In another dream of the same dreamer's the sense of responsibility is
clearly present: 'Mrs. F. and Miss R. had called to see me, and I was
sitting in my room talking to them, when a knock came at the door, and
I found there a poor woman belonging to the neighbourhood, but who also
combined in my dream the page-boy at a dear friend's house. From this
friend, whom I had not heard from for some time, the woman bore a large
letter. She tore it open in my presence, saying, "It says here that the
bearer is to open this," and produced from it another letter, a large
document of a legal character in my friend's handwriting. When the woman
began to open the second letter I remonstrated; I was sure that there was
some mistake, that that letter was private, and that no one else ought to
see it. The woman, however, firmly insisted that she must carry out her
instructions; so we had a long discussion. After a time I called Mrs. F.
and appealed to her. She agreed with me that the instructions must only
mean that the bearer was to open the outer envelope, not the inner letter.
At last I took out five shillings and gave it to the woman, telling her
that I would assume all the responsibility for opening the letter myself.
With this she went away well satisfied, saying (as she would in real
life), "All right, Mrs. ----, you're a lady, and you know. All right,
my dear." Then at last I was able to tear open my letter and read these
words: "_Always use Sunlight Soap_." My vexation was extreme.'
On another occasion the same dreamer experienced remorse. She imagined she
was in a restaurant, and the girl behind the counter pointed to a barrel
of beer--a golden barrel, she said, with a magic key--which could only be
opened by the owner. The dreamer declared, however, that she could open
it, and, producing a key, proceeded to do so, handing round beer to the
bystanders. Then she realised that she had been stealing, and was full of
remorse. She asked a friend if she ought to tell the owner, but the friend
replied, 'By no means.' This conclusion of the dream seems to indicate
that the moral sense, though present in dreams, is apt to be impaired.
In yet another dream this dreamer exhibited a curious combination of moral
sensibility and criminal indifference. She imagined that, while walking
with a man, a friend, she revealed to him a secret of a woman friend's.
Then, realising her betrayal of confidence, she decided that the best
thing she could do would be to kill the man. On reflection, however,
she thought that it would, after all, be unkind to do so since he was a
friend, and so told him that if he ever repeated the secret she would have
him torn to pieces. It will be seen that the betrayal of a secret was
felt as a far more serious offence than murder. The facility with which,
in such dreams as this, the suggestion of murder presents itself, even to
dreamers who, when awake, cherish no bloodthirsty or revengeful ideas, is
certainly remarkable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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