Dream children
“The worst thing . Such a terrible thing to happen to a young woman. It’s a wonder
she didn’t go mad.”1 My first impression as I have read the entering words to the story by Gail
Godwin was that the woman must have lost a child. In fact we are not told what really
happened before the very end of the story. The author reveals it to us, step by step, however
not using exact words, which is, I guess what makes the story a good read. What’s more,
when it comes to me, the story may be read on more than one layer, which also makes it even
more interesting. How we read it, may depend on many things. What I mean is, that we can
perceive the main character as insane, because of the traumatic experience she went through.
This kind of interpretation is not however the one that appeals to me. The other possible
interpretation is, that Mrs. McNair kept her sanity, but to be able to survive in the surrounding
reality she created a world of dreams in which she lived another life.
As we read on, we learn that the words quoted above are what the protagonist of the
story imagined people to say or think to themselves as they saw her – “But nobody knew.”2
The people in the village wouldn’t even suspect that in the life of that elegant, beautiful
woman could have occurred a tragedy. To most of them she seemed perfect.
“So many ambitious young couples moving to this Dutch Farming village, founded in
1690, to restore ruined fieldstone houses and plant herb gardens and keep their own horses
and discover the relief of finding oneself insignificant in Nature for the first time.”3 It seems
that it is nothing out of ordinary for Mrs. Mc Nair and her husband to move to the village
from the city. From the quotation above we get to know that they were not the only couple to
do so, however we can read from this fragment something more. To me restoring “ruined
fieldstone houses”4 might be a metaphor of restoring a ruined life. Mrs McNair and her
husband change the place of living, because the place they lived before is associated with the
event that changed their lives forever. This “quaint, unspoiled village, nestled in the foothills
of the mountains” is supposed to help them to forget, at least to some extent...
The only people who notice that there’s something eerie about Mrs Mc Nair are
DePuy. Mr DePuy commented as he would see Mrs McNair riding a horse: “One woodchuck
whole and she and that stallion will both have to be put out of their misery.” Mrs DePuy
however “recognized something beyond recklessness in that elegant young woman. [...] She
1
Gail Godwin, Dream Chlidren, <http://www.gailgodwin.com/dreamchildrenexcerpt.htm> 1 May 2006
Gail Godwin, Dream Chlidren
3
Gail Godwin, Dream Chlidren
4
Gail Godwin, Dream Chlidren
2
has nothing to fear anymore, thought the farmer’s wife, with sure feminine instinct; she both
envied and pitied her.” Mrs DePuy’s husband adds that, what Mrs McNair needs is children.
Both DePuys are right to some extent. The farmer, being a simple man feels that she lacks
something as a woman, his wife however being a woman instinctively understands Mrs
McNair.
I think that many people would be able to relate to the main character of the story in
some way. When we read fragments such as the one describing Victoria Darrow’s visit to
McNairs’ house we feel sorry for Mrs McNair. We know how much she must suffer listening
to Victoria’s talk about the time to get pregnant. When Victoria starts telling a story of a
doctor who ceased practising obstetrics Mrs McNair’s husband overhears the conversation
and “saves” his wife from hearing what the reason was for the doctor’s quitting the job was.