MP Board Class 12th English A Voyage Solutions Chapter 4 Dream-Children: A Reverie

MP Board Class 12th English A Voyage Solutions Chapter 4 Dream-Children: A Reverie (Charles Lamb)

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Dream-Children: A Reverie Textbook Exercises

Vocabulary

A. Frame sentences to explain the meaning of the following:

Carve (something) out, pull (something) down, keep up, carry away, set up, stick up, mop about, take off, go on,
Answer:

• Carve out : He has carved a fine figure of Goddess Durga out of marble stone.
• Pull down : The independents pulled the government down to election.
• Keep up : You should keep up your result.
• Carry away : There is no one to carry away it.
• Set up : My father set up a college in our village.
• Stick up : Do not stick up any bill to my boundary wall.
• Mop about : The thieves mopped about the house.
• Take off : This one will take off at 5 pm.
• Goon : Go on with your project.

B. Give Synonyms of the following Worlds
conception, up-braid, adjoining, awkward, courageous.
Answer:

• conception – ideas
• adjoining – neighbouring
• courageous – bold
• awkward – odd
• up-braid – plaited

C. Give antonyms of t he following:
ever, midnight, particular, empty, admiration.
Answer:

• Ever — never
• Midnight – midday
• Particular — common
• Empty — full
• Admiration — condemnation.

D. In the essay, you read an example of oxymoron ‘busy-idle’. Another example can be ‘deafening silence’. Give five more examples of oxymoron.
Answer:
Some examples of oxymoron are: tragi—comedy, forbidden—fruit, lame—footed.

Comprehension

A. Pick the correct alternatives from the following:

Question 1.
Who are Alice and John?
(a) lamb’s real children
(b) Lamb’s imaginary children
(c) Mary’s children
(d) None of the above.
Answer:
(b) Lamb’s imaginary children

Question 2.
What sort of relations had Iamb with his brother?
(a) He disliked his brother.
(b) He loved his brother.
(c) He was indifferent towards his brother.
(d) He had differences with his brother.
Answer:
(b) He loved his brother.

Question 3.
What is Lethe?
(a) a river of England
(b) a river of India
(c) a river in Hades
(d) a river in Heaven.
Answer:
(c) a river in Hades

Question 4.
What was the immediate cause of the composition of the essay “Dréam Children:
A Reverie”?
(a) The death of his brother.
(b) The death of his grandmother.
(c) The death of his mother.
(d) The death of his father.
Answer:
(a) The death of his brother.

Question 5.
Which of the following fruits is not mentioned by Lamb that grew in the garden , in the Norfolk House?
(a) peach
(b) nectarine
(c) orange
(d) apple.
Answer:
(d) apple.

Question 6.
Who according to Lamb, was the best dancer during her youth?
(a) Alice, the daughter
(b) Alice, the mother
(c) Mrs. Field
(d) Bridget.
Answer:
(c) Mrs. Field

B. Answer the following questions in about 60 words each:

Question 1
Write a character sketch of Lamb’s grandmother. (M.P. Board 2009)
Answer:
Lamb’s grandmother had a pleasing personality. She was highly religious. She was beloved and respected by everybody. She was very particular and prompt in her duties. She was fond of children and always enjoyed to be with them during holidays. She was tall, upright and graceful. She was a good dancer and was so popular among the commoner that her funeral was attended by a concourse of all the poor and some of the gentry of the neighbourhood from miles away.

Question 2.
What sort of a person was John Lamb? How did Lamb admire him?
Answer:
John Lamb had some good sort of personality. He was extremely handsome and spirited young man. All the children loved him and he loved them too. He was kind and helpful. He usually helped the writer by carrying him on his back. He was careful about the big house and the garden. Later, in his life, he was in great pain, still he lived with enthusiasm.

Question 3.
What are the similarities between Alice, the mother and Alice, the daughter?
Answer:
As the writer was in dream about his family, he was lost in thought. Alice was his daughter and John was his son, in fact imaginary. He observed some similarities between Alice the daughter and Alice the mother, the representation of her eye and her bright hair are similar.

