Dreams

Susan Taubes uses dreams to blur the distinction between reality and unreality, and life and death. The portrayal of dreams also creates a sense of confusion and disorientation in the reading and comprehension of the novel itself. In this capacity, dreams provide a link between the form and the content of the novel, and they are responsible for its metafictional qualities.

From the novel's opening pages, the depiction of Sophie's dreaming prevents the reader from establishing a definite sense of the time and place in which the events of the narrative take place. "She was in a room in bed; to this familiar notion Sophie held on while she was having the wildest dream. But is she dreaming? She is in a room writing" (8). In these opening remarks, neither Sophie, nor the reader, is able to establish Sophie's true location and conscious state, because reality is...