T.S. Eliot once said, "Humankind cannot bear very much reality," and I find that very much to be true in certain cases. May of us find ourselves trying to escape reality, whether it be by reading a book or watching a movie. This quote also applies to the movie Inception and in the short story Was it a Dream? by Guy de Maupassant. The characters Mallorie Cobb and the main character in the short story (he will be referred to as the narrator) find themselves in a situation where they reject/escape their reality.
In Inception, Mal and Dom spend years building their own world in their dreams, but when they return to reality, she finds herself in a state of uncertainty. Partially due to Dom planting an idea inside her mind, she begins to doubt whether the reality they live in is actually real. "An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious. And even the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you." Through Dom's memories, the audience can tell how psychological unstable Mal became after waking up from their dream world, and the idea he had planted within her eventually leads to her death. Mal rejected reality by insisting their children weren't really their children in this world, that they'd have to go back to the world they made to find their real children. This reiterates to the quote; Mal couldn't bear the reality where the world they made was not real.
In Was it a Dream? the narrator mourns for his dead lover. Surrounded by memories all over the apartment, all he can think about is her which drives him to the point where he himself wishes for death, he "felt like opening the window and throwing [himself] out..." (Maupassant 150). Feeling trapped, the narrator quickly exits the place to visit her grave. As the grief of her death is too much to bear, the narrator alters his interpretation of reality to cope with her death. "They were all writing at the same time, on the threshold of their eternal abode, the truth, the terrible and the holy truth, of which everybody was ignorant, or pretending to be ignorant while they were alive" (Maupassant 153). For closure, the narrator wanted his lover to have wronged him; he makes her out to be deceiving and unfaithful in his dream instead of seeing her as the loving person she was. It would be easier to get over her if she wasn't a good person.
Both stories show that the characters would rather not bear with reality as their dreams seem more ideal. For Mal, the life she lived with Dom in their own world was more appealing and for the narrator of Was it a Dream?, he made his lover to be a worse person that she was to find a way to move on from her passing.
Do you ever find yourself wishing your dreams to be reality? Do you think dreams are often too good to be true?
The harshness of reality makes fleeting dreams and worlds only possible in our imagination seem much more beautiful in comparison. When there are hundreds of injustices in the world so complex that a solution is unfathomable, reading a story where the defeat of one single person provides a sense of comfort and a wishful feeling. How nice would it be if you could end world hunger by defeating a villain parading around in spandex? However, the hardships of reality are also what make accomplishments in it much more rewarding. In "Windows", Leah suffered from the loss of her husband, Mikail, and the burden of supporting several children alone: "Leah wondered when had [her death] started-when Mikail died? Probably[.] [...] But in those years she hadn't the time [to notice], she'd been too busy, getting coal and firewood, mitts and shoes - all the things that had to somehow be gotten" (Morgan, 110). The hardship leaves her with little willpower to do things for herself and her own happiness during her elderly years. Eventually, she finds joy in living again through changing her perspective. Perhaps in a dream, Mikail would have never passed away. Then, Leah would have always lived joyously and would not have to face the many difficulties in life that she did. However, being able to overcome the hardships she encountered and the growth she makes personally due to them is what makes her accomplishment so grand. Leah was able to find joy in her life and it lasted, unlike dreams which are gone once we have to face reality. Dreams may be sweeter than reality, but it is in reality that we find true happiness and grow as a person.
ReplyDeleteWhile dreams are all nice and happy, they cannot be substitutes for reality. Reality grounds us. It keeps us sane, even if the world around us seems to be mad. On the other hand, dreams morph and change and do not follow the proper rules of the world. A dream drives us to insanity. For example, in the movie "Paprika," there exists a device that allows people to explore dreams, not unlike they do in Inception. However what they find is that being inside of the dream for too long turns people insane. They reject the logic brought into the dream world: "In a world of inhumane reality, it is the only humane sanctuary left. That is a dream. That parade is full of refugees who were unwillingly chased out of reality." (Paprika). The Chairman, drunk on the power of imagination, hates the reality that is brought into the dream. He rejects reality and lives in the dream, which in turn causes him to lose his mind. Dreams are meant to be used as a refuge from reality. However without reality the dream begins to grow into less of a refuge and more of a prison.
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