Question 4.
Describe the cremation of grandmother Field.
Answer:
Field was a graceful lady with all generosity and kindness. She was loved and respected by all. She was highly religious, so she was very popular among people. When she died, her funeral was attended by a concourse of all the poor, some of the gentry also came and make their presence. They all came from neighbourhood from many miles away to show their respect in her memory.

Question 5.
Describe how Lamb used to move about in the garden of the great house. (M.P. Board 2016)
Answer:
Lamb was a peculair child. He never liked to be in a company. So, he usually spent his time alone. He used to roam in the big mansion. He also walked along the big, spacious old-fashioned garden, where he sometimes met with the solitary man, gardening, who never liked him roam in the garden or allowed him pluck any flower or fruit.

Question 6.
Who did grandmother Field love the best among the Lamb brothers and why?
Answer:
Grandmother Field was a graceful lady. She loved all the children. She always wished to be with all their grand-children in the great house in holidays but she had special love,and attention for John. Lamb, because he was very handsome and spirited young man.He also moped about in solitary comers and cared the great garden of the great house.

Question 7.
Why does Lamb say that though grandmother Field was not the owner of the house ‘yet in some respect she might be said to be the mistress of it too’?
Answer:
Lamb’s grandmother Field was a very popular lady living in a great house in Norfolk. She was highly attached with the house. Lamb says that she was not, the mistress of the house. She was only in charge of it, because she was committed to it by its owner who preferred living in a newer house. Still she lived in it, in a manner as if it was her own. She maintained the dignity of the house.

C. Answer the following questions in about 75-100 words each:

Question 1.
Justify the statement that’Dream Children: A Reverie’ is a lyric in prose.
Answer:
Dream Children: A Reverie is an outburst of a flow of imagination of Charles Lamb. Lamb was said to be the Prince of English essayists. He wrote this essay when he was ” nearing his fifties. As his life was not at all happy and comfortable, he towards the end of his life, has expressed his dreams which couldn’t be fulfilled during his lifetime. He had suffered a lot in his life. He himself was lame. His elder brother whom he loved so much died in great pain.

He missed him because he usually carried him on his back when he could not walk. In his youth, Lamb had a disappointing love-affair with a girl who afterwards married another man. He was a bachelor. He lived in utter loneliness. Though he wanted a family and children but they were denied to him in his actual life. In this essay, he is dreaming for having two children, on both of his sides behaving like real . children. Although the story has created a moving life situation which has all the elements of a lyric. This is a flow which makes one completely engrossed with the story.

Question 2.
In ‘Dream Children: A Reverie’ Lamb has woven fiction around certain facts of his life. Illustrate this statement from the essay.
Answer:
Dream Children: A Reverie is a typical essay written by Charles Lamb. The main theme of the essay is woven around certain facts of Lamb’s life. His life was very pathetic. He was a lame and suffered a lot. He was very much attached with his elder brother John who also became lame in his later life. He was in great pain when he died. The writer was deeply distressed with this incident. He always wished for a family. Once he was in love with a girl but afterwards she denied to marry him. He lived a bachelor life. He also wanted children but he was denied of a family and children. This story is an imagination that he could never see as being fulfilled.

Question 3.
Discuss the element of pathos in the essay ‘Dream Children: A Reverie’.
Answer:
Dream Children: A Reverie presents an unfulfilled desire of the essayist, Charles Lamb. Lamb’s life was a tragic one. He was physically not sound. He earnestly wished for a family and children. But he could not get any. He loved his elder brother very much who also suffered great pain. Lamb was in great pain to see his elder brother dying slowly in great pain. Everywhere in the essay, Lamb has tried to reveal the real tragedy of his life. It is really a very touching essay.

Question 4.
Write a summary of the essay ‘Dream Children: A Reverie’ in your own words.
Answer:
This is a story of a dream of a life which the writer couldn’t have. Children are usually fond of listening to the stories of their ancestors. The writer’s children (in fact imaginary) came closer to him to know about their great grandmother Field who lived in a great house in Norfolk. The writer continued to say interesting facts about Field. Field was a highly religious lady loved and respected by all. She was in fact not the mistress of the great house but just a caretaker of it, still she lived with dignity. When she died, her funeral was attended by a concourse of all the poor and some of the gentry too, of the neighborhood. They came from many miles to show their respect in her memory.

