Dream Vision in Chaucer's Poetry

Abstract

Dream vision is an important and well _ known  medieval narrative   genre  in poetry . The basic framework is that the confused narrator falls asleep and dreams , then his dream will be the main story. The dream often takes the form of allegory , enigmatic , and it needs a kind of interpretation on the part of  the reader .After the troubled narrator is awakened , he determines to write his dream in a poem .  ¹

Dream vision poetry has an impressive and extensive image, which has been widely commented upon . Falling asleep, dreaming , dream vision , prophetic visitations  and oracular guidance are familiar motifs from a number of widely known literary sources , like  for example in the Bible ,   Greek and Latin classics , continuing in to the late antiquity and in to the medieval period .  ²  Dream visions have important elements in common , firstly, all dream visions are written in the first person . The narrator becomes the dreamer and tells the story as his own experience . Sometimes , the dreamer becomes the protagonist of the dream fiction , and other times , he is only an observer as in Chaucer 's Book of the Duchess .³