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dream world (plot device)
Dream worlds are a commonly used plot device in fictional works, most notably in science fiction and fantasy fiction. The use of a dream world creates a situation where by a 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 moral or 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 reality due to the vivid recollection and experiences of the dream world.
Dream worlds contrast with 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
Dream frames were frequently used in medieval allegory to justify the narrative;[2] The Book of the Duchess and Piers Plowman are two such dream visions.
An early example of a fictional dreamworld is the forest in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is like a collective dream world of the lovers that venture into it.[unverified]
One of the best-known dream worlds is Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland. In the 1939 movie, Oz from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was altered from a fantasy world (in the novel) to a dream world of Dorothy's.[3] In the film version of Peter Pan, 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 dark dream realm inhabited by the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger.
Other fictional dreamworlds include the Dreamlands of H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle; Down Town, the land of nightmares where all people who are in comas go in the movie Monkeybone, and The Neverending Story's world of Fantastica, which includes places like The Desert of Lost Dreams, The Sea of Possibilities, and the Swamps of Saddness.
Dreamworlds also appear in Rozen Maiden, in the Outback(s) of The Maxx; in Dream Land, the main setting of many Kirby games, in the Maginaryworld from Sonic Shuffle, and in Nightopia and Nightmare (collectively known in a place called the "Night Dimension") from NiGHTS into Dreams... and its upcoming sequel for the Wii, Nights: Journey of Dreams. The Life and Times of Juniper Lee and the movie Sailor Moon Super S the Movie: Black Dream Hole also have dream realms.
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories", p 14, The Tolkien Reader, Ballantine Books, New York 1966
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Dreams", p 297 ISBN 0-312-19869-8
- ↑ L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p 96, ISBN 0-517-500868
See also
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