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  1. Humour: In Charles Lamb's essay "Dream Children: A Reverie," he humorously recounts a dream in which he has two children, a boy and a girl, who he imagines are his own. He playfully muses about how the children would look, sound, and act, and how they would bring joy to his life. He imagines how theRead more

    Humour: In Charles Lamb’s essay “Dream Children: A Reverie,” he humorously recounts a dream in which he has two children, a boy and a girl, who he imagines are his own. He playfully muses about how the children would look, sound, and act, and how they would bring joy to his life. He imagines how they would play together and how he would watch them with a “pleasure ever new.”

    Pathos: Lamb also expresses a deep sense of regret and sadness throughout the essay. He realizes that, as a bachelor, he will never have children of his own, and this regret is palpable in his dream. He alludes to this regret when describing how he imagined the children “growing up to be a comfort to me in my age.” The sense of sadness is further amplified when he recounts how he would have to wake up from the dream and realize that the children were not real.

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  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.

    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.

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  1. As a result of Lamb's lack of marriage and consequent lack of children, the essay is referred to as a "reverie." He developed a fictional picture of a happy conjugal life in the essay, which, when he returns to reality, eventually disintegrates into nothingness and becomes meaningless. To begin withRead more

    As a result of Lamb’s lack of marriage and consequent lack of children, the essay is referred to as a “reverie.” He developed a fictional picture of a happy conjugal life in the essay, which, when he returns to reality, eventually disintegrates into nothingness and becomes meaningless.

    To begin with, what exactly is a reverie in Lamb’s dream children? A reverie is a state of being completely absorbed in one’s thoughts. Generally speaking, this is associated with pleasant daydreaming, but it can also be associated with melancholy. At the heart of this essay are sentiments of fond recollection, longing, and ultimately, sadness. His great-grandmother Field and his uncle John are among the relatives he remembers fondly from his childhood.

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