If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.

-William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Throughout history, authors and mystics have utilized imagery of the dream world to interact with audiences and communicate cultural ideas. The embedded dream language of the book of Revelation enables readers to interpret text as reality while participating in the dream experience. Using Christian language and imagery, medieval mystics changed the world around them, teaching others and even altering history. Sir Thomas Malory used dreams to differentiate the psychological dispositions and cultural roles of the knights of the roundtable. Renaissance audiences recognized the reality of their culture within the dream imagery used in the plays they saw. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream drew in audiences by dramatizing the relation between subconsciousness and reality. In all of these instances, the language of dreams communicates the complexities of mind and culture more clearly than would have been possible otherwise.