Point of View in “Dreams”
...tances when Mimi lost control and fell asleep. For example, the first time that we really learn about Kenneth Albright is right after Mimi falls asleep, and Everett and Thurber go to the dining room. Everett plays Dead Man’s Solitaire while Thurber sleeps next to him on the floor. The phone rings and all we get for a response is “yes” and the comment that if Thurber had been awake he would have recognized the signal for disaster in his master’s voice (89). The story proceeds to explain who Kenneth Albright is and what his influence on the story is. Everett has dreams that Kenneth Albright is killing people. He sees Kenneth standing over the bodies covered with blood. The following mornings, in reality, Kenneth is always covered with blood from an unknown source. Kenneth is not wounded, the patients are not wounded, and the staff is not wounded. This brings up the question with Dr. Melno, is there blood in dreams? Can what happens in dreams be carried into the real world? When he asks of this question, Mimi starts to wonder about her husband’s sanity. I felt that this quote was important to the story. It is referring to Kenneth Albright’s dreams. At first there seemed to be only dreams and nothing else in Kenneth’s memory. Broken pencils, discarded toys and the telephone directory all had roles to play in these dreams but there were never any people. All the weather was bleak and all the landscapes were empty. Houses, motor cars, and office buildings never made an appearance. Sounds and smells had some importance; the wind would blow, the send of unseen fires was often described. Stairwells were plentiful, leading nowhere, all of them rising from a subterranean world that Kenneth either did not dare to visit or would not describe. The dreams had little variation, one from another. The themes had mostly to do with loss and with being lost. The broken pencils were all given names and discarded toys were given to one another as companions. The telephone books were the sources of recitations--hours and hours of repeated names and numbers, some of which--Everett had noted with surprise--were absolutely accurate. (90) After reading this segment, I started to wonder if the people from the phone book were the people Kenneth was killing in Everett’s dreams. “But there were no strangers in dreams; he knew that now after twenty years of practice. There are no strangers; there are only people in disguise” (93). This would explain why Everett did not recognize the people in his dreams. He may not know them personally, but he has heard of them from Kenneth’s recitations in the phone book. Kenneth Albright is Everett’s worst case. Mimi’s worst case also plays an important role in “Dreams”. Brian Basset is his name and he is eight years old. He is autistic and had been Mimi’s patient for over a year. He is not showing any signs of improvement and Mimi’s colleagues want to take Brian away from her. Mimi too has dreams of her patient. Her dreams are much more tranquil, involving Brian in a desert setting and in an underwater excursion, during which he is unaware of Mimi’s presence. Both of the Melno’s cases happen at roughly the same time. Brian Basset died a week and three days after Everett started his sleep insomnia. Mimi’s dreams of Brian are calm and peaceful. Brian does not talk and is not aware that she was there. Everett on the other hand, has violent dreams. I feel that the differences in Mimi and Everett’s dreams are because Mimi loved Brian, he became a part of her and she was not afraid of him. In contrast, Everett was afraid of Kenneth. Kenneth was a person who was schizophrenic, and has tried multiple times t...