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, Kate has 15 related dreams about the seal. These dreams and the things that appear in them are not accidental; they all have their own mission. Lessing closely connects Kate‟s real experience with the dream. Kate‟s three different stages of dreaming reveal her state of mental activity and have a significant impact on her subsequent actions. These dreams also help Kate achieve her self-salvation. Therefore, the seal dream in the novel has profound significance. The next section will analyze the first stage of the seal dream: the stranded seal. 

Kate has been translating for the Globe Food for a week now, so she is accustomed to the job. She experiences her first seal dream here, where she lives by herself in a simple small room: 

She came down a hillside in a landscape that was northern, and unknown to her. Someone said, “Look, what is that strange thing, look something dark is lying there.” She thought, A slug? Surely it can‟t be, no slug is as large as that. But it was a seal, lying stranded and helpless among dry rocks high on a hillside. It was moaning. She picked it up. It was heavy. She asked if it were all right, if she could help it. It moaned, and she knew she had to get it to water. She started to carry the seal in her arms down the hill. (Lessing, 35-36) 

CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUSION

The Summer Before the Dark tells the story of how the heroine, Kate, goes from housewife to career woman and then back to her family. In the overt plot of the summer journey, Lessing portrays the female image of Kate getting out of the predicament and returning to the family. The novel depicts Kate‟s confusion and helplessness and shows her real state of existence. Being a wife, mother, woman and other social roles make Kate face unsolvable conflicts and pressure, and lead to her mental breakdown. After this summer journey of choice between duty and freedom, Kate finally chose to go home. She does not evade her responsibilities as a wife, mother and woman. This time, however, Kate chooses to keep the gray hair of aging as a statement that she will not give up the freedom of her true self because of the constraints of duty. In this summer before dark, in this short time of youth before aging and death, Kate finds the balance between duty and freedom, and achieves her self-growth. The theme of returning to family also reflects Lessing‟s more profound and careful thinking on women‟s issues after entering middle age.

There is also a narrative undercurrent under the overt plot of the summer journey. The numerous, fragmented seal dreams in the text constitute the covert progression in the novel. From the beginning of Kate‟s summer journey, whether in the Globe Food, on the trip, in the hotel, or Maureen‟s apartment, fantastic and real dreams have always accompanied her. In her dreams, a wounded seal out of the water is the main image. Lessing uses the non-verbal experience of dreams to emerge the repressed desires in the real world with the help of figurative and symbolic images. The seal in the dream symbolizes Kate‟s own lost, confusion, and thinking about life, and even marriage. The boundless sea symbolizes the endless marriage. And she is the escaped seal. The seal is Kate, a soul in need of redemption. She is confused in her dreams all summer.本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。