A Study On Watkins’s Dreams In Briefing For A Descent Into Hell

The British celebrated female writer,Doris Lessing’s(1919-2013)first science fiction novel,Briefing for a Descent into Hell(1971)was nominated for the Booker Prize and was defined as an “inner-space novel” by Lessing.The novel describes the process of Charles Watkins being hospitalized due to mental illness,which is interspersed with his dreams,the conversations between medical staff and him,as well as related letters to help him recover.The most notable feature of the novel is Watkins’ s dreams.With the help of Carl Gustav Jung’s theory of dream interpretation,the thesis studies the types,causes,and functions of Watkins’ s dreams in the novel,so as to explore Lessing’s writing purpose that calls on people to pay attention to the reality issues of today’s society.First,the thesis explains the types of Watkins’ s dreams from reaction-dreams and reductive dreams.Watkins’ s daily reaction-dreams that are related to personal experiences closely,include family dreams,work dreams,and war dreams,mirroring the serious influence of disharmonious family,disappointing work,and war on people’s psychology.Watkins’ s reductive animal dreams incorporate the harmonious symbiosis animal dreams and the antagonistic animal dreams,thus showing the reality of the gradual deterioration of the ecological environment and the ever-expanding scale of the war.Secondly,this thesis focuses on Watkins’ s daily complexes of the personal unconscious and animal archetypes of the collective unconscious to explore the causes of his dreams.In real life,Watkins is faced with the estranged family relationship,the disillusionary work environment,and painful war experiences,which contributes to the formation of his complexes.Watkins’ s animal dreams are from the animal archetypes in myths and fairy tales,indicating that human development is limited by the ecological environment,war,and riots.Finally,this thesis illustrates the functions of Watkins’ s dreams,covering the compensation of Watkins’ s daily life and the prospect of human predicament.Thereinto,compensatory functions of Watkins’ s dreams are reflected in the compensation of his family warmth,work value,and war trauma,and the prospective functions are embodied in the prospect of ecological crisis and cruel wars.This thesis studies types,causes,and functions of Watkins’ s dreams in Briefing for a Descent into Hell,reflecting human predicament after two world wars and industrial revolutions,revealing that human beings are affected passively by the control of negative energy under the combined effect of the indifferent family environment,disappointing work environment,and miserable war experiences.Meanwhile,the severe consequences of ecological crisis and wars can not be underestimated.Indeed,the ultimate purpose of Lessing’s portrayal of Watkins’ s dreams is to call on contemporary people to pay attention to mental health in order to achieve comprehensive and balanced development of individuals.