Write the introduction and summary of the essay entitled "Dream

Write the introduction and summary of the essay entitled “Dream Children”.

Ans.

Introduction

The essay entitled Dream Children is the reverie of a man whose life was a tragedy. In fact the immediate reason behind the curtain of this essay was the death of his brother John, an event which filled in Lamb’s life with an utter sense of loneliness and frustration. The present essay unveils the essayist’s soul. It is known for its autobiographic description. His memory takes us back to those good old days of great grandmother Field.

In this essay, we can see little Lamb roaming about the large lonely rooms gazing at the marble statues. We also come to know about his brother John and his love for Alice Winterton who did not marry him.

This essay was first published in the London Magazine, January, 1822. It is one of the most beautiful, imaginative, pathetic and poetic of all his essays. Pathos is at every step, especially in the end when the dream children of Lamb vanish. It is full of reminiscence and anecdotes.

Summary of the Essay

Children are greatly fond of listening to the stories about their elders and they are curious to know something about them when they were children. One evening Lamb’s imaginary children gathered around him to know something about their great grandmother. Lamb told them that their great grandmother was a pious, religious, good and popular lady. She lived in a great house, though she was not its owner because the house belonged to somebody else. She was only the house-keeper of the house. He told them that after her death, the house came to decay, and all its old ornaments were removed and taken to the owner’s other house where they looked out of place. He told his dream children that when she died, her funeral was attended by all the poor and some of the gentry of the neighbourhood as a mark of respect for her memory because she was a religious lady and had been good to all of them. In her youth, she was regarded as the best dancer in the country. Then she was afflicted by the cruel disease cancer which bowed her physically but which could never bow down her spirits. Next Lamb told his dream children that she used to sleep alone in the big house and that she believed that an apparition of two infants was to be seen at midnight gliding up and down the staircase. Lamb as a child used to feel very happy when he was with his grandmother in that old house. He used to roam about in the gardens without touching any fruit as he was forbidden to do so, He used to lie down on the grass or spend his time watching the fish in the garden tank. Lamb next told the children something about their uncle John Lamb. John was a handsome and courageous youth and was very fond of riding and hunting. Then Lamb spoke of John Lamb’s death. At this the children began to cry and requested their father not to tell them anything more about uncle John but to tell them some stories about their pretty dead mother. Then Lamb told them how far seven long years he had courted the fair Alice Winterton, sometimes in hope and sometimes in despair. When suddenly he turned to Alice, he felt a close resemblance between the daughter and mother. As Lamb gazed at his children, he found that both of them gradually grew fainter. He saw two sad faces in uttermost distance, who appeared to be saying that they were not the children of Alice and Lamb. They were only dream children. Lamb woke up from his dream and found himself quietly sitting in his bachelor arm-chair where he had fallen asleep and had been day-dreaming.