Further, the writer said that Field was tall, upright and graceful. She was an esteemed dancer in her youth. Later she suffered from the deadly disease, cancer which put her in pain. But she was still upright, as she was so good and religious.

Field used to sleep by herself in a lone chamber of the great house. She usually believed that two infants used to glide up and down the great staircase near where she slept during midnight. The writer was scared for he never saw any infant. However, Field was always very good to all her grand children. She liked to have all the children with her in the house during holidays. The writer enjoyed his loneliness even there. He was always alone in himself even there in the house of the grandmother.

Then the writer told John and Alice, the two children who were taking much interest in the story that the grandmother loved all the grand children with joy but she had special attention to John L. John L was very handsome and spirited youth. He loved the great house and took care of the garden. He used to carry the writer on his back, for he was a bit older than the writer.

It was because the writer was lame and couldn’t walk long. Later, he himself became lame and was in great pain. His painful death haunted the writer for long. The writer missed him much; for he had loved him too. He missed his brother’s kindness, closeness and wished him to be alive again to be quarrelling with him.

The children cried to listen to the stories about their pretty dead mother. The writer continued that he courted the fair Alice W-N, but when he explained how he was denied of the marriage, what pain had to suffer the children great emotional. They thought and realized that they were not real children born of the writer and Alice W-N. They were nearly dreams. The writer was awakened and there was no one around him neither John nor Alice.

Question 5.
Justify the title of the essay, ‘Dream Children: A Reverie’. (M.P. Board 2010)
Answer:
The title of the essay, Dream Children: A Reverie is very appropriate in the context of its
theme. The writer tries to unfold his unfulfilled desire. For this, he creates the images of two children who act in a real manner. He tells them all his memories of life. He utterly desired to have a family and children which was never fulfilled. The situation of the essay appears to be a real life situation. He shows similarity between Alice the Mother and Alice the daughter. He also shows similarity of fair hair between the two and through the children he reveals and satisfies the realities of his life.

D. Explain the following:

Question 1.
Children love to listen to stories about their elders, when they were children; to stretch their imagination to the conception of a traditionary great-uncle, grandame, whom they never saw.
Answer:
These lines are the exposition of a common phenomena. The writer reveals that children are fond of listening to adventurous tales and tales about old generation. These stories thrill them. They are also curious to know about their own ancestors. It is a way that they wish to be familiar with their own past glory, prestige, etc.

Question 2.
I missed his kindness and I missed his crossness, and wished him to be alive again, to ‘ be quarrelling with him (for we quarrelled sometimes), rather than not have him again, and was as uneasy without, him, as he their poor uncle must have been when the doctor took off his limb.
Answer:
Through this, Lamb is blurring the line of fiction and reality. The uncle in the story coincides with the brother of Lamb. Here Lamb reveals his feeling about his elder brother. His elder brother was a handsome youth and a love some figure. He was always helpful to the writer. He used to carry Lamb on his back as Lamb was unable to walk long for being lame. Sometimes, he got angry and quarrelled with him. Still he was helpful. He was a man of all good qualities. So, Lamb missed him much. Fiction gets woven around facts,

Question 3.
‘We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of Alice called Bartrum, father. We are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have existence and a name’.
Answer:
These lines reveal the realities of this story. In the whole story, Lamb has created such a realisite atmosphere that everything appears to be happening in life. In fact, it is mere fantasy. He has exposed his desires through imagination. He neither had a family nor children. John and Alice are his dream children. When in the end, Lamb tells them that he could never get married the children are made to feel that they are creation of Lamb’s imagination. In the meantime, the writer is awaken and everything is finished.

Grammar

Look at the following sentences:

• Children love to listen to stories about their elders.
• Then I went on to say…
• I had more pleasure in strolling.

In the above sentences the words in bold are non-finites. Now, fill in the blanks in the following sentences with proper forms of non-finites:
1. She refused ………… with me.
2. They offered ………… after our children when we were away.
3. Not many people can afford …………….a car.
4. She appeared …………….. done the deed.
5. She is difficult ………..
6. He Came specially…..me.
7. I have never known him ………….his temper.
8. She was heard ………….
9. She was ill. I advised her ……….. a doctor.
10. She decided ………… a nurse.
Answer:

1. to stay
2. to look
3. to buy
4. to have
5. to manage
6. to see
7. to lose
8. shouting
9. to consult
10. to be.

