“Dream On”: Examining Watching, Sleep, and Dreams in Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy
Abstract
This dissertation argues that the instances of dreams and sleeping in Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy history plays show Shakespeare creating his foundational beliefs about how humankind’s fears and desires directly affected English history. The First Tetralogy is a unique dramatic effort because Shakespeare leaves the dreams ambiguous enough that it makes the plays either full of dreams that present a disenchanted and apathetic world, or dreams that are supernatural warnings which are often ignored and misinterpreted. If the first premise is true, then there is no hope for a stable governing of England, and if the second premise is true, then the tragedy of the series does not stem from collective government, but from the individual. The balance between these two answers is what makes First Tetralogy a uniquely exciting set of plays.
The First Tetralogy, consisting of the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III, is where Shakespeare describes the most significant story in English medieval history, the Wars of the Roses; but it is a story he chooses to tell partly through the lens of dreams and sleep. The lens of dreams, sleeping, and watching (staying awake) are the means to examine significant questions that Shakespeare introduces in the First Tetralogy, namely, is human history our own creation or is it done to us? And if history is done to us, then who is responsible? To explore these queries, this dissertation uses dream texts of the early modern period, along with chronicle sources, to describe the atmosphere of suspicion and uncertainty surrounding dream interpretation. The secondary texts range from pamphlets on dream interpretation by authors like Thomas Hill and Thomas Nashe, to historical chronicle sources by Raphael Holinshed and Edward Hall. Classical Greek and Roman dream writing provides an origin point for the dualism that considered dreams to be either natural or supernatural. These authors are informing Shakespeare’s work during his early writing career and providing key source material for the scenes involving dreams. The conclusion of my dissertation classifies the dreams of the First Tetralogy into three categories: dreams that provoke the dreamer to act, dreams that do not rouse any action, and fabricated dreams.