Christa Giles

152
autres se présentaient aussitôt, fermées dans
une pièce noire; et toutes donnaient sur des
lieux de débarras, dans des niches obscures
qui se reliaient entre elles par d’autres portes
et aboutissaient généralement a une grande
salle éclairée, sur le parc, une salle en loques,
pleine de débris et de miettes. 416
The prospective ˝descent˝ into the caves, the repeated
references to doors and corridors, are elements which
function within a network of imagery and symbols which
subsume the novel and were to become commonplace in
their association with the dream after Freud.
The overriding symbol of the work is naturally that
of the voyage. This manifests itself in concrete terms in the
dream of the trip to the moon. The symbols are both more
concrete (being visual) and although often obscure and
ambiguous, possess a universal meaning. Thus Louise and
Jacques’ ˝voyage˝ to the moon in the second dream sequence
is described in terms of the vocabulary of a voyage. ˝Non, je
ne me suis pas trompé de route,˝ 417 says Jacques. Upon their
arrival on the moon ˝avec une sereine certitude, il
s’orienta.˝ 418 Later, Jacques consults a map and tells Louise
they have the choice between two roads, and so on.