In Dreams Begin Responsibilities

“I am anonymous, and I have forgotten myself. It is always so when one goes to the movies, it is, as they say, a drug.”

As the protagonist settles in to watch the movie within his dream, he feels “anonymous,” as if his identity has melted away. Using the metaphor of “a drug,” he suggests that movies in general transport us into an altered state—into escapist worlds where we can “forg[et]” ourselves and our daily lives. Yet these sentences also set up an ironic twist. The protagonist won’t be able to forget his identity for long because this movie shows the story of his parents’ courtship, and therefore the circumstances that gave rise to his troubled life.

“He thinks about himself in the future and so arrives at the place he is to visit in a state of mild exaltation.”

As he walks toward his date, the father is so optimistic about his future that he feels “exalt[ed]” or spiritually uplifted. However, this sentence sets up a situational irony: Once he proposes to his girlfriend, he immediately feels unhappy and uncertain about the choice he’s made. He angrily refuses to have his fortune told, hinting at his newfound anxiety about the future.

“He is impressive, yet he is very awkward.”

This description of the father foreshadows the awkwardness of his later proposal to Rose, as well as the rockiness of the couple’s eventual marriage. In some respects, the father cuts an “impressive” figure: He’s a sharply dressed, self-confident young businessman with bright financial prospects. At the same time, he is personally “awkward” in dealing with Rose and her family. His lack of social grace amuses her relatives, but it also betrays insecurities that will undermine his relationship with her. He understands the “impressive” world of business better than he understands Rose herself, or romance in general.

“At this point something happens to the film, just as my father is saying something funny to my mother; I am awakened to myself and my unhappiness just as my interest was rising.”

This sentence disrupts the narrative-within-a-narrative (the movie within the dream). The narrator is “awakened to [him]self” by a glitch in the film, but he is not awakened from the dream itself. Sentences like these call attention to the story’s multiple framing devices or layers of unreality. It’s also ominous that the glitch happens “just as [the narrator’s] father is saying something funny to [his] mother.” Even when the couple is having fun together, they seem ill-fated, as if their romance itself is having technical difficulties. The narrator’s mysterious “unhappiness” adds to the foreboding atmosphere.

“My mother is holding my father’s arm and telling him of the novel which she has been reading; and my father utters judgments of the characters as the plot is made clear to him. This is a habit which he very much enjoys, for he feels the utmost superiority and confidence when he approves and condemns the behavior of other people.”

These sentences deepen the characterization of the mother and father while offering some grim foreshadowing. The mother enjoys reading fiction, perhaps foreshadowing her son’s literary career and tries to bond with her boyfriend over discussion of a novel. The father isn’t a reader, but he feels entitled to judge the novel’s characters anyway. In general, he revels in arrogantly “condemn[ing]” both real and fictional people. His harsh, judgmental nature amuses Rose when it’s applied to fiction, but in real life, it will spoil the day of their engagement—and, it’s implied, hurt their marriage as well.

“My father tells my mother how much money he has made in the past week, exaggerating an amount which need not have been exaggerated. But my father has always felt that actualities somehow fell short.”

These sentences imply that the father is dishonest, boastful, and insecure. Though he’s doing well financially, he “exaggerat[es]” his achievements, apparently motivated by a deep sense of inadequacy or dissatisfaction. The narrator comments that this is an ingrained part of his father’s personality: The mere “actualities,” or realities, of his life have “always” seemed to disappoint him. The father remains a static character, retaining the same flaws throughout his life. Those flaws connect him to his son, another dreamer frustrated with the limits of reality.

“Their minds are full of theories of what is good to eat and not good to eat, and sometimes they engage in heated discussions of the subject, the whole matter ending in my father’s announcement, made with a scornful bluster, that you have to die sooner or later anyway.”

