The Concept of Survival in August Strindberg’s A Dream Play

• Ghassan Awad Ibrahim

Resumen

The Swedish well-known playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912) deals with the concept of survival of mankind in his masterpiece A Dream Play through suffering due to the difficult circumstances people worldwide face during their lifetime so that they finally can get relief. When writing A Dream Play, Strindberg was not acquainted with Sigmund Freud’s conception of dreams but Freud as a specialist in the psychoanalysis is required for inter- preting the real nature and structure of the play. For Freud, dreams which stem from the human subconscious are so significant in affecting and forming the individual personality and they also have the power to depict the manners and inclinations of the human being. In his play, Strindberg presents real tormented characters taken from almost all walks of life, striving for survival in spite of their problematic circumstances. In a Freudian sense, the play is considered a fulfillment of a wish that all people in the world should cast off their servitude to their illusions so that the spiritual values can be prevailed through increasing and improving of people thoughts and consciousness. Re- ally the play is a call for mankind to go back to spiritual values such as love, peace, righteousness, truth and forgiveness in order to achieve peace of mind in this mortal world and in the hereafter.

Citas

- In an essay written by Robert Brustein in a book edited by Travis Bogard and William I. Oliver, Modern Drama, Essays in Criticism (Lon- don: Oxford University Press, 1965), p.332.

- Travis Bogard and William I. Oliver, Modern Drama, Essays in Criticism (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), p321.

- (Ibid321).

- Arvid Paulson, ed. and trans. Letters of Strindberg to Harriet Bosse, p.87, as quoted in Modern Drama, Essays in Criticism p. 351.

- Ibid p.321.

- Ibid p.321.

- Travis Bogard and William I. Oliver, Modern Drama, Essays in Criticism, p.333.

- Ibid, p.335.

- Ibid, p336.

- J.A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms (United States of Ameri- ca, Doubleday &Company, Inc., 1980) p. 253.

- Oscar G. Brockett, The Theater: An Introduction (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), p.298.

- Travis Bogard and William I. Oliver, Modern Drama, Essays in Criti- cism, p.342.

- August Strindberg, “An explanatory Note” to A Dream Play in Walter Johnson, trans., A Dream Play and Four Chamber Plays (New York: Norton & Co., Inc., 1975), p.19. Subsequent references to this edition will appear in this paper.

- Allardyce Nicoll, World Dreams: From Aeschvlus to Anoulith (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1964), p. 562.

- Evert Sprinchorn, Strindberg As Dramatist (New Haven: Yale Univer- sity Press,

, 153.

- Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1999), p.125.

- Evert Sprinchorn, Strindberg As Dramatist, p.405.

- Ibid. 389.

- Raymond Williams. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht (London: Chatto & Windus, 1971), p.95.

- Ibid,p.53.

- Ibid,p.41.

- Ibid, p.44.

- Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams,124.

- Ronald Hayman, Samuel Beckett (London: Heinemann, 1980), p.4. 25- Ibid, p.71.

- Ibid,p.71.

- Ibid,p.71.

- August Strindberg, Twelve plays, trans. Elizabeth Sprigge (London: Constable, 1963). p 588.

- Ibid, p.156.

- Sprinchorn, Strindberg as Dramatist. P 169.

- Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, ed. A.N. Jeffares, York Press, Beirut, 1989, p. 78.