DREAM CHILDREN:

MA English
Qurtuba University, Peshawar
A REVERIE

Kifayat
Qurtuba University,
Peshawar
INTRODUCTION

Its a day dream, induced by the death of his elder brother,

John Lamb, the speaker conjures up the portraits of some
dearest persons associated with his happy past, whose
departure has left him lonely and depressed. He appears
before us as a widower with two children, john and Alice.
Alice is also the name of his imaginative wife.
The most striking thing shown in the essay is that Lamb,

though a lifelong bachelor, longed for family life which he

was incapable of attaining. In a strange fit of passion he
imagined all this in a dream-like state.
The essay is in one paragraph of over four pages: the writer

imagines telling his 'little ones', called Alice and John,

some tales of their great-grandmother Field and her house,
and of his own courtship, in hope and eventual despair, for
another Alice before, at the end of the essay, mysteriously
SUMMARY

The children of James Elia, John and Alice, asked Lamb to tell them
about their great grandmother- Mrs. Field.

The house belonged to a rich nobleman. Grandmother Field was the

keeper of the house and she looked after the house with great care as
though it was her own.
The children had come to know the story from the ballad of The Children
in the wood in the house.
The story was carved in wood upon the chimney piece.
But a foolish rich person later pulled down the wooden chimney and put
a chimney of marble.
Alice was very unhappy that the rich man had pulled down the chimney
piece with the story. She looked upbraiding (scolding) and her anger was
like her mothers.
 SUMMARY

When the house came to decay later, after the death of

Mrs. Field the nobleman carried away the ornaments
of the house and used them in his new house.
The ornaments of the old house looked very awkward
in the new house.
Things looked beautiful only if they are in harmony
with the surroundings.
John enjoyed the comparison and smiled as if he also
felt it would be very awkward indeed.
SUMMARY

Grandmother was also very religious.

Alice here spread her hands as if she was not
interested in the praise of a quality of the
grandmother.
Grandmother Field did not fear the spirits of the two
infants which haunted the house at night. So she slept
alone.
But Elia used to sleep with his maid as he was not so
religious.
SUMMARY

When the grandmother died many people in the neighborhood attended her
funeral.

She was also a good dancer when she was young. Here, Alice moved her feet
unconsciously as she too was interested in dancing. Grandmother was tall and
upright but later she was bowed down by a disease called cancer.

She invited her grand children (John Lamb, and Jams Elia are brothers) to the old
house during the holidays.

In the garden, there were fruits like nectarines, peaches, oranges and others.
Elia never plucked them but rather enjoyed looking at them.

Here John deposited a bunch of grapes upon the plate again. He was showing that
he too was not tempted by fruits.
SUMMARY

From all the grandchildren, Grandmother Field

loved John the most.
John was lively and spirited, fond of riding,

hunting and outdoor activities.

He used to take James Elia upon his back out for
outings as James Elia was lame footed.
But James was sorry for it. John died later and
James missed him much.
SUMMARY

The children began to cry at the sad turn of events.

They asked him to continue the story of Uncle John but

to tell them about their dead mother.

The father began to tell them how he had courted their

mother, Alice for seven years.

He was at times hopeful of winning her and at times in

despair.
He explained to them what coyness, difficulty and

denial mean in an unmarried lady.

When the father looked at Alice she looked at that time

very much like her mother. Thereafter, the children

began to grow fainter.
 SUMMARY

At the end dream shifts to reality.

They began to go away further and further till the father could hardly

see them.
From a great distance they seemed to say that they were not children

of Alice nor of him, they were not children at all, they were only what
might have been.
When he woke up he found himself in an armed chair.

