Dreams

Given that Stella Maris is a novel of ideas, conveyed in a series of dialogues, there are few tangible symbols throughout the text. Dreams, however, are one of the central ineffable symbols of the novel. Dreams symbolize the degree to which the truth of the world lurks beneath the empirical level of sense perception, a consistent theme of the novel. Some of the most profound truths that Alicia perceives arrive in the form of dreams, from the recurring dream about the ransacked village, to her fleeting, unconscious understanding of Godel’s difficult theories. Dreams are also an individual phenomenon, and therefore a belief in the power of dreams - which Alicia and Dr. Cohen both credit throughout their conversations - symbolizes the power of subjectivity, which Alicia consistently privileges over notions of objective truth. Dreams in Stella Maris constitute a rich, evocative symbol of the degree...