Page 47 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Elective English–I

Notes 4.6 Article Features

Narration Enlivened by Depiction of the Children
As is illustrated in sentences (5) and (6), the author’s narration of the great-grandmother and
his brother is enlivened by a certain depiction concerning the children. Incidentally, while
preparing his ultimate solemn effect, Lamb has inspired us with a new, intensified vision of
the wistful beauty of children—their imitativeness, their facile and generous emotions, their
anxiety to be correct, their ingenuous haste to escape from grief into joy. This vision gives us
an impression that they seem real, thus makes the revelation in the end touching and pathetic.

Unexpected Ending
Dream Children begins quite simply, in a calm, narrative manner, representing Lamb as sitting
by his fireside on a winter night telling stories to his own dear children, and delighting in
their society, until he suddenly comes to his old, solitary, bachelor self, and finds that they
were but dream-children. In the end of the essay, we read:
That I became in doubt which of them stood there before me, or whose that bright hair was;
and while I stood gazing, both the children gradually grew fainter to my view, receding, and
still receding till nothing at last but two mournful features were seen in the uttermost distance,
which, without speech, strangely impressed upon me the effects of speech; “We are not of
Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of Alice called 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.”
Reflecting upon the essay, we will surely be obsessed by the beauty of old houses and gardens
and aged virtuous characters, the beauty of children, the beauty of companionships, the softening
beauty of dreams in an arm-chair—all these are brought together and mingled with the grief
and regret which were the origin of the mood.

Rhetorical Devices

Lamb introduces some rhetorical devices to make his essay vivid and profound, such as:
And how the nectarines and peaches hung upon the walls, without my ever offering to pluck
them, because they were forbidden fruit, unless now and then (metaphor)
Till I could almost fancy myself ripening too along with the oranges and the limes in that
grateful warmth (empathy)

The nature of things mostly appeared to Charles Lamb in this way. Lamb did not frolic out
of lightness of heart, but to escape from gloom that might otherwise crush. He laughed to save
himself from weeping. In fact, Lamb’s personal life was of disappointments and frustrations.
But instead of complaining, he looked at the tragedies of life, its miseries and worries as a
humorist. Thus his essays become an admixture of humour and pathos. Examples of his keen
sense of humour and pathetic touches are scattered in all of his essays. Let’s focus our discussion
on Dream Children: A Reverie.

Characters

The young couple in the ancient Dutch farming village (in New England) who are the major
living characters in “Dream Children” are the McNairs. The outward placidity that the pleasant
and personable Mrs. McNair displays in her daily goings about among the villagers gives the

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