The Function Of Dreams - Essay Example

The Function of Dreams Dreams are usually complicated, as no one really knows their origin, reason for existence or role that they serve in human life. The most effective definition of dreams is succession of thoughts, emotions, or images passed through a person’s mind during sleep. Some people believe that dreams are a representation of personal experiences. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that dreams provide a way of escaping the real world, and takes one into a mysterious journey of fantasy unavailable in the real world. Several literary works have featured the concept of dream most notably Shakespeare masterpieces such as A Midsummers Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet. These two stories are similar in many ways, for instance, they share the common themes of love, romance and tragedy. Other elements similar in Romeo and Juliet and Midsummers Night’s Dream include deceit, the forbidden love, and pain. Moreover, the plot setting as well as character resonates each other in the two stories. For example, in both cases the two fathers Egeus and Capulet give similar orders to their daughters regarding whom they should marry. Shakespeare shows interest in the workings of the dream, unexplainable occurrence of events, occurrence of the impossible as a matter of course and time loosing its flow. Hence, through the use dreams, Shakespeare recreates the natural environment to allow experience of the things and concepts that cannot exist in the real world such as the realm of fairies. Evidently, one of the major themes in Midsummers Night’s Dream is a dream, and this is no surprise since the whole play is dream. Two worlds exist in the play, the fantasy world, and the real world, and the most interesting part is that they exist apart and never crossing each other’s path at one particular point. The fantasy world contains fairies who are unreal, lack intelligence, and feelings, but this dream world has the capacity to influence the entire kingdom of ordinary world. Thus, the dream world renders ordinary human life vulnerable and it usually takes over whenever reason is at sleep. These dreams block the perception of humans from reality, and thus, they paly an imperative role in life. The dream therefore separates the reality from the fantasy world. In this play, Shakespeare shows that dreams have the power to transform things of events(Garber 67). For instance, he reverses the categories of illusion and reality, walking and sleeping, art and nature in order to reveal the central theme of dreams. In this play, dreams also appear truer than reality giving them the transformative power. The fertile, unbound realm of imagination is inhabited by dreams. Similarly, dreams in Midsummer Night’s Dream create a distinction between the fairies and the ordinary humans. Unfortunately, once the ordinary humans are in the fairy realm through, these fairies take control over them and manipulate, and mock lovers by making fool of them since in fairy such thing as love or feelings does not exist. For instance, the Athenian lovers enter a charmed dream when they flee into the woods and fall asleep there. In turn, the fairies take over their world in ways that they would not imagine. Though the dreams turn out true, they are created to appear fruitless. This marks the beginning of illusion for ordinary humans especially those without real self-knowledge, and the only way to attain self-knowledge is to know the dimension of dreams in one’s life are dream Another significant role that dreams play in human lives as witnessed Midsummer Night’s Dream is that dreams functions as a safe haven where lovers can escape to and enjoy being together in their own world. The ordinary humans live in a world where matters of love present quite a complication as those who are in love have their love opposed by parents or other people in authority. Therefore, expression of love is impossible among some characters, but once they get into dream world they are able to freely express their love without objection and fulfil their heart desires. This realm of dream has no place for reason, and any attempt by the characters to apply it would not help, but instead frustrate them. Moreover, the memory of the dream is vague since if the mind tries to remember and rationalize the dream, the action distorts memory. Bottom clearly illustrates this, he says, “I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream.” (Shakespeare 31) Dreams eliminate the boundaries set by the mind since the dream process bars and eliminates and these boundaries. In this play, there are several conflicts controlling the pattern of the play, and all will still lead to portrayal of dream. For example, reason and imagination, the conflict between, the conflict of walking and sleeping states, interchange of illusion and reality, as well as the influence of Oberon and Theseus, which all portray a dream state. Dreams provide a reliable source of insight, vision, among others that seek to transform and interpret issues in the society. Dreams in the Midsummer Night’s Dream represent the distinction between the ordinary world and the supernatural world. As such, dreams in the play help in understanding some imaginative and mysterious concepts that baffle people. Imagery is extensively used to establish the realm of dream. The night itself creates a mysterious mood best understood through use of dreams in the play. The fairy realm takes control at night, represented by deceitful and brainless creatures. In addition, this fairy realm is the dominant one in the play separates itself from the real world through moonlight (Dickey 95). On the other hand, the return of mortal sanity in the real world is announced by the sounding of horns. Shakespeare uses dreams in the Midsummer Night’s Dream to create an environment of illusion and gauzy fragility. This gives the audience or reader a fantastic experience. The play exists of heavy drama drawn from both fairy realm and the ordinary human world. This may be too much for the reader to absorb because of presentation of a lot of information from these worlds. Dream, therefore, comes in to relax the mood and create an atmosphere where one can easily follow and relate with the play. Similarly, in the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare exhibit extensive use of both