Dream children : a reverie by Charles Lamb Summary and Analysis

Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb was popularly known as the prince of English essayists. His essays formulate a special aura that the readers emotionally involve in. It evokes our central emotions like laughter and sorrow. One can find out a strange mixture of humor and pathos in his writings. His essays are fascinating, captivating, charming and heavenly. 

He never married for the sake of his sister as she was insane. She killed their own mother with a knife out of her eccentricity. His personal life abounds in sorrows and frustrations marked by the death of his brother and the subsequent madness of his sister. 

Lamb brought out a new face and shape to essays by implementing a highly informal and subjective method. He delighted his readers with his humorous and entertaining language. His essays are hilarious, graceful, illuminating, sensitive and filled with unusual fancies and fantasies. 

The tone of all other major essayists like Francis Bacon, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele and William Hazlitt are didactic and universal. Where as Lamb's essays are based on human interest, sentimentality and subjectivity. His essays are also marked by the use of poetic language, lyricism and the archaic expressions similar to William Shakespeare and Robert Burton. 

Summary and Analysis :

 

Characters:

 

Alice- The little girl in Lamb's dream
John-  The little boy in Lamb's dream
Great-grandmother Field
John L -- Appears as children's uncle, John represents Lamb’s real brother James Lamb. 
Alice W-- The representative of Ann; the lady to who Lamb proposed and wanted to marry in his real life. However, Ann rejected Lamb’s proposal. 

 

Children love to listen to stories about their elders, Lamb’s children also wanted to hear the childhood stories of their parents. He was narrating them about their great-grandmother Field, who lived in a mansion in Norfolk.  It was a hundred times bigger than the house they lived in presently. The children had heard (from the ballad of the Children in the Wood ) about the tragic incidents that had happened at that house. The tragic story of the children and their cruel uncle had been engraved in a wood upon a chimney piece. But, a rich man replaced the wooden one with a marble and the story was demolished. Lamb mentions that Alice expressed her anger and vexation when she heard that.

Lamb tells to his imaginary children that Grandmother Field had been given the charge of the house, as the owner wants to live in a more stylish and fashionable mansion. He tells that she was pious (religious) and upright lady, also respected by everyone. She took care of the house very carefully as her own. When the old ornaments of the house were shifted and set up in the owner’s new house, Lamb mentioned that the old ornaments could not fit in properly there; John smiled by realising that it was a foolish act.

Being an impeccable religious woman a huge number of people attended her funeral. She knew all Psaltery by heart and also a major part of the Testament. It suggests that she was an extremely religious woman. Moreover, she was the best dancer till a fatal disease called cancer forced her to stop. Nevertheless, her spirit remained intact. Lamb mentions that she slept in a lone chamber of the great lone house, despite that the ghosts of two infants glided up and down the stairs near which she slept. During those days, Lamb would sleep with the maid out of fear. He mentions that he was far less religious but he never noticed the ghosts. John was trying to look courageous at this moment.

Lamb further mentions that she was very kind hearted and magnanimous to her grandchildren. When he would visit the great house in the holidays, he liked gazing upon the set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar. He also mentions various things that used to attract him while being at the fascinating mansion. He enjoyed spending time among various things there, such as having the delicious fruits like the sweet flavours of peaches, nectarines and oranges.

The children’s uncle John L—— was liked particularly by grandmother Field from amongst all her grandchildren. He was king to them, more handsome, vibrant and energetic than the rest. He was so spirited that when the rest would spend time at the mansion, he would ride a horse for long distance and would even join hunters. He loved the old great mansion and garden too. Thus he grew up as a brave and handsome man. He was so considerate as he used to carry Lamb upon his back when he was lame footed boy. He was a bit older than Lamb. He carried him as long as he could not walk because of pain. Finally he too became lame footed. Later, Lamb narrates the painful and haunting death of him. Children felt uncomfortable with the description of the uncle and urged Lamb to tell about their pretty, dead mother.

Then, Lamb told that he loved their mother the fair Alice W——n for seven years. He also tried to clarify to the children how he faced problems due to her coyness(shy) and denial. At this point, he noticed the strong similarity between the appearance of his wife and that of Alice. He feels as if his wife was communicating with him through Alice. Finally, he woke up and found himself in his armchair where he had fallen asleep.

The essay reaches its climax when the readers become aware of the reality that the children listening to Lamb’s stories are nothing but a figment of his imagination and a dream of a sleeping man.

“We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of Alice call Bartrum father. We are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have existence, and a name.”

Charles Lamb establishes his position as an exceptional and astonishing essayist in the firmament of literature through remarkable style. In the celebrated essay 'Dream children: a reverie' he maintains a dramatic ambiance by including the candid responses of his imaginary children. The action of the Lamb and the reaction of his children capture the reader's attention. As the title itself suggests, the writer has arranged every incidents like a dream. The abrupt ending gives a perfect completion to the essay, even though it was against the reader's expectation. More over it offers a kind of romantic journey through the Gothic mansion and an evergreen landscapes of Norfolk.