ABSTRACT
In addition to demonstrating the way concepts of dream and dream work construct the novel, this chapter shows how Durrell uses particular dreams to bring forth prominent themes of the novel.
Durrell was not content to fully adopt the Freudian notion of the centrality of sexuality in explaining human motivation. Based upon his own experience as an employee of the British Administration during the forties and fifties, he constructs a narrative which uses actual political events in Egypt and Palestine in that period, to portray the individual, again, as a pawn in a game whose rules seem to be arbitrary.
The interpretation of some dreamwork shows the intricate relation between form and content of the dreams. Dreams can be seen to communicate to the reader what the narrator is supposedly unaware of regarding what is true and what is not.
Beyond the question of truth, The Alexandria Quartet, and its abundance of references to the workings of the unconscious, be it through actual dreams or through dream-like rich metaphoric prose, deals with the protagonist’s quest for meaning in a world which seems to be traumatised both by political upheavals as well as individual sufferings. The dream work which the tetralogy offers, points towards a remedy – language. It is the power of language both to injure but also to heal. It is the function of writing, so Durrell claims, to transform pain into art. The particular pain that Durrell sought to relieve through the transformative force of sublimitive writing can be described as relating to his severed sense of belonging. Not being a citizen of any particular nation, as Durrell was, his protagonist becomes a citizen of his own consciousness. Through his existential efforts to make sense of himself, and his world, he is an example of modern man. No longer able to put his trust in the Old World security, shattered by two World Wars, he turns inwards, seeking to define himself through the terms Freudian thought has provided.
