How does Lamb present the character of great-grandmother Field and Is there a lesson to be drawn from her character?

Answer 1

(d) How does Lamb present the character of greatgrandmother Field ? Is there a lesson to be drawn from her character? 8+4

In 'Dream Children: A Reverie', Lamb presents a very respectable character of his grandmother Mrs Field. He starts talking about her when his dream children, Alice and John, ask him about their great grandmother i.e. Mrs Field.

She lived in the great Norfolk house. Although she was not the owner of the house, she lived in it as if she were the mistress of the house. She was keen to maintain the dignity of the house. She never did anything that in any way might cause a harm to the reputation of the house. Here, she emerges as an ideal tenant.

She lived there alone. There had been a rumour of the apparitions of two children who were murdered by their uncle, she was never afraid of those ghosts. She maintained that since she had never done any harm to the spirits, they would never inflict any harm on her. The very fact that she had a brave heart becomes evident from this. Her conscience regarding virtue and sin was also a very neat and clean one.

She, in her youth, had been the best dancer of the county. But later on she gave up dances when she grew old. This exemplifies her sense of maturity.

Mrs Field was a religious woman. She knew a considerable portion of the book of Psalms by heart. She memorized it as she grew older. She knew that as someone grows old he or she needs be religious. Every individual should pay more attention to the spiritual transcendence keeping aside all materialistic considerations.

She maintained the statues of the twelve Roman emperors in that house. This reflects her love for the past and her romantic yearning for medievalism.

There was an orchard and an orangery in the house. There were different trees also in the garden where Lamb spent most of his time during the day time. This reflects her love for nature. Even she appointed a gardener to look after the garden and the orangery.

In spite of so many good qualities, she had a little flaw in herself. As the grandmother of all her grandchildren, she had to love all of them equally. But she had a little more weakness for Lamb's brother, John. John was more handsome and youthful than all her grandchildren and she may be spared of her biasness for John considering the very fact that it was her Romantic love for beauty.

Moreover, her funeral was attended by all and sundry of the county. There were people from the surrounding villages as well. This, in a word, implicitly announces the respect that she won in her lifetime.

We have many things to learn from her. Firstly, she exhibits how the ideal caretaker or tenant of a house should be. She did not pay much importance to any kind of superstitions. Her firm conviction that she has never done any harm to anyone is praiseworthy. Very few of us can claim such purity of heart. Her youthful young days and later on her change into a pious lady teach us how we should control ourselves while getting into the senior age-group. Her religious bent of mind at her old age is also very commendable. Her love for the past and Nature are also to be noted by us. She teaches us the guidelines of good moral living. The amount of people who attended her funeral proved it.