ABSTRACT
In all the stories about Joseph there are six dreams, two by Joseph himself, one each by the butler and the baker, and two by Pharaoh. Each pair is repeated by the person who dreamed it. In each pair, one dream repeats the message of the other, albeit in slightly different form. Thus these are dreams squared, four times told tales whose meaning reveals the character of the dreamer. Each one gets what is coming to him, though not without his wondering if it was what he deserved. Joseph’s boyhood dreams are about the younger and weaker brother dominating his older and stronger brothers and parents. For the one who desires power that is denied both by convention and by might, dreams are especially appropriate because things can be imagined that might later occur in the mundane world. There is ample evidence of Egyptian efforts during ancient times to make dream interpretation a science.
