Vain Dreams: The Dream Convention in Some Nineteenth-Century American Women's Fiction

Abstract

In two short stories by women in mid-nineteenth-century America, Angel Over the Right Shoulder by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Wife's Story by Rebecca Harding Davis, the ancient literary device of the dream convention operates in special and revealing ways. The dreams in these stories contain truths otherwise unavailable to their main characters, and act as arenas where conflicts--such as negative feelings towards one's family or desires for work outside the home--come into focus. These conflicts, once confronted in the realm of dreams, are resolved upon the dreamers' awakenings with (from the perspective of the twentieth-century reader) some violence to the artistic integrity of the stories. The dreams move the reader in directions somewhat counter to the conclusions of the