Speaking Activity

Every student in the class should speak ten sentences about their parents, brothers, sisters, and cousins. The information should be based on facts and not fiction as Lamb has done in his essay.
Answer:
Do yourself.

Writing Activity

Write a letter to your pen-friend informing about your family, parents, siblings and cousins.
Answer:
ABC Road
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh India
January 22, 20xx Dear John
Thanks for your reply. It was fascinating to know about your life in New York and your family and friends. It’s my turn to intimate you about my life here. I live-in a joint family and not in a nuclear family as is common in your country. My family includes my parents and siblings, my father’s elder brother and his family, my grandparents, myself and my dog, Timmy. I have an elder sister and a brother younger to me. My father is a dentist and mother is a housewife. We are lucky to have our grandparents always advising us with their wisdom and experience. My cousins are older to me and I love their company. I am sending you a photograph of this very happy and united family of mine. It’s nice to have a pen-friend in the U.S. A. I will wait your reply and expect you to tell me something about your city.
Your dear friend
Ali.

Think It Over

A. Reverie is pleasant thought that make you forget what you are doing or what is happening around you. Have you undergone similar experiences?
Answer:
Pleasant thoughts that make us forget, what we are doing or what is happening around
us. Once I had pleasant experience. I was sitting in my room. Suddenly, I began behaving in a strange manner. I called my mother and said that I have become the Prime Minister and in an hour I am flying to the Parliament. My mother called the other members of the house. They were laughing and got a bit serious. For almost an hour, I was elated and preparing myself for taking oath. Then my father came and as I saw him, all my elation disappeared and I was in my senses.

B. Memories not only give us pleasure-they also make us sad as we miss the bygone days. Do-you think Lamb’s reminiscences here are a blend of humour and pathos?
Answer:
Yes. Lamb’s reminiscences here are a blend of humour and pathos. He has dealt with the theme in a very realistic manner. Sometimes, the behaviour of grandmother creates humour while the memory of his brother creates pathos.

Things to Do
Study the style of Lamb. Among the modern essayists E.V. Lucas has written essays in the style of Lamb. Try to read the following essays by Lucas:
‘On Finding Things’ and ‘The Rope Trick’.
Answer:
Do yourself.

Dream – Children: A Reverie by Charles Lamb Introduction

Dream-Children: A Reverie is an outburst of a flow of imagination of Charles Lamb He write this assay when he was nearing his fifties. His life was not at all happy He wanted a family and children but they were denied to him in his actual life. The essay makes us aware of his deepening touching in life.

Dream – Children: A Reverie Summary in English

This is a story of a dream of a life which the writer couldn’t have. Children are usually fond of listening to the stories of their ancestors. The writer’s children (in fact imaginary) came closer to him to know about their great grandmother Field who lived in a great house in Norfolk. The writer continued to say interesting facts about Field. Field was a highly religious lady loved and respected by all. She was in fact not the mistress of the great house but just a caretaker of it, still she lived with dignity. When she died, her funeral was attended by a concourse of all the poor and some of the gentry too, of the neighborhood. They came from many miles to show their respect in her memory.

Further, the writer said that Field was tall, upright and graceful. She was an esteemed dancer in her youth. Later she suffered from the deadly disease, cancer which put her in pain. But she was still upright, as she was so good and religious.

Field used to sleep by herself in a lone chamber of the great house. She usually believed that two infants used to glide up and down the great staircase near where she slept during midnight. The writer was scared for he never saw any infant. However, Field was always very good to all her grand children. She liked to have all the children with her in the house during holidays. The writer enjoyed his loneliness even there. He was always alone in himself even there in the house of the grandmother.

Then the writer told John and Alice, the two children who were taking much interest in the story that the grandmother loved all the grand children with joy but she had special attention to John L. John L was very handsome and spirited youth. He loved the great house and took care of the garden. He used to carry the writer on his back, for he was a bit older than the writer.