He had fallen asleep and he had been dreaming. James Elia had

vanished.
On the chair was only Charles Lamb.
 Themes
THEMES
The theme of Lamb's essay is regret and loss: regret for
unfulfilled joy, unfulfilled love, lost hope, lost opportunity
and lost joys of life. There are three topics describing
the theme of regret and loss at work in this essay.
The first of these is the loss of past happiness as
represented by the house--with its carved mantle that a
"foolish rich person pulled ... down"--and by great-
grandmother Field and by the speaker's brother John.
Both great-grandmother Field and John died painful
deaths while Charles Lamb watched on being then left
alone without their presence, love and care: what he
missed most was their presence: "I missed him all day
long, and knew not till then how much I had loved him."
 THEMES
The second topic describing regret and loss is his beloved Alice
(Anne Simmons). Lamb courted her "for seven long years" and, in
the end, his suit for her love was a failure. This explains why the
dream child is named Alice and this explains why he becomes
confused about which Alice, younger or elder, he is really looking at:
turning to Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked out at her eyes with
such a reality of re-presentment, that I became in doubt which of
them stood there before me, or whose that bright hair was ...

This leads to the third thematic topic: the children who never
were. In a surprise ending, in a dramatic (and at first bewildering)
twist, we learn that the children he has been telling stories to--
stories of loves and life-joys he regrets losing--are air, are a figment
of a dream in a bachelor's sleep. These are the children that would
have been, that could have been, that might have been if Alice had
granted Lamb her love and if they had wed. As it is, they are but
phantoms of a dream. All he really has is "the faithful Bridget
[representative of Lamb's sister Mary] unchanged by my side."
 A Freudian View of Dream
Children: A Reverie

Freud divided the human psyche into three levels-

conscious level, subconscious level and unconscious level
unconscious is the key to what one really thinks and

feels whereas the dream provide a sort of catharsis.

Unconscious stores every memory, urge and impulse;

which is invisible yet incessantly in action.

The unconscious is given a favourable position in the

human mind, which is seen as a justifiable outlet of all

the suppressed and the forgotten
The unconscious is the most dynamic part of the mind

as most of ones unfulfilled desires, fantasies and

temptations
CONT

Freud also mentioned a number of fears or anxieties manifest

in the human soul-one that is related with everyday reality,
two where one is anxious of hurting ones own conscience, in
terms of moral justice and three, in which one knows one
would do something, for which he would be severely
punished. In combating these anxieties, Freud also laid out a
number of defence mechanisms such as repression,
regression, introjection, projection, opposite reaction, etc
Lambs life even though it may appear to have glistened on

the surface reeked of intense pain and suffering. Lamb led an

active public life though his inward thoughts were a very
private matter altogether. He was the best of friends and only
those close to him knew of his dilemma.
he suppressed his emotions so as to live for others who
depended upon him, mainly his sister Mary.
 IMPORTANT PASSAGES

I never could be tired with roaming about that huge mansion, with its
vast empty rooms, with their worn-out hangings, fluttering tapestry,
and carved oaken panels, with the gilding almost rubbed out
sometimes in the spacious old-fashioned gardens, which I had almost to
myself, unless when now and then a solitary gardening man would
cross meand how the nectarines and peaches hung upon the walls,
without my ever offering to pluck them, because they were forbidden
fruit, unless now and then,and because I had more pleasure in
strolling about among the old melancholy-looking yew trees, or the firs,
and picking up the red berries, and the fir apples, which were good for
nothing but to look ator in lying about upon the fresh grass, with all
the fine garden smells around meor basking in the orangery, till I
could almost fancy myself ripening, too, along with the oranges and the
limes in that grateful warmthor in watching the dace that darted to
and fro in the fish pond, at the bottom of the garden, with here and
there a great sulky pike hanging midway down the water in silent state,
as if it mocked at their impertinent friskings,
CONT

Then I told them how for seven long years, in

hope sometimes, sometimes in despair, yet
persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice Wn;
and, as much as children could understand, I
explained to them what coyness, and difficulty,
and denial meant in maidenswhen suddenly,
turning to Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked
out at her eyes with such a reality of re-
presentment, that I became in doubt which of
them stood there before me, or whose that bright
hair was
 And while I stood gazing, both the children
gradually grew fainterto my view, receding, and
still receding till nothing at last but two mourn-
ful features were seen in the uttermost distance,
which, without speech, strangely impressed upon
me the effects of speech: "We are not of Alice, nor
of thee, nor are we children at all. We are
nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are
only what might have been."