Abstract

A dream may possess or be possessed by the dreamer. My paper is concerned with both alternatives and for my analysis I chose two 19th century narratives: A Christmas Carol and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll’s child dreams of an adult world, which she wishes to enter and possess. Charles Dickens’ Scrooge dreams of his childhood and adolescent innocence and wishes to repossess those features in his adulthood. Common to both dreamers is the wish to mix experiences from both childhood and adulthood, to transform what seems as a series of disjointed and meaningless moments into a coherent narrative. In the beginning, both characters are threatened to be dominated by their dreams. Gradually, Scrooge and Alice want to take possession of time and language, therefore they begin to take control of their dreams. Their choice proves to be an empowering and curative process, as both narratives reveal. This process ends with the dreamers’ accession to power.