Dreamlike Worlds of the Subconscious in Strindberg’s A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata

Abstract

: Modern drama is characterized by the emergence of many revolutionary and avant-garde movements which attempted to resonate the dilemmas of the ‘Modern Man’. August Strindberg who is acknowledged to be the father of Expressionism, in his plays; A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata uses distorted images and disjointed plots in order to project a dreamlike arena in which the images from the realm of subconscious maneuver freely.  In this manner he creates worlds in which personages become character types who commentate on the question of human condition. This paper studies these plays in order to shed light on the Expressionist techniques that are employed by the author. It studies the techniques that are employed by the author to make the images that originate from his subconscious accessible to the audience. Moreover, in addition to associating the play’s thematic structure to the playwright’s personal life, it examines it from a philosophical standpoint, as it questions the paradoxical nature of Man’s existence.