Jacob’s dream episode with the Angel of God marks the
beginning of the transformation of his personality. He appears to
Dinah to be gradually descending into madness, dreaming constantly
of his brother so that his fear of fratricide grows by the day.
He is weakened by his ill-fated night by the river, in which he
is attacked by his dream, and the weeks of recovery that follow.
Dinah hears him weep for the first time and call out for his mother
like a child. She cannot reconcile this Jacob with the father that
she knows so well from her mothers as a strong and able man. Dinah
notes the changes in him, wondering why her family does not notice
his transformation from loving to challenging, from assertive to
hesitant. From then on he tends to lean on Levi rather than Reuben,
which instills worry in Dinah’s heart. She knows that he has changed
for the worse and perhaps she senses that he will contribute to
her family’s undoing.
