SH+P6+2014+Robert+Louis+Stevenson’s+essay+“A+Chapter+on+Dreams”

Charles Toller Audience: The audience is the people in the world. In his essay “A Chapter on Dreams”, Mr. Stevenson says, “ Upon these grounds, there are some among us who claim to have lived longer and more richly than their neighbors; when they lay asleep they claim they were still active…” (Stevenson 2). He is speaking here, to the world, using the royal us to indicate that he is speaking to the entire audience here. Also, he states something very important to the rest of the article: “...when they lay asleep they claim they were still active...” (Stevenson 2). He is really laying out his audience here by stating that everyone, those who lie awake and lie sleeping, their past exists in their memories only, and that, “but which of them is what we call true, and which a dream, there is not one hair to prove” (Stevenson 1). When he says this, he says it with strength, because it is true. Whenever there is a court case, there are different recounts of what happened. And all of it has to be considered true. Someone’s idea of the past is just as valid as another’s.



Leonard Aros Aim: In “A Chapter on Dreams”, Robert Louis Stevenson conveys a connection between dreams and writing. In Stevenson’s essay “A Chapter on Dreams,” he states: The look of the world beginning to take hold on his attention, scenery came to play a part in his sleeping as well as in his waking thoughts, so that he would take long, uneventful journeys and see strange towns and beautiful places as he lay in bed… he began to read in his dreams—tales, for the most part… but so incredibly more vivid and moving than any printed book, that he has ever since been malcontent with literature. (Stevenson 1) This piece from Stevenson explains how his once nightmares became beautiful dreams and how these dreams became stories. Since childhood, Stevenson would suffer from nightmares. As he grew older, Stevenson would go over his past dreams write them as tales; the descriptions in the dreams that he wrote were so vivid that Stevenson eventually used these to make complete tales. Later, Stevenson’s nightmares transitioned “beautiful” dreams which were also used for making his works of literature. Robert Louis Stevenson’s use of dreams as stories became classic literature, and without his nightmares and illnesses, these stories would have never came to be.



Alejandro Urquides Cultural : Dreams have had a large impact on people and their culture, from the time of Robert Louis Stevenson, up until even now. This is especially true in the case of Robert Louis Stevenson, who often wrote his books based on his dreams. The National Library of Scotland, talking about A Chapter on Dreams says that,“This work was suddenly interrupted by a dream, which was to become The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” (NLS). Stevenson knew how to interpret his dreams correctly, and turned them into stories. He believed that a person lived a “double-life” one of which is when they are awake, and one that is when they are asleep and dreaming (Stevenson 1 ). Stevenson knew how to interpret his own dreams, and got classic stories out of them. It is important for people today to learn to read their dreams, and there are common ways that people do that. For example, people think that if they see someone in a dream, it means that they miss that person. They have come up with all kinds of meanings to explain the dreams that they had the previous night.



Aidan Nash Historical: As Robert Louis Stevenson was a young man in the late 1850’s, he was prone to sickness, and it is said that this may have led to him having excessive nightmares. Stevenson would often write about his dreams, which gave him the ideas to some of his novels including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and of course, A Chapter on Dreams. “ You can kill the body but not the spirit ” (Stevenson 1). Stevenson believed so strongly in his dreams that he disregarded his sickness and wrote his stories. Stevenson’s father’s support of his writings forwarded his career and gave him more determination to keep writing. Historically speaking, most of Stevenson’s stories will and have already made history, however, A Chapter on Dreams brought a whole new meaning and purpose of dreams. Even up until today, people can relate to having dreams, mostly because everybody has them. He was able to inspire many people to actually follow their literal dreams, and made people think about them more so than they already do. This really opened new ideas and brought to world to a new level of the psyche.

Works Cited "A Chapter on Dreams." A Chapter on Dreams. National Library of Scotland, 2007. Web. 25 July 2014.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. ""A Chapter on Dreams"." Selected Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson. Lit2Go Edition. 1892. Web. <__http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/110/selected-essays-of-robert-louis-stevenson/5111/a-chapter-on-dreams/__>. July 24, 2014.

"Robert Louis Stevenson." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2014.