“In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” by Delmore Schwartz

This short story is told from the perspective of a son, “watching a movie” about his parents in a movie theatre. He says it is “a silent picture, as if an old Biograph one, in which the actors are dressed in ridiculously old-fashioned clothes.” He starts to tell us the story of what he is seeing on the screen in the movie theatre. His father is on his way to meet his mother’s parents for the first time. By the way he is describing it, his father is very nervous to meet the family, and clearly has intentions of continuing a serious relationship with his mother.

During the scene where his father is being introduced to his mother’s father, he says he is abruptly, “awakened to myself and my unhappiness just as my interest has become more intense.” After reading this line, it seems as if the son is comparing his own life to that of his parent’s at his age. He seems jealous of their relationship, and envious for one of his own.

Back to the movie, once his mother and father have left the mother’s house they reach Coney Island. We are then told that, “my mother really considers such pleasures inferior.” We are then told that when his father is telling his mother how much money he has made that week he, “exaggerated an amount which need not have been exaggerated.” This shows his mother in a whole new light. She seems as if she is from an upper middle class, and is used to the finer things in life.

In the next scene, the narrator describes the ocean as “the fatal merciless passionate ocean.” He then gets extremely emotional in the theatre and “bursts out weeping.” The old lady sitting next to him then has to remind him, “all of this is only a movie.” Clearly the narrator has strong emotions tied to the ocean, or whatever the ocean represents to him. He seems to see a connection between the ocean and death.

Later in the story, after the narrator’s father proposes to his mother, the narrator has a very strange reaction. He says, “Don’t do it! It’s not too late to change your minds, both of you. Nothing good will come of it, only remorse, hatred, scandal and two children whose characters are monstrous.” It seems that the narrator is dealing with a great deal of grief, possible because of his parent’s death.

What confuses me the most about this story is that although he is acting as if the people on this screen are his parents, he tells us that they are actors.