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Prose

Notes chimney sweepers. Similarly the essay Dream Children is a beautiful projection of Lamb’s
feelings and desire to have a wife and children of his own. It is humorous that in his dream
he is married and has two children of his own while he had a disheartening frustration in
love. Thus Lamb has painted both the lights and shades of life in full circle. His is the
criticism of life in pathos and humours.
1. Charles Lamb entitled the essay “Dream Children” because he never married and naturally
never became the father of any children. The children he speaks of in the essay were
actually the creations of his imagination or fancy.
2. Lamb had a sister, Mary Lamb, who did not marry since she had attacks of insanity. She
has been referred to here as “faithful Bridget” because she never married and was Lamb’s
only companion in his life. At the sudden breakdown of his reverie, he finds her seated
by his side.
3. Dream Children is a personal essay. Lamb presents the characters and incidents from his
own life—the sketches of his grandmother, Field, his brother—John Lamb, his sister—
Mary Lamb, his tragic love-affairs with Ann Simmons. But Lamb is always playing with
facts and fictions and transforms the real into the literary.
• Through the stylistic approach to Dream Children, we can see that Charles Lamb is a romanticist,
seeking a free expression of his own personality and weaving romance into daily life. Without
a trace of vanity of self-assertion, Lamb begins with himself, with some purely personal
mood or experience, and from this he leads the reader to see life and literature as he saw it.
It is this wonderful combination of personal and universal interests, together with Lamb’s
rare old style, which make the essay remarkable.
• The Last Essays of Elia were published in 1823 and 1833, respectively.
• Lamb’s discerning and lively correspondence is collected in The Letters of Charles Lamb (1935).
• Dream Children records the pathetic joys in the author’s unfortunate domestic life.

7.7 Key-Words

1. Protean : readily taking on various shapes or forms variable, exhibiting considerable
variety or diversity.
2. Prismatic effect : relating to, resembling, or constituting a prism
7.8 Review Questions

1. Who was Alice in Dream Children by Charles Lamb?
2. What is the summary of Dream Children a reverie by Charles lamb?
3. What is the theme of Dream Children by Charles lamb?
4. Who was James Elia in Lamb’s ‘Dream Children’?
Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(a) (ii)(a) (iii)(b) (iv)(c)

7.9 Further Readings

1. Life of Charles Lamb, E.V. Lucas, G.P. Putman and Sons, London, 1905.
2. Young Charles Lamb, by Winifred Courtney, New York University Press, 1982.
3. Essays by Charles Lamb.

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