5. The Literary Function of
Dream Accounts
Dreams also appear to be a
compositional technique particularly well suited to the structuring of a
narrative text. They do so in the following two ways:
1. Integrated into the
situation described at the outset, the dream henceforth serves as the common
thread, unifying the different elements in the narrative and bringing it to its
conclusion. The plot is developed between the dream, which forecasts the
outcome, and its realization, expected at the end of whatever perepeteia the
author cares to imagine. In this context, the dream takes on the role of an initial
prophecy.
The Joseph story is the best
biblical example of a story in which dreams have this narrative function: the
short story runs from a crisis towards its resolution, even though the latter
is announced from the start in Joseph's dreams (Gen. 37), which also play a
part in the origin of the crisis. As regards the epic genre, Jacob's dream at
Bethel (Gen. 28), set as it is against his struggle by night at the ford across
the Jabbok (Gen. 32), has a similar structuring function in the Jacob cycle. These
two events parallel each other symmetrically at two significant points in the
cycle, and make the patriarch's coming and going into a veritable initiatory
journey, extending from a promise to its realization, from the initial conflict
between the twins to the exchange of a blessing, hard won.
2. Another way in which dreams
may structure a text is by permitting and indeed provoking the symmetrical
organization of the text. Organized around an axis corresponding to the
awakening of the dreamer, the narrative takes the form of a diptych, the panels
of which often mirror each other word for word: the scene experienced in the
dream will be lived out again in the wakeful world, for the dream acts as an inital
prophetic element or instruction given to the hero of the story. Keret's dream,
in the first episode of the Ugaritic epic, illustrates this procedure.
Similarly, though in a
different way, the account of the abduction of Sarah by Abimelech (Gen. 20),
takes the form of two symmetrical scenes, one in a dream, the other after the
king has woken up. These scenes contain dialogues that are not identical in
content, but which pursue the same argument by in versing the situations.
Different again, but still operating according to the same principle, is
Jacob's dream at Bethel (Gen. 28). It provokes the repetition of gestures accomplished
the evening before (v. 1 Ib) on awakening (v. 18), though with a significant reversal
in the value of things and of place, a shift from the profane to the sacred.
In addition to having a
structuring role, the dream account is a simple compositional technique whereby
authors can introduce a dialogue between God and a human being. This oneiric
dialogue may have some concrete end and be the opportunity for a direct
intervention on the part of God in the evolution of the dreamer: it is thus
that God comes to the aid of Keret (KTU 1.14) or of Jacob (Gen. 31),
that he gives to Solomon (1 Kgs 3) or to Daniel (Dan. 2) the knowledge
necessary for the accomplishment of their mission. But this dialogue may also
be the form chosen in order to develop some aspect of teaching or for
theological reflection. In this case, it provides the setting for a real
debate, as in Genesis 20 between Abimelech and God, or the opportunity to
underline certain theological principles at a key point in the story, as in
Solomon's dream at Gibeon, for example. (Jean-Marie Husser, Dreams and
Dream Narratives in the Biblical World [The Biblical Seminar 63; Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1999], 103-4)