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Dream Children: A Reverie
Charles
Lamb (1775-1834) was an English essayist. He was famous for his informal and
easy style. He wrote essays under the
pseudonym ‘Elia’. He used to write about commonplace events with a touch of
humour and pathos. Lamb was born in
London and educated at Christ’s Hospital. One of his schoolmates was the poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. From 1792
until his retirement on pension in 1825, Lamb was a clerk in the accounting
department of the East India House, London. In 1796 Lamb’s sister Mary Ann
Lamb, seized by temporary homicidal mania, killed their invalid mother. To
prevent his sister from being committed to an asylum, Lamb himself appointed himself
as her guardian and, despite his own nervous temperament, cared for her the
rest of his life.
Lamb’s
literary career included the writing of poetry, plays, and literary criticism.
The popular Tales from Shakespeare was written in collaboration with his
sister. It was published in 1807. His most important literary work consists of
the essays he contributed to the London Magazine between 1820 and 1825; they
were published in book form as Essays of Elia (1823) and Last Essays
of Elia (1833).
The essay ‘Dream Children: A
Reverie’ expresses the feelings of loss and regret faced by the narrator. It is
based on the description of a place, the relationships and the feelings that
have been part of the narrator’s past.
Summary
The
essay begins with the statement that children love to listen to stories of
their elders as children. This happens because children in this way can imagine
those elders that they themselves cannot meet. Just like all children,
Lamb’s children also wanted to hear their parents’ childhood stories. One day
Lamb’s children gather around him to
hear stories about their great-grandmother Field. She
lived in a mansion. Lamb tells the children that the grandmother Field had been
given the charge of the big house because the owner liked to live in a more
fashionable mansion.
The
children had also heard (‘from the ballad of the Children in the Wood ‘) about
the tragic incidents that had supposedly taken place at that house. The
tragic story of the children and their cruel uncle had been carved out in wood
upon a chimney piece. However, a rich man replaced the wooden one with a marble
one and the story was lost. Lamb mentions that Alice displayed her displeasure
when she heard that. He tells that she was religious and very good lady, and
was respected by everyone. She took care of the house very carefully. After
her, the old ornaments of the house were stripped and set up in the owner’s
house. When Lamb mentioned that the old ornaments could not fit decently in new
mansion, John smiled to express his agreement that it was a foolish act. She
was such ‘a good and religious woman’ that huge number of people attended her
funeral. She also used to be considered the best dancer till a disease called
cancer forced her to stoop. However, her spirits still remained upright. Lamb
mentions that she slept ‘in a lone chamber of the great lone house’ on her own
despite that the ghosts of two infants glided up and down the stairs near which
she slept. During those days, Lamb himself would sleep with the maid being
afraid. He mentions that he was far less religious but he never noticed the
ghosts. John was trying to look courageous at this moment. Lamb also mentions
that she was very good to her grand children. When he would visit ‘the great house’ in the
holidays, he liked gazing upon ‘busts of Twelve Cæsars’. Lamb also mentions
various things that used to attract him while being at the mansion. He enjoyed
spending time among various things there, even more than ‘sweet flavours of
peaches, nectarines, oranges, and such like common baits of children’. Both
children showed the influence of his description by ignoring the bunch of
grapes they had otherwise wanted to have. Lamb tells that the children’s uncle
John L—— was liked particularly by grandmother Field from amongst all her
grandchildren. He was more handsome and spirited 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. Lamb mentions how he had
missed their uncle when he died, although he did not show it that much. He
missed the uncle’s kindness as well as crossness. Lamb also mentions the
uncle’s lameness repeatedly which shows that he had been very concerned for
him. The children felt uncomfortable with the description of the uncle and
urged Lamb to tell about ‘their pretty, dead mother’. Then, Lamb told that he
courted 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’ 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. He states that James Elia was no more
there and everything that has been mentioned in the essay so far was being
described by Elia.
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