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The Girl
The mother lives in the basement apartment with her two children—the girl and her brother—and her husband (the children’s father). She is resentful about how her life has played out so far, specifically that she wasn’t able to fulfil her desire of being a painter. She must devote her time to being a housewife and dressmaker and can only move out of the apartment if her husband finishes his degree, which she no longer enjoys living in. The mother therefore represents the frustration women can feel under the societal expectation that they prioritize their families over their careers and creative pursuits. The woman’s imagination seems to be as active as her daughter’s. Her quickly drawn conclusion that her husband caused the mess in the lounge allows her the satisfaction of directing her anger at him, having long suspected him of looking to undermine her. In this way, her imagination gives her a sense of emotional freedom, but at the same time, it distances her from her husband without him even knowing the reason. The mother’s character therefore emphasizes the freedom, along with the dangers, that imagination can bring.
The Mother Quotes in Bad Dreams
The Bad Dreams quotes below are all either spoken by The Mother or refer to The Mother . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Bad Dreams
Quotes
When she was younger she had called to her mother if she woke in the night, but something stopped her from calling out now: she didn’t want to tell anyone about this. Once the words were said aloud, she would never be rid of them; it was better to keep them hidden.
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[…] sometimes she felt a pang of fear for her father, as if he were exposed and vulnerable […]. She never feared in the same way for her mother: her mother was capable; she was the whole world.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Perhaps he’d like bacon for his breakfast—she had saved up her housekeeping to buy him some. His mother had cooked bacon for him every morning.
This time, for once, she was clearly in the right, wasn’t she? He had been childish, giving way to his frustration—as if she didn’t feel fed up sometimes. And he criticised her for her bad temper!
[…] she seemed to see the future with great clarity, looking forward through a long tunnel of antagonism, in which her husband was her enemy. This awful truth appeared to be something she had always known, though in the past it had been clouded in uncertainty and now she saw it starkly.
But he came at some point to stand behind his wife at the stove and put his arms around her, nuzzling her neck, kissing her behind her ear, and she leaned back into his kiss, as she always did, tilting her head to give herself to him.
Get the entire Bad Dreams LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Mother Quotes in Bad Dreams
The Bad Dreams quotes below are all either spoken by The Mother or refer to The Mother . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Bad Dreams
Quotes
When she was younger she had called to her mother if she woke in the night, but something stopped her from calling out now: she didn’t want to tell anyone about this. Once the words were said aloud, she would never be rid of them; it was better to keep them hidden.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[…] sometimes she felt a pang of fear for her father, as if he were exposed and vulnerable […]. She never feared in the same way for her mother: her mother was capable; she was the whole world.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Perhaps he’d like bacon for his breakfast—she had saved up her housekeeping to buy him some. His mother had cooked bacon for him every morning.
This time, for once, she was clearly in the right, wasn’t she? He had been childish, giving way to his frustration—as if she didn’t feel fed up sometimes. And he criticised her for her bad temper!
[…] she seemed to see the future with great clarity, looking forward through a long tunnel of antagonism, in which her husband was her enemy. This awful truth appeared to be something she had always known, though in the past it had been clouded in uncertainty and now she saw it starkly.
But he came at some point to stand behind his wife at the stove and put his arms around her, nuzzling her neck, kissing her behind her ear, and she leaned back into his kiss, as she always did, tilting her head to give herself to him.
