Critical Analysis of Charles Lamb’s Essay Dream Children

M A English II Semester

Paper III

Prose II

Unit I

Critical Analysis of Charles Lamb’s Essay Dream Children

Most of the essays of Lamb are deeply personal and autobiographical. Lamb uses the essay as a vehicle of Self-revelation. He takes the reader into confidence and speaks about himself without reserve. These essays, acquaint us with Lamb's likes and dislikes, his preferences and aversions, his tastes and temperaments, his nature and disposition, his meditations and reflections, his observations and comments, his reactions to persons, events, and things and so on without openly taking himself as a subject.

Lamb is for ever speaking of himself. This constant pre-occupation with himself and his use of the personal pronoun "I" is by some described as his egotism. It is just that Lamb relates what he knows best. The past, like the present, offers him an inexhaustible store house from which he freely draws for his material. From the personal and autobiographical portions of the essays, it is possible to reconstruct the inner life and no little of the outer life of Lamb.

"Dream Children" is the reverie of a man who was intensely human and whose life was a tragedy. Lamb was born into a poor family, but poverty was not such a great misfortune as certain other misfortunes that befell him. Following an unsuccessful love affair with Ann Simmons, he became mentally unhinged and had to remain for some time in a lunatic asylum. In the following year, his sister was seized with acute mania and in a fit of madness stabbed her mother to death. Lamb displayed an admirable self-mastery, and exhibited a supreme self-sacrifice by undertaking the responsibility for the safe keeping of his sister who became prone to occasional fits of Lunacy. His essential humanity appears in this noble self-renunciation and singular loyalty as a brother. He sacrificed his own comfort and convenience for his sister's sake and was forced to give up the idea of marriage for some time for her sake, again, he had to leave London and go to the quiet countryside. He was thus deprived of the stimulating society of his literary friends to whom he used to give a monthly "at home". This deepened his listlessness and hopelessness. When he did think of marriage, with the full consent of his sister, his proposal to Fanny Kelly an actress, was rejected, and he remained a bachelor throughout his life. Thus was his life a tragedy.

Such was the man that wrote this essay which is highly moving, almost heart-rending, being imbued with the tragedy of his life. He gives a concrete shape to his unfulfilled paternal longings. This essay is a reverie because it contains a fanciful or imaginary account. Of his talk with the children whom he never had and who, therefore, have been called "dream children". Alice and John are the imaginary off - spring of his imaginary marriage with Ann Simmons whom he had loved in his youth but who had not responded to his love. Pathos is the key note of this essay.

"Here the children fell a - crying, and asked if their little mourning which they had on was not for uncle John, and they looked up, and prayed me not to go on about their uncle, but to tell them some stories about their pretty dead mother. Then I told how for seven long years, in hope sometimes, sometimes in despair, yet persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice W - n."

Here in these lines Lamb told the children something about their uncle John L - John L was a handsome and courageous youth and was very fond of riding and hunting. Then Lamb spoke of John L'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 for seven long years he had courted the fair Alice W - N. Sometimes in hope and sometimes in despair. As Lamb gazed at his children, he found that both of them gradually grew fainter, and then receded till he could see nothing but two sad features which appeared to be saying "We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all, "And Lamb woke up in his bachelor chair where he had fallen asleep and had been day - dreaming.

The end of the essay is marked by deep poignancy and heart breaking pathos. We are told how Lamb courted Alice W-N (Ann Simmons) for a long time without any success in his purpose. And then the dream children begin slowly to fade. They grow gradually fainter to Lamb's view and go on receding till only two mournful faces are in distinctly seen in the distance; saying; "we are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. We are only what might have been". This is the climax of pathos. We are deeply touched by the utter frustration of Lamb's hopes of a conjugal life and the Joys of having a family.

This essay is full of reminiscences and anecdotes as he recalls the lonely life of his grandma and then goes on to recall his memories of his own early boyhood. Recollections of his brother John. The retrospective character of this essay is, therefore, clearly seen. Lamb had a genius for reminiscence. He liked to chew the cud of memory. It is for this reason that he has been called "a visualizer of memories". This is essentially an autobiographical essay.

Reference: https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/85856/7/07_chapter%202.pdf