Dream Story

Assignment: Please choose a quote from Dream Story write out the quote. Then interpret the quote and explain why you chose this passage.

               A few seconds later he felt a soft hand stroking his hair. He raised his head and from the bottom of his heart cried, ‘I’ll tell you everything.’

            At first she gently raised her hand as if to prevent him, but he seized it and held it in his own, both questioning her and pleading with her as he looked up, so she nodded her consent and he began.

            By the time Fridolin had ended the first grey light of dawn was coming through the curtains. Albertine had not once interrupted him with curious or impatient questions. She seemed to sense that he had no desire to conceal anything from her, that he was indeed unable to. She lay there quietly, her hands behind her neck, and remained silent a long time after Fridolin had finished. At last – he had been lying stretched out by her side – he bent over her and, gazing into her impassive face and large bright eyes, in which the day now seemed to be dawning too, asked hesitantly yet full of hope, ‘What should we do, Albertine?’

            She smiled, hesitated briefly, then answered, ‘I think we should be grateful to fate that we’ve emerged safely from these adventures – both from the real ones and from those we dreamed about.’

            ‘Are you quite sure of that?’ he asked.

            ‘As sure as I am of my sense that neither the reality of a single night nor even of a person’s entire life can be equated with the full truth about his innermost being.’

            ‘And no dream,’ he sighed quietly, ‘is altogether a dream.’

            She took his head in both her hands and pillowed it tenderly against her breast. ‘Now we’re truly awake,’ she said, ‘at least for a good while.’ He wanted to add: for ever. But before he had a chance to speak, she laid a finger on his lips and whispered as though to herself, ‘Never inquire into the future.’

            And so they both lay there in silence, both dozing now and then, yet dreamlessly close to one another – until, as every morning at seven, there was a knock upon the bedroom door and, with the usual noises from the street, a triumphant sunbeam coming in between the curtains, and a child’s gay laughter from the adjacent room, another day began.

I chose this passage from pages 98 and 99 the ending of the book because it seemed so real and at the same time so unreal. It seemed real because Fridolin was telling Albertine his feelings and the events that had taken place and the chances he had to cheat on her. At the same time it seemed unreal because is hard to picture another person being truthful and saying the truth about their feelings. This passage is both revealing and unrevealing because Fridolin reveals his feelings and unrevealing because Albertine doesn’t want to think about the future and she wants them to live in the present knowing their true feelings and thoughts about their relationship. At the end having their daughter’s laughter to remind them of what they have together was very nice. Even though they had fantasies with other people I think is actually normal because is human nature to picture yourself with someone else or another life, but at the end family and love call you back to reality. The human mind thrives  on the imagination we all like to imagine different things whether if we were rich, another nationality, etc. At the end Fridolin and Albertine know that they love each other and that their fantasies are just fantasies and that they wouldn't hurt their family or themselves.