). This clearly shows a moment of departure. Here we can see how the author's tone is pouring in giving the feel of sorrow that foreshadows the lines coming will be a sense of anger, frustration, and or simple All in all, it would be quite unbelievable to not see the presented or may I say obvious similarity between the two works.
Although, the two have been similar. There is one distinction between the two. Theme. In definition, the central idea of a work of literature. The theme in Hawthroes, story is expressed to be that our genuine, true beliefs despite our reputation can change the way we perceive and or see the world. This themes comes from the plot where the protagonist loses his faith due to numerous amount of religious people are shown to be associated with devil. Furthermore, the use of symbolism was a huge contributor to presenting this theme For example, mere pink ribbons symbolized the main character's faith which fell at some point (loss of faith). Also, there was a serpent staff that was used to represent evil/deformity and the devil himself which gave a clear visions of how the people were connected with evil. After the loss of faith the religious ones' true identities, the protagonist loses his trust in people and views everyone as liars/imposters. In contrast, the theme in Poe's work is no matter how hard we try we have no grip over reality or more specifically time. There was one significant factor in the poem that expressed the theme perfectly and with ease. In the poem, the use of a metaphor did it lll. The lines were, "And I hold within my hand Grains of golden sand ーHow few! Yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep...O God! Can I no grasp Them with a tighter clasp? ...Can I not save One...", (Poe lines 14-21). The text allows us to see that the metaphor of sand signifies that there i no tight grip on reality or time. Time passes no matter what whether a person accepts reality or not. Overall, there is a difference between the works of literature and it is a great
one.
As mentioned before, Hawthorne and Poe's works are shown to have more similarities than differences. But, the one distinction between the carries a great divide. Both of these texts have shown significant concepts abut life. Read them! Study them! Know them! It may change your life if you genuinely take their themes into consideration and analysis.
