The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

A monologue is a long speech performed by a single character. The narration of “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” takes the form of a monologue, as though the character were thinking out loud or speaking informally to someone. At various points, he backtracks, digresses, and addresses his hearers with phrases like “you see…” Although not written as such, the story has often been performed as a dramatic monologue, meaning a monologue written or delivered as if it were a one-person play. Notably, a British television adaptation called The Dream starring Jeremy Irons was produced in 1989. As an example of the digressive style of the monologue, the narrator starts recounting his walk home, then comments on the evening he had spent with his friends, and then goes back to describe the rainy street he walks on. The narration jumps around from one point in time to another without clear order, which contributes to the subjective sense of the narration.

Juxtaposition, which compares two opposing ideas to emphasize the contrast between them, is employed to good effect in the story. The most evident juxtaposition is that of light and darkness: the street lamps on the dark street, the star in the night sky, and the green glimmering earth in the midst of space. In the narrator’s dream, there is the juxtaposition of spiritual and rational, as well as that of good and bad: The people go from prioritizing happiness to prioritizing knowledge, from harmonious and peaceful to hostile and violent. In the end of the story, there is a clear contrast between the narrator’s state of mind in the beginning of the story. The narrator starts from depression and hopelessness, but ends up in a state of ecstatic joy and love of life. These juxtapositions—light and darkness, good and bad, happiness and depression—highlight the narrator’s journey of personal development.