Dream of The Red Chamber - Themes

Themes

The novel is most often titled Hóng Lóu Mèng (紅樓夢), literally "Red Chamber Dream". "Red chamber" is an idiom with several definitions; one in particular refers to the sheltered chambers where the daughters of prominent families reside. It also refers to a dream in Chapter 5 that Baoyu has, set in a "red chamber", where the fates of many of the characters are foreshadowed. "Chamber" is sometimes translated as "mansion" because of the scale of the Chinese word "樓". However the word "mansion" is thought to neglect the flavour of the word "chamber" and it is a mistranslation according to scholar Zhou Ruchang.

The novel's tone is both metaphysical and realistic, and was constructed in a way that reality and illusion are often hinted side by side and difficult to differentiate. It has been hailed as one of the most complex and psychologically penetrating works in all of world literature. The novel also provides great insight in its depiction of the Chinese culture of the time, including description of the era's "manners, expectations, and consequences." Many aspects of Chinese culture, such as medicine, cuisine, tea culture, proverbs, mythology, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, filial piety, opera, music, painting, classic literature, the Four Books, etc. are vividly portrayed. Among these, the novel is particularly notable for its grand use of poetry.

Two major themes that are prevalent throughout the novel are the nature of "reality" and of the "truth." The name of the main family, Jia (賈, pronounced jiǎ), is a homophone with the Chinese character jiǎ 假, meaning false or fictitious. Another family in the book has the surname Zhen (甄, pronounced zhēn), a homophone for the word "real" (真). Thus, Cao Xueqin suggests that the novel's family is both a realistic reflection and a fictional or "dream" version of his own family.