Keats and the Dream Tradition

Abstract

<p>This thesis is designed to increase our understanding of Keats's use of dreams, first by placing him in the context of the dream tradition, and then by illustrating his own contribution to dream literature.</p> <p>Chapter One is devoted to a survey of the literary treatment of dreams in the writings prior to the Romantic period, in particular those works which Keats mentions specifically in his letters.</p> <p>Chapter Two consists of two sections. The first section outlines the theories of Empiricism and German Idealism and applies these theories to dreams. The second section examines the literary treatment of dreams in the works of Keats's contemporaries.</p> <p>Chapter Three examines Keats's use of dreams and the parallels between his treatment of dreams and that of other dream writers. Although in his early verse Keats treats dreams conventionally, he gradually departs from tradition, developing his own use of the dream by presenting it as a metaphor of a specific approach to life. Tracing this aspect of dreams in Endymion and the poems which follow, we discover a growing mistrust of dreams which culminates in the condemnation of the escapist dreamer.</p> <p>Chapter Four focuses entirely on The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream and illustrates a new type of dream in Keats's canon. This chapter also functions as a conclusion to the study of dreams as in The Fall of Hyperion Keats defines various types of dreams and thus provides his readers with the necessary criteria for assessing both this dream and those in his previous works.</p>