It was because the writer was lame and couldn’t walk long. Later, he himself became lame and was in great pain. His painful death haunted the writer for long. The writer missed him much; for he had loved him too. He missed his brother’s kindness, closeness and wished him to be alive again to be quarrelling with him.

The children cried to listen to the stories about their pretty dead mother. The writer continued that he courted the fair Alice W-N, but when he explained how he was denied of the marriage, what pain had to suffer the children great emotional. They thought and realized that they were not real children born of the writer and Alice W-N. They were nearly dreams. The writer was awakened and there was no one around him neither John nor Alice.

Dream – Children: A Reverie Summary in Hindi

यह एक जीवन के सपने की कहानी है जिसमें लेखक कभी साकार न हो सका। बच्चे प्रायः अपने पूर्वजों के बारे में जानने को उत्सुक रहते हैं। लेखक के बच्चे (दरअसल काल्पनिक) उसके पास आए और अपनी दादी Field के बारे में जानना चाहते थे जो Norfolk के बड़े-से घर में रहती थी। लेखक मजेदार बातों के साथ Field के बारे में बताना शुरू किया कि Field महान् धार्मिक महिला थी जिसे सभी लोग प्यार और इज्जत देते थे। दरअसल वह उस विशाल घर की मालकिन नहीं थी बल्कि इसकी संरक्षिका थी। फिर भी वह काफी प्रतिष्ठा के साथ वहाँ रहती थी। जब उसकी मृत्यु हुई तो उसके अन्तिम संस्कार में काफी संख्या में गरीबों का समूह और कुछ पड़ोसी मध्यमवर्गीय लोग शामिल हुए। वे दूर-दूर से उसके प्रति अपनी आदर की भावना का प्रदर्शन करने आए थे।

आगे लेखक ने बताया कि Field लम्बी, अनुशासित एवं कोमल महिला थी। वह अपने युवाकाल में एक अच्छी नर्तकी थी। बाद में उसे कैंसर जैसी भयानक बीमारी हो गई जिसने उसे भीषण दर्द में डाल दिया। फिर भी वह सख्त थी और उतनी ही धार्मिक और अच्छी। . Field बड़े घर के एक अकेले कमरे में सोती थी। उसे प्रायः ऐसा लगता था कि दो बच्चे हवा में लहराते हुए उस नीचे

सीढ़ी पर आते थे जहाँ वह सोती थी। लेखक को इससे भय लगता था क्योंकि उसे कोई बच्चा दिखाई नहीं दिया। हालाँकि Field अपने पोतों के साथ बहुत अच्छा व्यवहार रखती थी। वह छुट्टियों में सभी बच्चों को एक साथ उस बड़े धर में देखनाचाहती थी। लेखक अपने अकेलेपन में ही वहाँ भी खोया रहता था। वह दादी माँ के बड़े घर में भी अपने आप में अकेला होता था।

फिर लेखक ने John और Alice दोनों बच्चों जो उसकी कहानी में विशेष दिलचस्पी दिखा रहे थे, को बताया कि दादी माँ सभी बच्चों को बेहद प्यार करती थी, परन्तु उसे John L से विशेष लगाव था। John L बहुत ही सुन्दर और उत्साही युवक था। वह घर को प्यार करता था और बगीचे की देखभाल भी करता था। वह लेखक को अपनी पीठ पर ढोया करता था, क्योंकि वह लेखक से बड़ा था। वह ऐसा इसलिए करता था कि लेखक पाँव से लंगड़ा था और ज्यादा दूर चल नहीं पाता था। बाद में वह खुद भी लँगड़ा हो गया और बहुत ही दर्द में था। उसकी दर्दनाक मौत हमेशा लेखक को कचोटता था।

लेखक को उसकी कमी महसूस होती थी, क्योंकि वह उसे बहुत प्यार करता था। अपने भाई केपण्या, और गुस्से को याद करता था और चाहता था कि वह फिर से जिंदा हो जाए और उससे झगड़े। बच्चों ने अपनी सुन्दर माँ की कहानी सुनने के लिए शोर मचाया। लेखक ने बताया कि उसने Alice W-N. से मंगनी तय की लेकिन जब उसने बताया कैसे उसे शादी के लिए नकार दिया गया और उसे कैसे दर्द से गुजरना पड़ा, तो बच्चे भावुक हो गए। उन्होंने सोचा और महसूस किया वे लेखक और Alice W.N. के बच्चे नहीं थे। वे दरअसल एक सपना थे। लेखक की नींद खुल गई और वहाँ कोई नहीं था, न John न ही Alice..

