Theme Of Dreams In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Dreams play an incredibly important role in the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The very word “dream” is in the title.
For my presentation today I will be looking at the work of Sigmund Freud, his Theory of the Subconscious and how this ties into A Midsummer Nights Dream

There are a number of different interpretations and meanings of the word “Dream. What happens when we sleep. What we want or desire. An escape from reality. Etymology of the word “Dream”. Old Swedish word “Drom” which means a noise or merriment. The word in english, dream, has anglo saxon roots and was related to music and joy.
Old Germanic, German and Norse words for dream hold a very different meaning. “Trugen” to deceive, “Draugr” which means a ghost. ‘Draugma’
The dictionary definition of dreams is, as stated before, “A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep”. Dreams are something that have people have been fascinated with forever and countless artworks and text revolve around them. One of the first people to scientifically explore dreams was the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freud is widely considered the father of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is the name for a set of psychological theories and therapies, which were developed, with the aim of treating mental illnesses. Freud’s work in the field of psychoanalysis has provided us with possible explanations for complex human behaviours. One of the most interesting and well-known theories of his is that of the “Unconscious
The motif of dreams ties into to other central themes in the play, namely love and in particular one specific type of love. What the Greeks referred to as Eros, or erotic love. What is the most dangerous type of love, love that is not necessarily reciprocal, and causes us to act irrationally. Dreams reveal the limits of human reason and they challenge the idea of consistent identity or selfhood. Dreaming in the play can also be interpreted as an illuminative, cathartic experience for both the characters in the play and the

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