Analysis of a Literary Dream-- "The Coffee Pot"

And now, a departure. In this final lesson of Unit I, we take the models that science gives us and apply them to literature. Dream theory in particular gives us interesting tools with which to read literary dreams-- not as "real" dreams, but as fictions which implicitly or explicitly comment on the dream experience. Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) is the author of a number of dream-tales. In "The Coffee Pot" (1831) a young man meets a beautiful and tragic young woman in his sleep. But is she a figment of a dream or a ghost?

Podcast Lecture: The Somniloquy

Reading:

Gautier, "The Coffee Pot"

Questions:

1. How does the epigraph (from Joseph's vision) comment on the story?

2. What are the chief characteristics of the bedroom where the narrator is to spend the night?

3. What is wrong with the music during the dancing scene? What purpose does this detail serve?

4. How does the narrative disturb the usual distinctions between dream and wakefulness?

5. Explain the relationship between Angela and the coffee pot?

6. In what ways does this tale remind you of a dream? What dream-like characteristics does it try to emphasize?

Activities:

Analytical Paper-- Narrative on the Couch: Literary analysis often makes use of psychoanalytic techniques to interpret a narrative. How would you read "The Coffee Pot" as a Freudian or a Jungian? Analyze the story using the principles and ideas from either method: Freud would look for distortion, examples of condensation, displacement, and wish fulfillment, whereas Jung would focus on the archetypes present in the literary dream and what they may be trying to tell the dreamer. Do you find that these methods yield interesting analyses of the story? Remember to treat the text not as an actual dream, but as a piece of literary fiction.