Quote:
Originally Posted by Caorthine Hi again
Just wondering what "a complacent dream of activity" mean in the following sentence: General D'Hubert experienced the horror of a somnambulist who wakes
up from a complacent dream of activity to find himself walking on a
quagmire.
As far as I understand, a somnambul istist is the same as a sleepwalker, and with that in mind, does a complacent dream of activity mean that the fictive "fictional"/"fictitious" ? somna mbulist has been sleepwalking and is waking up only to find himself in a place he doesn't want to be. In that case, what has complacency to do with it all? |
Your interpretation is right. He is used to troubled sleep and in the back of his mind - while he's dreaming - he's thinking 'everything's OK really; it's only a dream. I'll wake up safe in my bed in a little while.' That's what is complacent.
Incidentally, although I think this is what the author meant, I don't think the explanation holds water. If a person is used to sleepwalking, they are used to waking up in inappropriate - and possibly hostile - circumstances. At best I think the author is expecting a lot of the reader; when he says 'somnambulist' he means 'someone who has been dreaming, and thought it was a dream [

], but it turned out that he was sleepwalking.'
b