The purpose of thesis is to examine aspects and meanings of dream in the works written by Hwang, Soon Won. This study derives from 2 academic motives: one is to interpret the internal consciousness of characters in Hwang's works by analysing their dre...
The purpose of thesis is to examine aspects and meanings of dream in the works written by Hwang, Soon Won. This study derives from 2 academic motives: one is to interpret the internal consciousness of characters in Hwang's works by analysing their dream, the other is to grasp the changing aspect of the main themes in Hwang's literary world. After applying psychoanlaytic theory of Sigmund Freud to Hwang's novels, the resulting accomplishment is as following.
First, dreams about water in Staying with Stars(1947), Descendant of Cain(1953), Human Graft(1955) mean 'return to mother's womb', which embodies the hero's unconscious desire to be held in mother's arm. For example, the hero's obsession with the image of 'blazing eye' in Descendant of Cain, which represent motherhood appears repeatedly. And dreams about 'peach' and 'breast' in Human Graft is substitutions of yearning mother. 'Return to the womb' represented in these dreams is one of the main motifs in Hwang's early literary world.
Secondly, dreams about 'hill', 'cave' in Trees Stand at the Slopes(1960) and The Sun and the Moon(1962) which are main works consisting Hwang's middle stage represent central character's anxious interiority. In the middle stage, Hwang deals with deepened internal conflict of characters, unlike the tendency toward psychic integration in the early stage. Dreams about 'hill' in Trees Stand at the Slope symbolize hero's ontological solitude caused by war symptom, and dreams about 'a house only with stages', 'letter T', 'cave' in The Sun and the Moon embody repeatedly the ontological solitude of the hero caused by status conflict of butchery class.
Thirdly, rehabilitating process from destructed humanity through conflict between self and reality with maternal vitality appears in dream imageries in Moving Castle(1968), God's dice(1978) in the last stage. Apparently, Hwang's novels in the last stage show characteristically that the characters perceive motherhood and vitality equally.
Therefore, dreams in Hwang's novels are used as important apparatus showing hero's interior consciousness and novel's thematic consciousness. The significance of dreams has been dealt broadly form the starting point in Head(1942), and becomes more and more intensified in his later works. Dreams in Hwang's novels let the story proceed and mediate connotations. They are also used as a method to foretell character's internal consciousness or story development, and to reveal the general comprehension of symbolic meaning of Hwang's works. So, interpretation of dreams is one of the most essential tasks studying Hwang's novels.