Even at the height of their romance, the couple argues over trivial matters, such as their opinions on diet and nutrition. Their “heated” words, along with the father’s “scornful” attitude, again foreshadow the deeper conflicts that will spoil their engagement and marriage. The father’s declaration that “you have to die sooner or later anyway” suggests that a touch of fatalism has crept into his earlier optimism.

“I stare fascinated and finally, shocked by the indifference of my father and mother, I burst out weeping once more. The old lady next to me pats my shoulder and says, ‘There, there, all of this is only a movie, young man, only a movie.’”

The narrator’s emotional reaction to the “fatal, merciless, passionate” ocean contrasts with his parents’ indifference, highlighting the gap between their perspectives, as the parents rush toward a future that the narrator already knows will be tragic. The lady beside him tries to reassure him that “all of this is only a movie,” but her statement is laden with irony. After all, the movie takes place within a nightmare, suggesting that it arises from something tormenting in the narrator’s psyche. It even depicts, in slightly modified form, the literal story of his parents’ engagement. He can run out of the movie theater and awake from the dream, but he can’t escape the real-life experience that produced the dream.

“My father has acquired ten rings, my mother only two, although it was my mother who really wanted them.”

Even in a fun, frivolous game (grabbing rings on a merry-go-round), the father is more competitive and acquisitive than the mother. His intensity reflects his greedy ambition in business and romance alike. The mother’s desire for the rings symbolize, specifically, her desire for engagement/marriage. Indeed, the symbolism here foreshadows the father’s later marriage proposal. Whereas the mother “really want[s]” the engagement, the father turns out to be exaggerating his desire or simply fooling himself.

“My father feels omnipotent as he places a quarter in the waiter’s hand as he asks for a table.”

This sentence illustrates the father’s hubris (excessive pride), which, as in many tragedies, directly precedes a disappointment or downfall. When bribing the waiter at the restaurant, the father feels “omnipotent” and godlike. Soon, however, his pride comes back to haunt him: He gets the engagement he wanted, but it immediately makes him unhappy. Though he feels all-powerful for now, he is ultimately powerless to avert the tragedy of his marriage and family life.

“[A]nd it was then that I stood up in the theatre and shouted, ‘Don’t do it. It’s not too late to change your minds, both of you. Nothing good will come of it, only remorse, hatred, scandal, and two children whose characters are monstrous.’”

Since the dawn of the motion picture, audience members have sometimes shouted at on-screen characters—to warn them away from disaster, for example. In a twist on this cliché, the narrator shouts at his on-screen parents, warning them to break off their engagement and avert the disaster of his own family life. He insists that their marriage will produce “Nothing good,” including his own existence. He justifies this last claim by adding that he and his sibling are “monstrous” and suggesting that the world would be better without them.

“The photographer charms me. I approve of him with all my heart, for I know just how he feels, and as he criticizes each revised pose according to some unknown idea of rightness, I become quite hopeful. But then my father says angrily, ‘Come on, you’ve had enough time, we’re not going to wait any longer.’”

The photographer “charms” the narrator, evidently because the narrator recognizes him as a fellow artist and perfectionist. The narrator, a stand-in for the author, Delmore Schwartz, knows “just how [the photographer] feels” while trying to arrange the photo of the newly engaged couple. He, too, feels a “hopeful” desire to “revise” his parents’ unhappy relationship—to make it turn out better, like a joyful photo or uplifting movie. The father, however, impatiently interrupts the photographer’s quest for perfection, dashing the narrator’s hopes. As a result, the picture is ruined, just as his marriage will end in ruin.

“What are they doing? Don’t they know what they are doing?”

Once again, the narrator shouts at the movie, this time in a series of rhetorical questions. On the verge of hysteria, he demands to know what his parents are “doing” as they quarrel, and whether they themselves “know what they are doing.” He fears, or believes, that they do not know they are acting impulsively and irrationally. Worse, their irrational behavior will give rise to his own life, including a childhood plagued with “remorse, hatred, scandal” (Paragraph 17).