¨ An Exploration of Dreams in Literature—page

An Exploration of Dreams in Literature

“I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.” – Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare Dreams had a large influence on George Orwell’s dystopian classic, 1984. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a civilian who is witness to the totalitarian regime of Oceania. He lives in a world in which all speech is regulated, where even the truth is censored, under perpetual surveillance. The only exception is in his dreams, which the government are unable to control. Sleep is an anarchic space where the dreamer is on the edge of something much larger and more powerful than their conscious selves. We can reduce dreams to messages from God or even the dead; they may consist of suppressed memories, or sometimes just random electric flickering of neurons. They are an enduring source of mystery for scientists and psychological doctors. The fact that we spend moments of our life immersing ourselves in parallel, odd dimensions should be discussed more often, especially in literature where it can be manipulated and expressed in different mediums.

Dreams play a significant role in literature, particularly in novels from different perspectives. For instance, the realm of the imaginary is visited in novels as diverse as L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland. The dream kingdom is a place where the laws of physics are abolished, where logic and reason remain redundant, and illogicality is allowed to take charge. There are also plenty of novels with more prosaic dream sequences, like Mr Lockwood’s harrowing nightmare in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Dreaming is the essence of literature. It involves what comes before, during, and after writing and reading, and some may argue there can be no fiction or poetry without it. There are numerous similarities between dreaming and reading, both of which require the creation of a universe within one’s own