The connection between Dracula and dreams, along with the idea that sleep is something to fear because of dreams one might have, is fascinating to me. Lucy experiences sleep walking and the fear of sleep before she becomes a vampire, and in this section of the novel we see the same thing happening to Mina. She begins not sleeping well and having dreams that seem to confuse and paralyze her. Jonathan describes how difficult it is to wake her stating, "Indeed, she was so sound asleep that for a few seconds she did not recognize me, but looked at me with a sort of blank terror, as one looks who has been waked out of a bad dream" (224). She is also described as looking more tired and pale by multiple characters, indicating that these nightmares are taking a physical, as well as mental, toll on Mina. She reveals, "[b]ut some leaden lethargy seemed to chain my limbs and even my will. I lay still and endured; that was all. I closed my eyes, but could still see through my eyelids. (It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine)" (227). This description of her dream sounds like sleep paralysis, which usually occurs when we are in a transition state of either falling asleep or waking. This phenomenon also commonly causes people to claim they felt or saw a dark presence, just as Mina senses Dracula in her nightmares.
Mina acknowledges the power these dreams can exert over one's psyche stating, "I must be careful of such dreams, for they would unseat one's reason if there were too much of them" (228). Dreams, depending on our level of consciousness during sleep, can interfere greatly with our perceptions of reality. We are most vulnerable in our sleep and cannot completely control when we fall asleep or what we dream about. We are also completely isolated during sleep in a psychological sense, which is I think part of the reason Dracula is so powerful over people in their dream-states. Mina's fear is most evident when she declares, "I hope I have not done wrong, for as sleep begins to flirt with me, a new fear comes: that I may have been foolish in thus depriving myself of the power of waking. I might want it" (228). It is clear that there is often a fine line between our waking reality and the wild realm of dreams. No matter how desperately we need it, sleep is not always our friend.
2 comments:
I find it interesting how both Lucy and Mina experience restlessness and strange happenings during their sleep. I wonder if they can sense Dracula's presence and it causes them to be disturbed? Or if it is that sleeplessness that causes them to be vulnerable in the first place.
I wonder if lucid dreaming ever came into play, perhaps not so much with Mina, but in Lucy's sleepwalking decisions to visit the graveyard. In lucid dreaming the dreamer has some control over what happens in the dream. Perhaps the girls did experience it, but Mina, in taking the sleep draughts, gives up this power because she is either scared to or unwilling to control her dreams. Also, if the girls are able to control their dreams what does this have to say about Dracula's influence in the first place? Just a thought.
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