written and expressed dreams. Dreams play several functions in this play, for example, they foreshadow and intensify the work of fate. Romeo and Juliet is a story of tragic love and use of dream play a critical role in enhancing the themes of the story. Romeo dreams of death, in which he says: My dreams presage some joyful news at hand;/ My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne;/ And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit/ Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts./ I dreamt my lady came and found me dead/ Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think/ And breathed such life with kisses in my lips (Shakespeare 32). This dream turns out to be true as he dies in the story, and Juliet joins him in his death instead of awakening him. Therefore, one could argue that among the significant use of the dream, they function as a warning of a means of foreseeing future events. Therefore, dreams in served to tell Romeo what would become of him, and that is, h\is own death. However, the dreams in Romeo and Juliet and those in Midsummer Night’s Dream are different in that in Romeo and Juliet, dreams are found only is some seems and they involve individual persons. However, in the Midsummer Night’s Dream, dream occurs throughout out the play, as the major theme bases on the dream. In addition, in Midsummer Night’s Dream, the dreams provide exquisite daintiness and delicacy. Nevertheless, the two plays still share several elements such as the moon, which acts a unifying code for several people or concepts in the story. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the moon unites the two lovers especially when they come out at night. On the other hand, the moon in Midsummer Night’s Deam brings together the two worlds, which are the spiritual world and the mortal world. Presence of dream in Romeo and Juliet is also seen with the inclusion of imaginative world. This is a world o fantasy where characters wish to escape to for a few minutes in order to feel marvelous. This imaginative world provides existence in a realm far away from reasoning and realities of the world. A good example of representation of this dream is the character Mercutio, a clever, entrancing, and whirling individual. Mercutio seem to have superior characteristics not possessed by anyone else in the play. For instance, he stands contrast to other characters in the play, and he can see through blindness, he neither believes in the importance of honor and tradition of love. This character resonates with the characters of fairies in the Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is because just like Mercutio, they did not believe in the things that ordinary humans believed such as love, emotions, feelings, and honor among others. Just like the fairies, Mercutio is an empty individual who represent the other side of the world, that is, the dream realm where such things do not matter. In addition, he pokes and mocks Romeo about love the same way the fairies in Midsummer Night’s Dream mocks the ordinary humans about love and other things they believe in. Mercutio’s role as a superior character in the play extends through Queen Mab speech, in which Queen Mab brings sleeping people dreams. In this role Mercutio alludes to the traditional mythological of fairies, which he unfortunately attaches to prostitutes. In this speech, Mercutio loads the childish fun with stories of fairies and proceed to reveal a much darker human vision. Mercutio’s description of the world of fairies consists of insect steeds, walnut carriages, and bringing dreams to the sleeping individuals. Each dream that Queen Mab brings suits every individual, descending upon a profound brutality and depravity. For example, lawyers dream of making money and law cases, and lovers dream of love and so on. Therefore, the dreams in this case function to explore the desires of every individual, and thereby, give them what suites them to work on. Finally, Shakespeare set the audience to task to explore the concept of dreams and illusions verses reality. He suggests that dreams and illusions are things that humans create in order to sustain their own private realities. Shakespeare’s portrayal of dream presents a thin line between the participant and the observer. Moreover, the dreams suggest that they have the capacity to forecast future events apart from having elements of truth in them not present in reality. Therefore, dreams play a significant role in this play. Just like in Midsummer Night’s Dream, dreams in this play are important in an individual’s life, but to gain value from them requires an understanding of the dimensions of the dreams. That is when an individual will be able to achieve self-realization through dreams. Indeed dream is a complicated concept that no one understands fully its dynamics. Literary works features use of dream in order to enhance several things in the play. For example, Shakespeare in the Midsummer Night’s Dream illustrates supernatural powers of fairies realm with dreams. In this case, he even suggests that dreams have the capacity to transform situations and individuals. One common thing in the dreams in Romeo and Juliet and Midsummers Night’s Dream is that they represent illusions or unconscious mind by blocking out the reasoning mind. In Midsummer Night’s Dream, dreams represent the distinction between the fairy world and the real world, and a chance to escape the realities of ordinary world and experience fantasy of the world of imagination. On the other hand, in Romeo and Juliet, dreams reveal the future undertakings of a person. For example, Romeo dreams that she is dead, and eventually towards the end of the play, he dies. In his plays, Shakespeare recreates an environment to allow characters experience what is unachievable in the real world. Works Cited Dickey, Franklin M. Not Wisely But Too Well: Shakespeare's Love         Tragedies?. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library.         1966. Print. Garber, Marjorie B. Dream in Shakespeare. New Haven and         London: Yale University Press. 1974. Print. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Eds. Virginia A. LaMar and           Louis B. Wright. New York: Pocket Books. 1959. Print. Shakespeare, William. The Arden Shakespeare "A Midsummer Nights Dream". Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1979.Print. Read More