Dream-Children: A Reverie Word Meanings

Dream-Children: A Reverie Important Pronunciations

Dream-Children: A Reverie Passage for Comprehension

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow them:

1. Children love to listen to stories about their elders, when they were children; to stretch their imagination to the conception of a traditionally great-uncle, or grandame, whom they never saw. It was in this spirit that my little ones crept about me the other evening to hear about their great-grandmother Field, who lived in a great house in Norfolk (a hundred times bigger than that in which they and papa lived) which had been the scene- so at least it was generally believed in that part of the country-of the tragic incidents which they had lately become familiar with from the ballad of the Children in the Wood.(Page 22)

Questions:
(i) What do children love to listen?
(ii) Give noun form of the word ‘traditionary’.
(iii) Find a word from the passage meaning same as the word ‘spread’.
(iv) Give a word opposite in meaning of ‘strange’.
Answers:
(i) Children love to listen to the stories about their ancestors like grandmother, great- uncle etc.
(ii) ‘Tradition’ is the noun form of the word ‘traditionary’
(iii) Stretch is similar in meaning to ‘spread’.
(iv) Familiar has opposite meaning to ‘strange’.

2. Here little Alice spread her hands. Then I told what a tall, upright, graceful person their great-grandmother Field once was; and how in her youth she was esteemed the best dancer-here Alice’s little right foot played an involuntary movement ’till’ upon my looking grave, it desisted-the best dancer, I was saying, in the country, till a cruel disease, called a cancer ‘came’ and bowed her down with pain; but it could never bend her good spirits, or make them stoop, they were still upright, because she was so good and religious.

Then I told how she was used to sleep by herself in a lone chamber of the great lone ‘ house; and how she believed that an apparition of two infants was to be seen at midnight ; gliding up and down the great staircase near where she slept, but she said; “those innocents would do her no harm” and how frightened I used to be, though in those days I had my maid to sleep with me, because I was never half so good or religious as she and yet I never saw the infants. (Faye 23)

Questions:
(i) What did she suffer from? How did it affect her?
(ii) Give adjective form of ‘frightened’.
(iii) Find a word from the passage which has opposite meaning to ‘guilty’?
(iv) Find a word from the passage which means same as ‘scared’?
Answers: .
(i) She later in her life, suffered from cancer but her spirit was still upright for she was so good and religious.
(ii) ‘Frightening’ is the adjective form of ‘brightened’.
(iii)’ ‘Innocent’ is the opposite meaning to’guilty’.
(iv) Frightened is similar in meaning to ‘scared’.

3. Then in somewhat a more heightened tone, I told how, though their great-grandmother Field loved all her grand-children, yet in an especial manner she might be said to love their uncle, John Lamb, because he was so handsome and spirited youth, and a king to the rest of us; and, instead of moping about in solitary corners, like some of us, he would mount the most mettlesome horse he could get, when but an imp no bigger than themselves, and make it carry him half over the county in a morning, and join the hunters when there were any out and yet he loved the old great house and gardens too, but had too much spirit to be always pent up within their boundaries and how their uncle grew up to man’s estate as brave as he was handsome, to the admiration of everybody, but of their great-grandmother Field, most especially.
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Questions:
(i) Whom did the grandmother love in a special manner? Why?
(ii) Give noun form of the word ‘spirited’.
(iii) Give a word meaning same as ‘lonely’.
(iv) Find a word from the passage which means opposite to ‘condemn’?
Answers:
(i) The grandmother loved John Lamb, the elder brother of the writer in a special manner because he was very handsome and spirited.
(ii) ‘Spirit’is the noun form of word’spirited’.
(iii) ‘Solitary’ is similar in meaning to ‘lonely’.
(iv) ‘Admire’ is opposite to ‘condemn’