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"dreams" do not actually refer to a dream (or nightmare) dreamed at
night or a daydream (a visionary wishdream or wishful thinking)
We have learned from psychoanalists that every word spoken, just like
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everything dreamed, can have a hidden meaning Dreams have meaning,
they do not predict the future as was believed once, but they are
expressions of our uncon^ious and have great value as a means of
discovering our own alter ego. Dreams are the expression of one's
personality^. When one considers how deeply modern psycholpgy since
Freud has gone into the realm of the dream it 'is surprising that
literary criticism so far has paid so little attention to it.
My aim is only to try and show how far Dickens was aware of the im
portance of dreams and if there is any development in this awareness.
II. DREAMS IN GENERAL
In great literature throughout the centuries we have come across many
examples of all sorts of dreams. It is therefore useful to explore some
notions on dreams and how they functioned in literature.
For ancient philosophers the main point of discussion was whether dreams
were sent by God or not^. Aristotle came to the conclusion that certain
of the lower animals dream, therefore dreams are not sent by God, nor
were they designed to reveal the future. He compared dream presentations
to the forms reflected in water. If the motion is great - the resemblance
to its original is small. The internal movements efface the clearness of
the dream. Macrobius (ca. 400) and John of Salisbury (ca. 1120 - 1180) had
essentially the same system,they had the insomnium, a nightmare or
hallucination; the somnium, an ordinary or enigmatic dream; the oraculum,
an oracular or prophetic dream; and the visio, a prophetic vision or
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visionary dream Haly the Astrologer has three categories, the dream
can be a vision sent by God (always true) the dream can be caused by
planetary influences (these may be true or false) and the dream can
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proceed from the humours.of the body (always false)
Petrus de Albano has three categories which almost coincide, he has the
somnium naturale (from phychological causes) the somnium coeleste
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(from divine causes) and the somnium animale (from physical causes)
