The opening verses of Parashat Miketz tell of Pharaoh's dream of the lean cows devouring the robust cows, and lean sheaves devouring the healthy sheaves. The Torah (41:8) tells that in the morning, "Va-tipa'em rucho" – Pharaoh's "spirit was agitated" (from the JPS translation) – and he immediately summoned his advisors and sorcerers to decipher the encoded message embodied in the dream.
Among the questions that arise from this incident is the issue of Pharaoh's "agitation" and the desperately urgent – almost compulsive – need he felt to arrive at the correct interpretation of the dream. This question becomes even more troubling in light of the approximate parallel detected by Chazal (as cited by Rashi, 41:8) between Pharaoh's response to his dream and that of Nevukhadnetzar, as recorded in Sefer Daniel - "Va-titpa'em rucho" (2:1). As we learn later in that chapter, Nevukhadnetzar dreamt a frightening dream of an imposing statue suddenly being struck and collapsing. That Pharaoh would react to his seemingly innocuous dream with somewhat similar fright requires some explanation.
This question perhaps prompted a comment by the Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 89) to the parasha's opening verse. Commenting on the phrase, "U-Pharaoh cholem" ("And Pharaoh dreamt"), the Midrash rhetorically asks, "And all other people do not dream?" It then answers, "Rather, a king's dream is that of the entire world." The Midrash is perhaps asking why Pharaoh responded to his dream with such urgency, and it explains that he did so because of his regal stature. A dream shown to a king likely has relevance to the entire kingdom – and, in the case of the ancient Egyptian empire, the entire inhabited world – and he therefore felt an urgent need to decipher its encoded message.
Rav Shimon Schwab, in Ma'ayan Beit Ha-sho'eiva, suggests a different reason why Pharaoh reacted as he did, pointing to the common theme underlying the two components of the dream. Pharaoh dreamt of lean cows and sheaves devouring robust cows and sheaves, clearly symbolic of the phenomenon of – to borrow from this season's liturgy – giborim be-yad chalashim, rabim be-yad me'atim – the weak triumphing over the mighty, and the few defeating the many. The Egyptian king had all along relied on his country's military might and economic prowess as the source of his nation's security and the stability of his monarchy. Now he was suddenly shown the prospect of even the mightiest and most secure suffering defeat at the hands of the feeble. This image shook the foundations of his sense of security, and he understandably responded with horror and an urgent need to discover the true meaning underlying this dream.