DREAM CHILDREN: A REVERIE – Detailed Summary By Charles Lamb
“Dream Children: A Reverie” is one of Charles Lamb’s most
moving and autobiographical essays. Like most of his Essays of Elia, it blends
gentle humour with deep sadness, presenting the author’s emotions in a very
personal way. Lamb often wrote about his own life—his joys, disappointments,
family bonds, and emotional struggles—and this essay is a touching example of
his inner world. It is written in the form of a reverie, or daydream, and
through this dream he expresses his love for his family, his unfulfilled hopes,
and the pain of memories.
The essay mainly talks about six important people connected
to Lamb’s life: his beloved grandmother Mrs. Mary Field, his devoted sister
Mary Lamb, whom he affectionately calls Bridget, his elder brother John Lamb,
the girl he loved but could not marry, Ann Simmons (called Alice Winterton in
the essay), Mr. Bartrum, the man Ann eventually married, and the two children
Lamb wished he had—Alice and John, who appear only in his dream.
The Setting of the Reverie
One quiet evening, Lamb is sitting alone in an armchair.
Slowly, his mind drifts away into imagination. He pictures two beautiful little
children—a boy named John and a girl named Alice—creeping close to him. In the
dream he believes they are his own children, born to him and Alice Winterton.
The children listen with great interest and affection as Lamb begins telling
them stories about their ancestors. Through these conversations, Lamb revisits
the deepest corners of his heart.
Story of Mrs. Field
The children first ask him about their great-grandmother,
Mrs. Mary Field, who lived in a large, old mansion in Norfolk. Lamb describes
her with great admiration. She was not the owner of the house but only the
housekeeper. Yet she lived there with such dignity, devotion, and honesty that
neighbours respected her as if she were the real mistress of the house.
The house was huge, filled with old ornaments, carvings, and
long corridors that seemed haunted with past memories. This house was very dear
to Lamb in his childhood. He spent his vacations there, exploring its quiet
rooms and wandering through its gardens.
Mrs. Field was loved by everyone because she was deeply
religious, warm-hearted, and noble in character. She knew long passages of the
Bible by heart and lived a pious life. In her youth, she had been a tall and
beautiful woman, famous for her graceful dancing. But in her old age, she
suffered from cancer, which bent her back and caused constant pain. Yet, she
never allowed the disease to break her spirit. Her cheerful nature and strong
faith kept her steady and peaceful until the end of her life.
After her death, however, the grand old house began to
decline. The owner removed its ornaments and used them in his new fashionable
residence. The dream-children feel indignant and consider it unfair, showing
their innocent sense of justice.
The Writer’s Childhood in the Old House
Lamb recalls how he spent his holidays at Norfolk with his
siblings. He happily roamed through the enormous empty rooms of the mansion.
The gardens were wide and filled with delicious fruits hanging temptingly from
the branches. Yet Lamb never plucked them, not even once. He found more
pleasure in simply wandering and daydreaming than in eating the fruits. This
reveals his reflective, sensitive nature even as a child.
Reminiscence of John Lamb, the Elder Brother
Lamb then speaks about his elder brother, John, who had been
Mrs. Field’s favourite grandchild. John was handsome, brave, and had a
commanding personality. The younger children treated him like a king. He loved
horse riding and often rode far into the countryside.
Lamb remembers a tender childhood moment—when his own foot
was injured and he could not walk, John carried him on his back for miles. Many
years later, fate reversed their roles. John himself became lame, and doctors
had to amputate his leg. But Lamb painfully admits that he could not give his
brother the same attention and affection that John had once given him. This
regret haunted him.
John passed away in 1822, and his recent death was one of the
reasons that inspired Lamb to write this essay. While narrating this memory,
Lamb notices tears in the eyes of the dream-children, which shows their
innocence and compassion.
Alice Winterton – The Woman Lamb Could Not Marry
The children now ask him to tell them about their “pretty
dead mother.” This leads Lamb to his most sensitive memory—the story of Ann
Simmons, whom he calls Alice Winterton. Lamb had loved her sincerely and
courted her for seven long years. His love story was filled with both hope and
disappointment, but he never lost faith.
However, destiny was not kind to him. Ann Simmons married
another man, Mr. Bartrum. Lamb remained unmarried throughout his life. Looking
at little Alice, the dream-daughter, he sees the same beautiful eyes as her
mother’s. He feels overwhelmed with emotion. For a moment he cannot distinguish
whether he is seeing the child or the woman he once loved.
In this moment of emotional intensity, the two dream-children
begin to fade away slowly. They move farther and farther, their outlines
growing dim. Before disappearing completely, they seem to speak in soft sorrow:
“We are not your children. The children of Alice call Bartrum
their father. We are only what might have been.”
This heartbreaking line expresses the essence of Lamb’s
lifelong regret—his unrealised dreams of marriage and fatherhood.
The Reverie Ends
Suddenly Lamb’s daydream breaks. He finds himself still
sitting in the same armchair. There are no children—only his sister Mary
(Bridget) sits beside him. She is his lifelong companion, bound to him by deep
affection and shared suffering. Lamb realises that the beautiful children of
his imagination existed only in the quiet chambers of his heart.
Significance of the Essay
“Dream Children: A Reverie” is a delicate mixture of
tenderness, nostalgia, and melancholy. Through this dream, Lamb expresses: his
love for his grandmother, his affection for his siblings, his regret for not
treating his late brother better,
his lifelong sorrow over a lost love, and his deepest
unfulfilled desire—to have children of his own.
The essay shows Lamb’s unique ability to blend humour and
pathos, reality and dream, and memory and imagination. It stands as one of the
finest examples of autobiographical writing in English literature.
