What's going on here, Wilkie?

"Do you believe in Dreams?" Midwinter asks Lydia, more than halfway through Armadale (Collins 505). Do you believe in dreams? I rarely remember my dreams, unless a Jungian psychoanalyst asks me to, and, even then, I'm able to recall at most a fleeting image. But Allan Armadale's Dream is so straightforward that his friend Midwinter is able to document it in a neat succession of sixteen scenes. This dream, so amazingly given to such complete and precise recollection, is like no dream I have ever experienced. Also unlike any dream I have ever experienced, this dream appears to be forecasting events, "dangerous events that are threatening [Armadale], and of dangerous people connected with those events, whom he would do wisely to avoid" (172-173). This dream sounds a lot like a weather map, rather than, say, a hazy reflection of the dreamer's preoccupations, present or past (but not future!). Then, in this predictive aspect, Armadale's Dream drives Midwinter's decisions for nearly half a year afterward. All of the above is impossible to credit, and yet, credibility is beside the point, or rather, beside the question: what is the function of this Dream? I can think of a few:

1) The Dream prompts three distinct responses. Armadale dismisses his own Dream as the result of indigestion, a response that is in turn dismissed by Dr. Hawbury--"I certify, on the spot, that you never had such a thing as indigestion in your life" (169). Hawbury then presents a "practical point of view" whereby a dream is "the reproduction, in the sleeping state of the brain, of images and impressions produced on it in the waking state..." (173-174). This, in opposition to Midwinter's superstitious view of the Dream as an omen. These three responses--dismissive, practical, and superstitious--cause me to wonder, which one am I, or maybe which two...and what did Wilkie Collins believe? The bait of this Dream has hooked me.

2) Armadale's Dream recalls the warning, within a letter, from Midwinter's father to Midwinter:

It may be, that mortal freewill can conquer mortal fate.... If this be so, indeed, respect...the warning which I give you from my grave. Never...let any soul approach you who is associated... with the crime which your father has committed. (55)

By recalling this warning, the Dream establishes a struggle between free will and fate that grips the mind of the reader. Like his father, with his doubtful "It may be" and "If this be so," Midwinter is inclined to fear that events are fated. Various events remind Midwinter of the Dream and the dangers it forebodes. The appearance of Lydia by the water, the smashing of the Statuette, the lemonade that causes Armadale to faint--all these things provoke Midwinter's fear of future fatality, so that he attempts, again and again, to separate himself from Armadale. Lydia does not believe in the Dream. She considers pretending to believe in the Dream, but clearly she really believes that her free will, not Fate, influences future events. She refers to "the infection of Midwinter's superstition" and "the influence of a mad superstition [possessing] him again" (534, 683). To Lydia, fatalism is a sickness or a demon, not a reliable guide.

3) To the rector Mr. Brock also, Midwinter's fatalism is utterly wrong-headed, not because it denies free will but because it denies Christian faith--a third option. Brock does not believe in a Dream that dooms Midwinter "to bring misery and destruction blindfold on a man to whom you have...united yourself in the bonds of love" (622). Instead, Brock urges Midwinter--

Be true to what Christ tells you is true. Encourage in yourself all that is loving, all that is grateful, all that is patient, all that is forgiving, towards your fellow-men. And humbly and trustfully leave the rest to the God who made you, and to the Saviour who loved you better than his own life. (623)

Heeding Brock, Midwinter alters what he believes, from believing in the Dream to believing in God, and therefore what he does, from severing contact with Armadale in England to re-uniting with Armadale in Italy. The Dream re-asserts itself and trumps Christian faith--for a short time--but, ultimately, Midwinter asserts his belief in God. Faith conquers fatalism--The End.

All this recalls to my mind a friend once asking me, "What are you believing?" Good question, Virginia. Do I believe in Dreams? Not as a forecast. I can believe that a dream is trying to tell me something about myself--but I rarely understand what that is. Do I believe in free will? To some extent. But--others right around me are also bent on influencing events, and so an outcome may not be the one that I seek. Do I believe in God? I'm afraid that whatever Christian faith I had got knocked sideways by god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything--and yet, not completely knocked out...what are you believing?