When reading “Three Dreams in a Desert” I couldn’t help but
see the similarities between the second dream and the ending of The Awakening.
I felt like it gave extra support to some of the theories discussed in class
about why Edna went into the ocean. In Three Dream the woman has to travel
through the deep river to reach the land of freedom which I immediately linked
to Edna’s travel out into the ocean at the end of the book to reach her own
personal freedom. “Reason” from the dream also instructs the woman to take off
her clothes before entering the river because they would weigh her down. I
thought this was reminiscent of our discussion in class about Edna as well when
she strips naked and going into the ocean. As I see it, in “Three Dreams” the
clothing represents all of the things the woman is doing to keep up
appearances, or as she calls it the “mantle of Ancient-received-opinions,” and
underneath she finds truth. I compared this to Edna’s personal truth; that she
could never be satisfied with her life and what she had. The connection gets
even deeper when Reason tells the woman that if she takes the child with her
she will think only of him and forget to swim. I think the number of
connections between the two stories is quite interesting.
I think that this is a really interesting way of looking at the three dreams. I had a hard time interpreting them myself but I liked how you linked them back to the final scene in The Awakening. I also thought about the significance of the woman taking her clothes off in order to cross the river. They represented things that would be holding her down as she crossed the river. Similar to what someone mentioned in class about Edna. Edna entered the water naked shredding herself of any social construct or ties to her past .
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