Looking at the symbolism, this ‘young man’ begins to take shape before us, for we see him through his dream. To climb a hill in real life is not only to expend energy, to face a difficulty, but also, if successful. to benefit by seeing the view from the top. A hill, in fact, gives us a wider view of things. So to climb a hill is to face the energetic task of widening our opinions, rising above narrow limited views, growing up. In fact, the dreamer was going through a period of finding new ideas and outlooks. The pub and young men, on the left, are symbols for the pleasure loving, down to earth, rough and ready side of himself. Something on the left of us in a dream often means that it is unknown, or little used (i.e. the left hand is usually the one we are least conscious of, and use the least).
The dream is saying these parts of him are not expressed much in life. This is quite true, as the man was a quiet, serious person, religious and somewhat introverted. The dream shows that his pleasure loving, outgoing side, due to their repression, are drinking the hitters of life, and in fact, this stifled side of his nature causes him to feel bitter himself. He tries to ‘brush this bitterness off’, rather like one might say, ‘I feel depressed, but I’ll soon overcome it.’ Due to his retiring temperament, he does not feel he can face these other parts of himself. In a similar way, a person who inwardly wished to be noticed might through shyness, not even he able to converse. Thus two parts of oneself may war against each other.
The dream goes on to show the dreamer’s present conscious efforts to deal with the conflict leading to bitterness. The policeman is on the right, representing his more conscious attitudes. The policeman usually represents our sense of right and wrong, conscience and law-giving. So the dreamer, in his efforts to deal with his attack of bitterness, tries to use his morals, his sense of right and wrong. But this side of himself is shown as unsympathetic, only really worried about the rules, and the dreamer realises he will not be helped by that attitude.
This particular dream only outlines the problem, and how you are trying to deal with it. It does not show a positive method of dealing with the situation. When we see how clearly such dreams explain and fit your everyday life, it is difficult to understand why dreams are not more generally understood. When one hears the parables of Jesus, such as that of the Talents, one immediately sees behind the story to its symbolical meaning. Aesop’s Fables have amused and educated children and adults for centuries. We can see ourselves in the frog who tried to gain respect by believing he was bigger and greater than he was. We can see that in a parable or fable, the outer story hides an inner truth, yet for hundreds of years in the West, dreams have been looked upon as nonsense.
You might try reading
https://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/exploring-a-dream-2/Tony
