One of the most compelling aspects of a dream is its emotional content. Dream emotions are often exaggerated versions of emotional responses felt in waking life. The reasons for this distortion of emotional amplitude are thought to be legion – stemming from divine or demonic intervention to the bubbling up of repressed desires or traumas in disguised form to the fluctuations in brain chemistry while moving through different stages of the sleep cycle. The emotional intensity of dream life has been the subject of philosophical, scientific and artistic study for thousands of years. In this chapter we will investigate some examples of dream emotions, paying close attention to two primary emotional states of dreaming: fear and fulfillment. 

The following examples will be analyzed: Albrecht Dürer: "Temptation of the Idler" and "Dream Vision"; Thomas Mann: Aschenbach’s Dream from “Death in Venice"; Hebrew Bible: Daniel; Jeff Nichols: “Take Shelter"; and Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe