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dream world (plot device)

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Dream worlds are a commonly used Wikipedia:plot device in Wikipedia:fictional works, most notably in Wikipedia:science fiction and Wikipedia:fantasy fiction. The use of a dream world creates a situation where by a Wikipedia:character in placed in a marvelous and unpredictable environment and must overcome several personal problems to escape. The dream world also commonly serves to teach some Wikipedia:moral or Wikipedia:religious lessons to the character experiencing it – a lesson that the other characters will be unaware of, but one that will influence decisions made regarding them. When the character is reintroduced into the real world (usually when they wake up), the question arises as to what exactly constitutes Wikipedia:reality due to the vivid recollection and experiences of the dream world.

Dream worlds contrast with Wikipedia:fantasy worlds, in which the world has existence independant of the characters in it.[1] The use of "dream frames" to contain a fantasy world, and so explain away its marvels, has been bitterly criticized and has been become much less prevalent.[2]

Fictional dream worlds[edit]

Wonderland tree in which the Cheshire Cat vanishes, his grin disappearing last

Dream frames were frequently used in medieval allegory to justify the narrative;[2] Wikipedia:The Book of the Duchess and Wikipedia:Piers Plowman are two such Wikipedia:dream visions.

An early example of a fictional dreamworld is the forest in Wikipedia:Shakespeare's Wikipedia:A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is like a collective dream world of the lovers that venture into it.[unverified]Wikipedia:Wonderland from Wikipedia:Alice in Wonderland is a dream world with long and consistent fame, due in part to a surrealism appropriate to the dream state, before Surrealism was in the mainstream palette.

Oz from the novel Wikipedia:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a fantasy world that became, in the 1939 movie, Dorothy's dream world.[3]

In the film version of Peter Pan, Wikipedia:Neverland is a dream world from which Wendy wakes (her brothers, Michael and John, are still asleep).[unverified]

In the 1980s, the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films introduced a dream realm inhabited by the supernatural serial killer Wikipedia:Freddy Krueger.

Other fictional dreamworlds include the Wikipedia:Dreamlands of H.P. Lovecraft's Wikipedia:Dream Cycle; Down Town, the land of nightmares where all people who are in comas go in the movie Wikipedia:Monkeybone, and Wikipedia:The Neverending Story's world of Wikipedia:Fantastica, which includes places like The Desert of Lost Dreams, The Sea of Possibilities, and the Swamps of Saddness.

Dreamworlds also appear in Wikipedia:Rozen Maiden, in the Outback(s) of Wikipedia:The Maxx; in Dream Land, the main setting of many Kirby games, in the Maginaryworld from Wikipedia:Sonic Shuffle, and in Nightopia and Nightmare (collectively known in a place called the "Night Dimension") from Wikipedia:NiGHTS into Dreams... and its upcoming sequel for the Wikipedia:Wii, Wikipedia:Nights: Journey of Dreams. Wikipedia:The Life and Times of Juniper Lee and the movie Sailor Moon Super S the Movie: Black Dream Hole also have dream realms.

References[edit]

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories", p 14, The Tolkien Reader, Ballantine Books, New York 1966
  2. 2.0 2.1 John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Dreams", p 297 ISBN 0-312-19869-8
  3. L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p 96, ISBN 0-517-500868

See also[edit]

This article contains content from Wikipedia. Current versions of the GNU FDL article Dream world (plot device) on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article WP