Lesson 3: Nightmares
A primary source of both adult and childhood fears is nightmares. These come directly from the subconscious and the fears stored there. This lesson looks at the implications of the nightmare in horror literature, with a discussion of the authors Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.
Lesson Introduction
Lesson objectives:
Explore the role of dreams in horror literature.
Discuss the images of nightmares.
Discuss Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft and their use of nightmare in literature.
Resources referred to are the Introduction and Chapter V of Clemens's work, and Chapter III of King's work.
I am once again going to refer to my little boy. Children and nightmares are inextricably linked. During the day children play and run and have fun. During the night the fears that they never gave a thought to in the sunlight come to haunt their dreams. My little one screams even louder for a nightmare than he does for the darkness. A nightmare to him is real. His fears come alive in his bad dreams. Of course my goosebumps are directly proportional to the terror and the volume of his cries. Poor child.
There are two nightmares that I had as a child that continue to haunt me to this day. The first is an abandonment nightmare. I was alone and lost in the snow. Filled with the most ghastly loneliness, and a wish for my mother, I finally came to a little wooden house. The old lady inside let me in and told me that she had a phone. When I tried to phone my mother, I had forgotten the number! I felt more lost than ever, and woke up in chills.
The other nightmare concerns death. One of my cousins had died and his corpse was in a house with bare white walls. I came into the house carefully to look at the body. There was no furniture apart from the bed on which he lay. He suddenly sat up and grabbed my wrist. I woke up finishing the scream I had started during the nightmare.
Other interesting nightmares that I frequently hear about are those in which you dream that you "wake up". I had one like that recently. I kept waking up and thought it was real, making it all the more terrifying, until I finally did wake up.
Nightmares feed on our fears. Above I dreamed of abandonment, death and entrapment, all of which are common human fears. In preparation for this lesson, think about your dream history. If possible, write down the last nightmare you remember having. Consider which of your fears were manifest in this nightmare. What would be your greatest nightmare in real life?
Now. Let's dream.
