Grease – Frenchie’s dream in relation to Odyssey 4

 

In Grease, Frenchie falls asleep in the diner, when she is visited by Teen Angel who gives her life advice to drop out of beauty school and re-enrol in her old high school, this use of advice sent through dreams is often used in ancient literature through the use of the gods giving advice however, often their advice is far more cryptic through the trope of symbolic dreams. This is used in The Odyssey, Penelope’s dream when Zeus sends an Odysseus like state to reassure Penelope of her son and husbands safe return, which has been troubling her for some time now. This Odysseus figure says, “the gods who live at their ease do not suffer you to weep and to be troubled…sleeping very sweetly now in the dreams”, as this reassurance is what Penelope deserves for being so loyal to both her husband and the gods.  The message comes from the gods but is sent via Odysseus. Both of these dreams are to reassure the dreamer that they are doing the

right thing and are used by the author to move the narrative further along. Moreover, in both dreams’ aspects of the dreamer’s real life are featured with Penelope’s husband Odysseus being the messenger and Frenchie’s friends being the dancers in the Teen Angel song, this means the dreamer will trust the message being delivered as well as the audience knowing the intentions are pure and not a trick sent by Oeneus.