Sleepwalker or Hero? The Motive of Sleep/a Daydreams in a Fairy Tale of Young Poland

The subject of lecture includes onirism — the important topic during the Young Poland period.
The author is trying to present the phenomenon of sleep, sleepwalking and dreams on the basis of the
achievements of philosophers such as Nietzsche or Schopenhauer. Also it is worth mentioning that the
difference between the dream and the daydream which — are often treated as synonymous and similar
concepts. There can be given many exemples of fairy tales, including an element of dramating, from the
epoch of Young Poland, e.g. ‘The Drowned Kingdom” in which is a boy, the main character, who has
sleepy dreams. Afterwards, when he it the story of imprisoned princess, which is told by his grandfather
and additional, which is a metaphor of captive Polish the child is going to decide to release the princess.
When he was dreaming he goes to another land, where he meets magical creatures, which help him to
overcome their weaknesses and also to find the princess. But at the crucial moment the boy suffered
pride and he missed a chance of freedom. He wakes up crestfallen and defeated. He realised that he is
only a child who cannot lead to the liberation of the country. He wanted to do something that for adult
people were too much and they did not have courage, but he forgot that saving the kingdom is not his
role. The situation is perfectly illustrated by Nietzsche’s dictum, which is the poor self that is the finest
enemy of man to achieve heroic deed. The author comes to the conclusion that there is no clear boundary
between dream and reality. The dream of Young Poland’s fairytale hero is not only the other side of reality,
but this is to delve into reality, it is created from matter, build by it.